Saturday, 4 June 2022

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00, 12:00, 14:00 and 20:00 Premium Whale tour and on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 09:00, 10:00, 13:00, 14:00 and 17:00 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
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 12:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 17:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 20:00

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 Hafsúlan: The beginning of the trip was a slow one, with no sightings for about an hour after leaving, however after spotting a couple of blows and splashes on the horizon from lob tailing and heading in that direction we realised we were surrounded by whales on all sides. At least 3 of the 4 animals we managed to see were identified as humpback whales, and despite playful behaviour in the distance, the animals mostly stuck to feeding behaviours upon our arrival. That being said the animals allowed us to get close to them for some lovely photos, and we managed to see 3 individual whales up close, showing us their lovely flukes for dives, ensuring we observed the animal with no more than 2 boats nearby to reduce our impact. Sadly all good things must come to an end and we decided to leave the feeding whales, however on the way back we managed to spot another humpback whale and a pod of at least 3 (but most likely more) harbour porpoises before reaching the harbour. Making for a total of 5 humpback whales and 1 harbour porpoise sighting, which is a good day.

- Liam van Walsum

Report from Elding: great day at sea, with exceptional visibility and almost no waves, except for a few small and infrequent ones (<1 m every 5 seconds). A lot of sun and not much wind, although the air was a bit chilly. Soon we sailed to an area were a humpback whale was spotted, and soon we were able to see it, although it had a bit of a tricky behaviour, often going for dives and staying underwater for a long time. We then decided to check out another humpback we saw at the distance, which was travelling north-west. After accompanying this for a while, we returned back to the previous one, which we were finally able to check out from up close. A bit of a tricky morning for whales but still, it was nice to be around there for a while.

-Francesco Golin

Report from Hafsulan: It was a nice and sunny weather like this morning. We head back where the humpbacks were seen this morning. When we arrived in the area we saw a blow from far. We got closer and good observe a humpback whale, that was feeding. There was many flocks of birds with arctic tern, catching food near the surface, and bigger flocks with black-backed gulls fighting between each other for the fish. The humpback whale was easily showing us its dark fluke. It seemed very relaxed and we could have good pictures of it. When more boats arrived we left, looking for other animals. We found a second humpback, closer to land, also feeding. We had the rest of the tour with this beautiful marine mammal and went back home enjoying the sun and the great views on the landscape.

- Miquel Pons

Report from Elding: Today was a perfect whale watching day, the conditions at sea were great and we had sun on our faces the whole trip. After a 40 min sail away from the harbor we encountered our first humpback whale. That individual revealed itself to be quite elusive, in order to respect this whale, we fastly moved toward a second blow. We saw a second humpback whale, eventually changed its behaviour from travelling to resting, really close to the bow. After having nicely observed that cetacean, we went toward a direction where we had noticed several blows. We saw a 3rd individual humpback at the distance and as we got closer to that 3rd individual it beautifully fluked dive .. and a 4th individual humpback whale appeared right next to us, barely 5 meters away from our bow. We got to spend some times with those magnificent animals and after some time, to respect our code of conduct, decided to head back toward the harbour. As we were heading back we got surrounded by a pod of 15 or so harbour porpoises, we got some really nice looks even though usually this species is known to be quite elusive. After those amazing sightings under the icelandic sun, we sailed away and returned to the harbour. 

- Melanie Magnan

Atlantic puffins, black legged kittiwakes, northern fulmar, common guillemots, black guillemots, razorbills, greater and lesser black backed gulls, arctic tern, northern gannet, glaucus gull, eider duck, european shag

Report from Hafsúlan: One of my favourite trips so far this season, we had great weather, great people on board and some great sightings in the morning to get us hopeful for the afternoon. After 30 minutes of searching we managed to find a blow on the horizon, then another, then another... we were surrounded. And not just by feeding humback whales, but humpbacks who were lob tailing, breaching, and extremely comfortable around the vessel. The passengers on board were fantastic this trip and joined in with my shenanigans, cheering when an individual decided to come up real close and shouting a big "OOOOOHHH" when one particular individual decided to breach right next to the boat. I had a wonderful time guiding in my puffin hat and had a lot of interested people coming up to me to ask questions. Sadly the tour had to end, despite me being full of energy and ready to go for another hour, and we decided to leave the 6 humpback whales spotted (mostly in the distance) for Reykjavik, making sure to watch them disappear into the sunset behind us.
 

- Liam van Walsum