Sunday, 19 June 2022
Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00, 12:00 and 14:00 Premium Whale tours and on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 09:00, 10:00, 13:00, 14:00, 17:00 and 20:30 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
- CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 20:30
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. Masks are not mandatory but are recommended in areas where keeping distance from others is not possible.
Report from Eldey : It is through challenges that we get the nicest stories. It was a bit how this tour felt like today, the swell predicted was actually better than expected and we did not have much white caps at the horizon, but our visibility was reduced by the fog around. Though it is not because there is fog around that the animals are not in the area, we are affected by the swell and the fog but they are not. It is after about an hour that we spotted 2 harbour porpoises passing by the boat, they passed us by really fast so just a few of the passengers got a good look. 20 minutes later some white beaked dolphins have been spotted by other vessels in front of us, we approached then the area and got a look, close at times, of a pod of about 4 dolphins. The dolphins stuck with us for a good 10 minutes, surfaced by the boat as well, then we went away as their behaviour changed and they started to change direction and swim faster away from the boats. We knew at that time we were in an area where we had seen humpback whales the day before, and lucky enough one of our passenger braving the rain on the top deck has spotted a blow close to our boat, it was a humpback whale. The humpback whale started to breach repeatedly in the distance, and we had a really good view on a breach. After some time with that individual we decided to go away to respect the code of conduct as other ships were around. We started our way back toward the harbour, and got a nice glimpse of another humpback whale before reaching the harbour.
- Melanie Magnan
CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00
Report from Eldey: We set sail with a bit of rain and excitement in the air. The weather was eary and the boat surrounded by fog, it was quite magical. As the boat was rocking a little and we had a few green faces around, we decided to stick close to the shoreline. Shortly after departing, we discovered the microphone was out of commission, so I gave the tour from inside the bridge! It's a little tricky to spot from inside but the our captain and crew know these waters very well, and we still managed to find a minke whale and shortly after a humpback whale! Both individuals seemed to be travelling or feeding and did not stick around too long. On our way back, the microphone finally worked again and I could return to the guiding box. We were returning very slowly to harbour and were accompanied by gannets. These had been keeping us company for the whole tour and were now plunge-diving, which was very cool to see. We still decided to give out complimentary tickets as the cetaceans sightings were short-lived.
- Anna Richter
CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 14:00
Report from Elding: our tour already started with a light rain, but we were definitely excited for it, because of the species seen on the previous tours. It was a bit choppy and the visibility was not great, but after 45 minutes of trip, we could see a blow! We came close to this humpback whale, that was surfacing a few times after it disappeared again. We stayed for a few more minutes, waiting for it to come up again, but then we decided to explore other areas to see what else we could encounter. On the way, we saw a lot of northern gannets, kittiwakes and Atlantic puffins, letting people enjoy how beautiful and gracious these animals are. After a while, our captain saw a blow about 300 meters away from us. However, we didn't see anything else, after spending some time looking for it. Even though we saw a whale, we decided to give complimentary tickets to the passengers for another chance of seeing our stars. They saw that it was not easy to spot something when the weather is foggy and understood that we do not control these animals or the sea conditions. A very Icelandic kind of summer, I must say.
- Milla Brandao
CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 17:00
Report from Eldey: We went back with our brave passengers into the rain and the swell of the bay. Th swell felt a bit better than previously even though sometimes it was rocking a lot. There was many northern gannet during the way out, spreading there large white wings in the sky. We went back in the same area than earlier and spotted 2 minke whales, one on each side of the boat that were probably feeding, flocks of birds being present in the area. In the same area we also had a very nice encounter with a humpback whale! It crossed our boat, swimming very slowly in front of us under the surface but close enough for us to see its shadow and the white pectoral fins. Then it surfaced a few times, seemingly resting. The humpback was not going for dives, just having episodic breaths at the surface and sometimes arching a bit its back, but coming back to the surface quite quickly. We stayed while hoping that it would show us its fluke or get more active but not today. When time was out we went back to Reykjavik.
- Miquel Pons
Birds encountered during today's tours:
Common guillemot, black guillemot, Atlantic puffin, arctic tern, herring gull, black-backed gull, black-legged kittiwake, eider duck, northern fulmar, northern gannet, european shag