Thursday, 2 September 2021

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00 and 14:00 Premium Whale Watching tours 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.

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: The sea state was very calm this morning, with a swell under one metre arriving from the south west. The journey into the bay was very relaxed as a result, with great spotting conditions. We found a lone minke whale after an hour of searching which proved to be quite nice to watch, however, the whale only showed itself for a short period. After performing a surface sequence, the whale dove and disappeared from sight. We headed slightly further away and then spotted the blow of a humpback whale behind us, so we changed course to close in on the whales location. The humpback was very difficult to find again as it was performing deep dives for around ten minutes and remained at the surface once or twice. We only saw the blow a couple more times from a distance and had to head home as our time came to an end. On our journey home, the same whale surfaced right next to our boat two more times and was lost once again. Whilst we waited for the humpback, another minke provided the best encounter of the day, coming close to the boat allowing for easy viewing.

- Mike Smith

Report from Þruma IV RIB: The weather was pretty nice as we headed out from the harbour. There was a little string of wind though, making the ocean surface a bit choppy, but nothing that bothered us. On our way out we stopped for a few seconds as 3-4 harbour porpoises popped up close to the boat, but they were quick to leave the area as usual. We then travelled around the bay a bit before hearing from our sister boat, Þruma II RIB, that they had found two humpback whales. When we came there, the humpbacks were very relaxed, maybe sleeping. They didn't move very much but nonetheless it was amazing to see them surface simultaneously to breath, and then to go down and show their beautiful large flukes together. We left them and quickly found a large pod of around 12-15 white-beaked dolphins, who were extremely playful and jumping up from the ocean around the boat. Then, in the midst of the pod, another humpback whale came up to breath, and rolled around, trying to get rid of the dolphins. We unfortunately had to leave as time was running away from us, but on the way back we saw 3-4 more white-beaked dolphins. Plenty of life in the bay!

- Fróði Guðmundur Jónsson

Report from Elding : This afternoon the sky was covered in clouds but the rest was nice. Very weak wind and a nice calm sea, and superb whales. We found 3 minke whales in total during the tour. One in the beginning, just after a pod of harbour porpoises, that disappeared as fast as it appeared, a second one that we could observe for little while but the dives were very long so we moved to another area, and another one during the way back. We saw 2 humpback whales that were together and offered us quite a nice show. First they were just calmly going for dives and coming back in less than 5 minutes. Then between dives we were waiting to see them surface again when one of the humpback decided to breach right in front of us ! Amazing ! After that they were synchronized again and swimming relaxed. Just before we left, one of the humpback started to slap the surface with its pectoral fin, doing big splashes ! What a show !

- Miquel Pons

Report from Þruma II RIB: The weather was even better this afternoon as the wind had slowed down and the ocean was therefore calmer. This tour was great just as the morning one – a couple of people went on both of them as they were so happy with the morning one! We started the tour by observing 12-15 white-beaked dolphins play around the boat, jumping, bowriding, looking at the passengers and swimming with great bursts of speed. After having been entertained by them for about 20 minutes, we decided to head to the area where we saw the two humpbacks in the morning. We found the 2 humpback whales very quickly, and as we were approaching them, one of them breached! It went high out of the water in plain view for us to see, a magnificent sight! We stayed with these humpbacks for about an hour, as they relaxed, rolled around, did some flipper slapping and dived beautifully straight in front of us. On our way back we stopped for a moment with the same pod of dolphins again, and saw a single harbour porpoise as we were coming close to Grandagarður near the harbour.

- Fróði Guðmundur Jónsson