Saturday, 21 May 2022

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00, 12:00 and 14:00 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 Hafsulan: The weather was amazing this morning with a lot of sun and a great visibility, so we could have gbeautiful views on Snaefellsjokull volcano. The wind was a bit stronger than we expected which made the sea quite choppy with many white caps. We first headed to Akranes, spotting a blow in the way but we never found the whale that produced it. After a while we had the shelter from the mountain so it was much more pleasant outside. We looked everywhere but could not find anything until we went closer to Reykjavik. A humpback whale was travelling towards the Hvalfjordur, staying close to the surface so we were seeing it often. It went twice on a deep dive, showing us its fluke, once from quite close.  We stayed with it until we were out of time and came to the harbour, observing the many species of birds and taking the sun.

- Miquel Pons

Report from RIBs: On our morning tour we already had quite a bit of wind, which was forecasted to pick up later in the day. Choppy sea made spotting conditions harder but, with the help of our colleagues-captains on other boats, we managed to find 2 humpback whales! First one was quite close to Reykjavik. We saw it surfacing few times and fully fluking up once. It was travelling toward the Whale fjord and had 5 minutes long dives. It was keeping same direction of travelling so it was easy to predict were it would surface up. The other individual was also big individual, with powerful high blow. We spotted it at the south east side of Flaxafloi. This individual was feeding, therefore, had irregular dives (of 3,1 and more than 4 minutes) but surfaced up many times very close to our boat so we saw its white pectoral fins and bumps on its' head. On the fish finder we saw a school of fish between 10 and 30 meters depth, confirming the individual was feeding.

- Tena Sarcevic

Report from the RIBs: The wind had picked up since this morning, making our journey out into the bay very choppy. We all got sprayed by the waves, but the warm, waterproof overalls that we provide our passengers kept everyone nice and warm and dry. We headed along the south side of the bay and spotted lots of flocks of birds. This was a good sign that there was fish around and hopefully this meant some whales and dolphins. Not long into the tour we saw a massive blow in the distance! We went closer and found a humpback whale! This individual was fairly easy to follow because of its big blow, despite the windy conditions. We were able to watch it show its fluke a few times and could see its white pectoral fins through the water a lot of the time. A couple of times it came quite close to our boat and we were able to see just how big this animal is. From its fluke we identified the individual as Stu! We stayed with Stu for the rest of the tour until we had to head back out into the wind and back towards the harbour.

- Emily Erskine

Report from Hafsulan: Super sunny day at sea, although it was quite a windy and rocky sail, at times. It took us a while to reach the area in which we saw the humpback whale in the morning, but it was quite a nice trip with several species of seabirds visiting us. Northern fulmars, black-legged kittiwakes, black headed gulls, and arctic terns were a common visitor, with some puffins passing by during their commute between the sea and their nests. Reached the spot we found an old friend, Stu, an humpback whale who has been visiting Faxafloi bay in 2015 and 2018, and who we know is quite relaxed around whale watching ships. This time it gave us an incredible show with its fluke: it went down repeatedly in deeper dives, with Kvallfjörður in the background. We accompanied it for a while during its travel North, to then leaving it alone to mind its own business. On our way back the wind picked up, but we still enjoyed a nice weather and the view of a beautiful pomarine skua, together with the one of other busy seabirds.

- Francesco "the parasite guy" Golin

Atlantic Puffin, Norther Fulmar, Black Guillemot, Black-legged kittiwake, Arctic Tern, Black-headed gull, Lesser black-backed gull, Eider duck, Northern gannet, Greylag goose, Glaucous gull.