Thursday, 28 September 2023

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 | 9:00, 13:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00, 14:00

Report from Eldey: This gloomy morning we sailed out onto Faxafloi, eager to see what nature had in store for us. The sea was quite calm and there was a bit of wind coming from the North, but generally very good conditions to go whale watching. We sailed for just under an hour until we reached a spot where suddenly we were seeing dorsal fins pop out all over. There were about 4 minke whales, 1 of which came up directly in front of us only a few meters from the boat. We enjoyed this for a few moments before spotting a small pod of 6 white-beaked dolphins ahead of us. Some of them came extremely close to the boat and were swimming under the bow where we could see them underneath the surface of the water. The dolphins seemed to be split up a bit as they would pop up all over the place, sometimes close, sometimes far, and in every direction from the boat. We stayed in this area for a bit but when too many boats approached we headed further on and eventually back to the harbour. We had a bit of a light rain during almost the whole tour, but at the end of it we could see the sun shining in between the clouds.

- Milla Brandao 

Report from Eldey: The sea continued to be calm during the afternoon, with a bit of swell and lots of sun in between the clouds, so we could get our sunnies out of the pockets. Sailing out to explore the bay of Faxaflói, we first headed to the same area were we saw the animals in the morning, hoping they were still there. As soon as we got to the area, we saw 5 harbour porpoises very close to the boat, but our eyes were directed to other bigger fins ahead of us: we had a pod of 7 white-beaked dolphins popping up! What a great pod, coming so close to us and bow-riding. We could also see them checking us out through the surface, surfing with the swell and even coming up to take a breath almost at the same time, synced. At the same area, we spotted something bigger: a minke whale joined this very productive area - actually two! No wait 3! They were coming up at different times, often only spouting once or twice. There was one moment where the two of them came extremely close to the boat and we could see the white markings on the pectoral fins, a very rare sight to see. After some time here we headed back to harbour, still enjoying the sun as we went.

- Anna (Banana) Richter

common guillemot, razorbill, glaucous gull, herring gull, black backed gull, manx shearwater, eider duck, black legged kittiwake, Northern gannet, Northern fulmar