Sunday, 30 April 2017

Tour at 13:00 

Report from Eldey: And we thought that the morning tour was hard to match... How wrong and naive we were! Well, it was clear that destiny was preparing us an outstanding experience. It all started with a breathtaking sea, calm as never, giving us the impression of sailing over a mirror. We spotted the first minke whale in the distance. We could have tried to check for it but suddenly "a few" (more than 15-20 individuals?) harbour porpoises appeared and surrounded us. That was the moment that brought the first amazement gasps from our passengers. Almost right after came the white beaked dolphins, a small pod of 6-8 individuals. Although they allowed us to gaze them, it was clear that they preferred to keep the distances with us so we just left then in peace. There was no need to harass them, specially because we had a second minke whale just a few meters away! And a third one, and a fourth one... and more and more of them could be seen in the distance! We got the chance to be closer than 30 m away from the animals a few times, incredibly close to the boat. It was mind-blowing. But the best was still yet to come. Because we wanted the strike, we wanted the humpies we saw this morning. So we resumed our sail, and half an hour later we finally received the call of another boat that had located the humpback whale. We went (in our way, of course, we saw two more minke whales just crossing our path!) and when we finally got to see the individual we realize it was lunge feeding! Non-stop! The whale repeatedly surfaced with the mouth wide open, swallowing the schooling fishes in the surface for more than 45 minutes. And just in case there was still somebody disappointed, a second one just came in action and started to lunge feed as well! We stared at these two titans feeding, showing the enormity of their bodies, their vast pectoral and caudal fins, twisting and rolling over themselves for almost one hour. Unfortunately time was more than over (never make plans after a whale watching tour!) so we had to head back. Nonetheless we finished the tour as we started it, with a few more harbour porpoises swimming around. Without a single doubt, one of the best tours I've ever been in. A big thank you for all the wonderful passengers that shared and enjoyed with us this amazing experience!

- Alberto Alejandro

Tour at 09:00 

Report from Eldey: Compared to yesterday, we had pretty good sea conditions today and barely any swell which always promises a very smooth tour. There was also no rain at all even though the sun was able to make it through the clouds only every now and then. After one and a half hours we still had not found any signs of whales, dolphins or porpoises and became more and more impatient. Our Captain decided to check a few areas further north on the Bay and this was definitely the right decision. First, we saw a minke whale, actually two individuals, that we were able to follow for a while. However, while waiting for one of the minkes whales to come up another time, our Captain noticed a humpback whale just 150m away from us that had sneaked up on us! We switched out focus and attention towards the humpback whale and saw it a few times before relaxing that it was two individuals as we admired two large blows and two large backs rising above the water surface. They were traveling right next to each other and in typical humpback whale style appeared very easy.going and surfaced just 20 m away from us at times. One of the minke whales was also still around and after spending some quality with the two humpback whales, we started our way back home. It was definitely worth staying on the top deck when we headed home, because we got to see two more minke whales, another humpback whale and also 2 harbour porpoises along the way! A nice tour full of surprises! 

- Hanna Michel

Bird species seen on today's tours include: northern gannet, northern fulmar, Atlantic puffin, common guillemot, lesser black-backed gulls, kittiwakes, cormorants, brent goose, and Arctic skua!

Status: RUNNING

We are sailing from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. It is cloudy today but the sea conditions are quite favorable. If you are sensitive to motion sickness though, we do provide seasickness tablets in our ticket office, free of charge!