Saturday, 14 May 2022

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00 and 12:00 Premium Whale tour and on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 09:00 and 13:00 Classic Whale Watching tours. Make sure to dress appropriately for the tours as it is always colder on sea than on land

• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 09:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 12:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 14:00

COVID-19: Keep in mind that passengers and crew are asked to ensure their own hygiene and safety at all times. Washing hands thoroughly with soap and using a hand sanitiser is advised.

Report from Eldey: What a beautiful morning for whale watching! We had only been sailing for a short while, enjoying the beautiful sunny day, when we spotted the blow of a minke whale. The minke whale came up a few times, but then our attention was shifted to a large blow of a different specie: the humpback whale. The whale came up quite close to us and was visible under the water, its large white pectoral fins giving it away. When more boats showed up to the area, we decided to look for a blow we had spotted in the distance. We soon found the whale, who was showing the fluke very often and diving consistently for 3 minutes. Then we found a different minke whale who came very close to us, we found some harbour porpoises, and later we also found another humpback whale individual (Stu, who we have seen in the bay in 2015 and 2018 as well), so the bay was really full of animals today! On the way back we enjoyed the great day with the memory of some incredible encounters. 

- Eline van Aalderink

Report from Eldey: Barely had we left Reykjavik Harbor, when the first humpback whale was seen. It was a fun way to start our trip out in Faxafloi Bay. It turned out to be the first individual out of 5 humpback whales on this tour. It was an individual that was probably looking for food as it was swimming quite erratically. Suddenly that individual peduncular slapped many times and went for a deep dive. While we were waiting for it to reappear, another humpback whale showed up at the distance. All of a sudden another spout could be seen not that far. On our way there a small pod of 3-4 harbor porpoises swam by us. This time this humpback was super thin and we could even see clearly its backbones. It was swimming peaceful and it even gave us some beautiful surfaces pretty close to the boat. After this we could see another humpback whale at the distance but the time was running and we needed to start heading back home. Curiously we were scorted back to the harbour by another humpback! This individual was performing 3 minutes dives and before going for a deep dive it showed us its white coloured fluke. There was also an abundance of birdlife: atlantic puffins, arctic terns, northern fulmars. , pretty close to the boat. It was a nice day out at sea!

- Estel Sanchez Cami

Report from the RIBs: Today we had great conditions for watching the whales - a weak wind breeze and calm sea. We saw 3 humpback whale individuals! First one we spotted was a smaller individual, nice to watch since it performed quite short, 3 minutes dives, and fluking up regulary. The second individual we were watching was a fully adult one, the individual we've been seeing last few days. It wasn't fluking up (raising its tail in the air) but we saw it's powerful blow and back quite well. The third individual we were watching was also a full-sized humpback. This one was travelling quite close to our boat so we had a good view of it. It was fluking up regulary and staying just below the surface, for 4 breaths, between the dives, giving us enough time to have a good look. We also spotted 2-4 harbour porpoises surfacing up few times. On the way back, we encountered a small pod of 3-4 white-beaked dolphins. They were not interested in us, so we saw them shortly, but we managed to see them nicely, close to our boat. 

- Tena Sarcevic

Report from the Ribs: The conditions remained kind, although the wind strength had increased slightly creating a small wave originating from the east. We headed out into the bay right away as we had encountered a whale very close to the harbour on our last tour and wanted to get searching as soon as possible. Luckily for us the humpback whale had not moved a great deal and was seen surfacing many times before lifting its fluke for a deeper dive. On each occasion the whale changed direction regularly which would appear that it was feeding. The humpback allowed for close views as it swam near our starboard side. After a little time watching the humpback, we decided to search for any new sightings and found another, but much smaller humpback. Again the whale showed its fluke on many occasions as it travelled towards the city. The guests were very happy as we all watched multiple dives from short-range.

- Mike Smith

Atlantic Puffin, Norther Fulmar, Black Guillemot, Common Guillemot, Kittiwake, Arctic Tern, Arctic skua, Black-headed gull, Black-backed gull, Herring gull, Eider duck, Brent goose, Greylag goose, Oyster Catcher, Turnstone, Grey Plover.