Thursday, 1 September 2022

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00 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
• 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 Eldey: nice weather today, with just some tall waves (~1m) and little to no wind. There was just a little bit of drizzle mid-trip, but a warm sun popped up towards the end. We started sailing into the bay and we soon spotted a distant blow, which revealed the position of a humpback whale. Reaching the area, we saw that there was not one, but three humpbacks in the area, with a very active pod of white beaked dolphins keeping them company! All these whales were intent feeding, judging by how active they were and by the behavior of two of the humpbacks, which were taking huge lunges and enormous gulps of water. We were able to stay around with them for a long while and to observe them from very up close while they were hunting, something that doesn't happen very often.

-Francesco Golin

Report from Eldey: The swell had calmed down this afternoon, so our sail into the bay was quite calm. We first spotted two minke whales - the first two of many to come. Next up we saw 6-10 jumping white-beaked dolphins, some of which were very small calves and juveniles. When the dolphins started travelling away we continued further into Faxaflói, on the way encountering 3 more minke whales. Our attention was then grabbed by a large blow - could this be a humpback whale? When we got closer we saw two more minke whales, and one of them came up just a few meters from our boat which was incredible to see. We then decided to fully focus on the humpback whale. This individual was most likely feeding, showing us its fluke frequently as it went for short dives. He saved the big surprise for last, when it came up right in front of our boat, less than 10 meters away. With this spectacular ending, we motored back to Reykjavík, on the way still enjoying a distant show of high-jumping dolphins. 

- Eline van Aalderink

Northern gannet, northern fulmar, common guillemot, Manx shearwater, herring gull, lesser black-backed gull