Thursday, 29 August 2024

Today we will be operating our Classic Whale Watching on our lovely vessel Eldey at 9:00, 13:00, 17:00 our just as lovely Hafsúlan at 11:00, 15:00 and 19:00. Our Premium Whale Watching tour will operate on Þruma I-V at 9:00, 10:00, 16:00 and 17:00

• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 09:00, 11:00, 13:00, 15:00, 17:00, 19:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 09:00, 10:00, 12:00, 13:00 15:00, 16:00

Report from Eldey: With a beautiful sunny sky and little swell upon us, we sailed out of the bay this morning. Unlike the last days, we had to head out further than usual, but it turned out to be for the best. We first came upon a group of 8 white-beaked dolphins, with 2 pods being quite active and feeding around us. As we kept on moving outwards, we found 3 minke whales, all of them seemingly feeding, with 2 coming quite close to our boat, great sightings that gave everyone a great view of these animals. As we had one last look around the bay before leaving, we found a big pod of approximately 15 white beaked dolphins again, this time travelling towards  the North, with 4 mother-calf pairings as we noted 4 smaller individuals, a great last sighting to finish our sunny tour.

- Alex Paumier

Report from Hafsulan: The sunny day we´ve been waiting for all summer was finally here today, and besides some swell from the west we had perfect conditions for whale watching. We encountered a minke whale quite early on, but this individual was elusive and only came up for one breath between her deep dives. Onwards we went, and came across a large pod of white-beaked dolphins - probably 20 were spread out over the area. The dolphins were in a very curious mood, and they spent a long time investigating our boat and riding our bow - incredible! All that energy put a smile on everyone´s faces, and the impressive background of the volcanic ashcloud didn´t hurt either. When the dolphins disappeared, a minke whale popped up again. This individual spent much more time at the surface than the first one, and we were able to follow her for a good time before we needed to head back to sunny Reykjavík. 

- Eline van Aalderink

Report from Eldey: We sailed out in beautiful sunshine and good sea-conditions with low swell, perfect to find the whales if they are around. We had to wait a bit for our first sighting but after a while there was a rather elusive minke whale that surfaced right in front of us. Because it seemed to be shy and moved unpredictably and stayed under water for a long time we decided to sail a bit further out. Then we saw a few small splashes and approached carefully. It was a pod of around 8 white beaked dolphins that was quite active near the surface and they also changed directions a lot so it was a bit tricky for us to follow them but it was still a great encounter.

-Lasse Roggenkamp

Report from Elding -  We sailed all happy for a new tour this time sailing feel better, and we got a lovely way out of the bay; we sailed for around 80 minutes we saw an elusive minke whale and after 20 minutes we found two ribs close to a white beaked dolphin which some was able to see however seem like a quite elusive and after a while we saw our time was up, we were happy we saw the dolphin, however we know how nature is; we offered everyone free tickets to Akureyri whale watching or another opportunity to come with us once more and experience in more detail the magic of whales.  

Claudia Albir

Report from Eldey: Sailing out this late afternoon, the weather started changing with the wind picking up. Nevertheless the sea conditions seemed perfect to sail out, as we tried all our best to find the whales of our earlier tours. Sadly, checking every possible corner of water, we barely saw anything but 2 harbour porpoises skimming by over the sunset. We ended up giving out complimentary tickets, hoping that all would have a better time on their next tour.

- Alex Paumier

Report from Elding : Really good conditions for our last tour of the day with a very mild swell, good visibility and mild wind. We sailed a large tour of the bay and could observe a lot of northern fulmars and shearwaters gliding gracefully above the ocean. Unfortunately, those were the only species found since no whale or dolphin was in sight depsite our attentive watch. We then decided to offer our passengers complimentary tickets so that they could come back on the day of their convenience to try again. 

- Olivia Garcia

Northern fulmar, black-legged kittiwake, lesser black-backed gull, North Atlantic puffin