Sunday, 25 June 2023

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00,12:00, 14:00, 16:00 and 20:00 Premium Whale tours and on our lovely vessel Eldey and Elding for the 09:00, 10:00, 13:00, 14:00 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
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 16:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 20:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 20:30

Report from Eldey: We came out of the bay with complete cloud coverage but a beautiful, almost-glassy sea, giving us a relaxed start of the day. We first encountered a pod of 5 white-beaked dolphins, with 2 of them being mother-calf pairs. Following our path out further, a shy minke whale quickly passed by us. We finally found our biggest cetacean surrounded by a pod of 10 white-beaked dolphins, a relaxed humpback whale gave us the pleasure of a couple of half-fluke and fluke dives. Whilst this whale re-appeared multiple times close to the boat, dolphins were bow-riding for everyone's pleasure. We then sailed home, where another minke whale and a harbor porpoise swam by us to finish the morning. 

- Alex Paumier (tour guided by Rob)

Report from Elding:cloudy skies but perfectly flat seas in this tour. The weather was chilly compared to the previous days, with a persistent wind when we were sailing out into the bay. The tour was dominated by omnipresent minke whales, which were very common in the bay today. The first one we met was feeding and very erratic in its movement, moving in circles around us and making us turn the ship several times.Therefore we decided to sail further into Faxafloi bay, as we spotted a far away blow. On the way we briefly encountered 3 other minke whales, which all appeared to be very intent in feeding, coming to the surface to quickly catch their breath and then right away arching their back to return on catching more prey. We decided to not stop for these, and to continue on sailing towards the location of the blow. We were surprised to not find a humpback whale but two large minke whales, as we weren't expecting these to produce such a large blow. We managed to get very close to one of these large minkes, less than 50 metres from the bow. As this minke started to move away from us, we started to return back towards the harbour. Soon enough we encountered a pod of harbor porpoises (~10 individuals), which were starying close to the surface at the same spot for a very long time - quite an unusual behaviour for this species, which is often seen only for a few moments. After having left these one alone, we continued sailing but met another small pod (3-4 porpoises), which started surfing on the waves generated by the ship - again a very unusual behaviour for this species, which generally appears very shy. After that, the sail continued on in rainy weather, with ulterior spotting of a small porpoises pods (2-3 individuals) and a minke whale. A very special tour marked by a very rare behaviour by a very shy and difficult to observe - and to photograph - species!

Francesco Golin

Report from Eldey: We sailed out with heavy rain that sadly lasted during all the tour. The sea condition instead were very nice, the sea was pretty calm and this didn't stop us to sail a bit more far out to spot some animals. After a long journey we spotted 1 minke whale, very sneaky and then 1 pod of white beaked dolphins, around 10 individuals. They were super relaxed and then they started jumping out of the water, it was so nice. After a while we saw 1 blow in the distance and we just found out to have 2 humpback whales also in the same area and we could see few fluke dives very close to the boat. People was amazed by the elegance of these animals. More pods of dolphins just joined the area and another minke whale popped up in the middle too...so cool. Time ran out and we had to start our journey back but we could still see all the activity in the water, there were so many animals and everybody really enjoyed the tour even if it was bad weather.

- Marta Filippini

Report from Elding: There was heavy rain and persistent wind throughout the tour, but the sea was calm enough to keep a steady course. Early on we saw a couple of solitary minke whales travelling in the opposite direction as we were heading further out into Faxafloi bay. During previous tours there were many minke whales sightings so we decided to not stop for these but to continue on sailing towards an area where humpback whales had been spotted. The humpback sighting was located in an area far out to sea and on our way we encountered 4 other minke whales acting in the same manner as before and were surfacing all around us but keeping their distance. In time we reached the location we were looking for and it didn't take long until we saw a blow and another one close by. There were 3 humpback whales close by that were taking turns coming up to the surface. We saw several beautiful fluke dives, but one of them stole the show by laying on its back by the surface, showing off its pectoral fins. During the humpback show we spotted more minke whales around us. On our way back to Reykjavik we got company by a pod (8-10 dolphins) of white-beaked dolphins that appeared at the bow of the boat. They didn't stay with us for long, but it was a nice ending to a special tour on a very rainy day.

- Ludde Hultgren Svensson

Report from Eldey: We started the tour with a bit of rain and a very cloudy sky but a warm temperature. As we sailed out we started to feel the waves a little bit but we quickly forgot about it when we saw a humpback whale surfacing very close to the boat!!! We had stopped the boat trying to see a minke whale that was passing nearby but we were surprised by this amazing humpback that kept surfacing next to the boat for at least 5 min! Then it got trickier to track and we got to see around 4 white beaked dolphins in the distance but they were acting quite elusively so we decided to continue. After some time we decided to head back to Reykjavik as we were running out of time.

-Nicolás Corral

Atlantic puffin, Arctic tern, Northern fulmar, northern gannet, black legged kittiwake, eider duck, black guillemot, common guillemot, great black backed gull, lesser black backed gull, shell duck, Arctic skua