Thursday, 11 August 2022

Today we will be operating on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 09:00, 13:00, 14:00 and 19:00 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
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 11:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 15:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 16:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 19:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 20:00

Report from Eldey: the sea conditions were good, with a bit of a swell further offshore. The wind was  minimal and the views of the bay were greyish due to the cloud coverage, but we could see the new eruption of the volcano Geldingadalir very well, with plenty of smoke coming from the lava. We started with a very nice minke whale encounter. It was elusive, as we didn't get to see it properly after the first, quick sighting. We then continued our journey and we spotted a pod of about 3-4 white-beaked dolphins. They suddenly started jumping out of the water, and they were great to see as they were surfing in the waves and leaping. We could even see the white patches and stripes on their bodies. They gave us a great time but then left after a while disappearing between all the white caps. Right after that, we spotted another minke whale that we followed for a few minutes. This individual looked larger as the previous one and was swimming peacefully. A pleasant day out in the bay.

Report from Hafsulan: Nice 10am tour today a bit roughy sea but still good visibility to spot cetaceans. The beginning was a bit longer as we did not see during the first hour any animals but people on board were still quite motivated. After an hour and a half, we finally managed to see 2 humpack whales. We followed mostly one of them as they were quite apart from each other. We recognised one of the individuals, Line. She was doing some regular short deep diving, but a bit elusive. She surfaced at the front and suddendly coming up at the back like she was playing hide and seek. Passengers were quite happy with her as she surfaced several time close to us. At the same time, around 4 minke whales swimming around in the area.  

- Enorha Guimard

Report from Eldey: Perfect trip!! Flat seas with just some high waves that were bothering us only when we were giving the side of the ship while manouvering, some wind but no rain. The air was a bit chilly, though, and the sun was covered by the clouds. The trip started up with the sighting of 4 minke whales, all surrounding us and circling around the same spot, possibly taking advantage of some plentiful fish or krill. Soon afterwards we spotted a small pod of about 6 white-beaked dolphins, which joined the feeding frenzy. We sailed around the area for a while, spotting a ton of minke whales; some made a quick appearance, other were seen only from a distance, others came quite close to the ship and we were able to observe them from up close. On the way back we found the same pod of dolphins, still chilling at the same spot and possibly still getting their tummy fool. But it was the sheer total amount of minke whales that we saw that amazed us: about 20 of them in total, maybe even more! 

- Estel Sanchez

Report from Hafsúlan: Over much flatter seas and under much sunnier weather than the morning, we left port looking for some of the animals we saw in the morning. Very quickly we found a juvenile humpback whale, taking 5 minute dives with 2 breathes at the surface in between. We stayed with the animal for some time however after the 6th whale watching boat began to arrive we decided to leave the animal alone, as we did not want to stress the animal. Despite this we managed to very quickly find some minke whales, about 4 around our boat, very quickly coming to breathe before submerging again for food. Then amidst an aerial battle between an arctic skua and black legged kittiwake, a minke whale suddenly caused a big splash while lunge feeding not 50m from the boat! This whale lunge fed 2 more times before travelling away from us and we had to begin heading back to port. However on the way back we managed to see a couple more minke whales and also a surprisingly alone white beaked dolphin, likely travelling to find the rest of its pod.

- Liam van Walsum

Report from Eldey: after a successful morning tour we headed back out and searched in the same area where we spotted some cetaceans. On our way we came across a pod of 3-4 harbor porpoises that surfaced out of the waves. It was lovely to see this normally shy and elusive animals so close, however, they were still too quick for me to get a decent picture but there is always hope. As we arrived to the area we were heading to, we took a few circles there and just when we moved on, we saw a spout a few hundred meters distance in front of us. After we had carefully approached it, we realized that it was a humpback whale. This animal was swimming very peacefully, taking very long dives, and eventually showing us its beautiful fluke when going for a deep dive. In the end, we headed a bit further out to look if there was anything else to find before we headed back to the harbor. On our way back, we came across a misty atmosphere and some beautiful Atlantic puffins that escorted us back to Reykjavík.

-Francesco Golin
 

Iceland gull, Atlantic puffin, eider duck, black guillemot, herring gull, black-legged kittiwake, Arctic skua, northern fulmar, pomarine skua, lesser black-backed gull, storm petrel, common guillemot, Manx shearwater.