Thursday, 4 July 2024

• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 9:00, 11:00, 13:00, 15:00, 20:30
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 17:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00, 12:00, 14:00, 16:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 20:00

Today we will be operating our Classic Whale Watching on our lovely vessel Eldey at 9:00, 13:00, 20:30 and our just as lovely Elding 1  at 11:00 and 15:00. Our Premium Whale Watching tour will operate on Þruma I-V at 10:00 12:00, 14:00 and 16:00.

Report from Eldey: A low northerly wind brought some cold air into the bay today. On our way out into Faxaflói, many puffins flew by us, northern fulmars were gliding past, and a northern gannet or two flew overhead. We encountered a pod of about 6 white-beaked dolphins who were apparently practising some morning gymnastics. Some of the dolphins were performing fantastic leaps, while others were inspecting our boat, and one individual combined the two activities and gave us a spectacular show of jumps within meters from the bow. All this energy put a smile on everyone´s face, but after a good moment with these fun dolphins we said goodbye to them, to circle around the area in search of potential other whale species. After some time, we spotted another pod of about 12 white-beaked dolphins. These were travelling fast, sometimes stopping on the way to gather round a ball of fish. It was great to have seen so many dolphins, each doing very different behaviours, and gain an insight into´a day in the life´ of a white-beaked dolphin. 

- Eline van Aalderink

Report from Elding: Today Reykjavik woke up with little to no wind, but we have already checked the conditions for the sea and we grabbed overalls cause we knew the wind was a bit different out there! So off we went, with our eyes sharp for every sign of animal movement at the surface. Our first sighting was not too far from Reykjavik: we could still see the church of Hallgrimskirkja downtown very well. Not only 1 minke whale was in the area, but 2! And for our surprise, they were quite close, both at less than 50m from our vessel. We watched amazed one of them coming up a couple of times more, and we could even hear its exhale, breathing loud! As they continued their way and were going away from us, we also continued ours. After a while, in another area, we spotted another close encounter with another minke, all of a sudden! Our eagle-eyed passengers helped us to find this one, that came very unpredictable. Amazing! We watched it a couple of times before starting heading back to the harbour, seeing the many flock of Atlantic puffins passing by.

- Milla Brandao

Report from Eldey - this afternoon we sailed into the mix of sun and wind. We headed straight to the area we been visiting for the last few days and where we been lucky with sightings. Just as we were passing the Grota lighthouse in Reykjavik we spotted a blow. We waited for a while until the animal surfaced again but it was a humpback whale just a few hundred meters from us. Altghough the whale was taking very long dives we managed to see the surface sequence twice and then it was time to continue our search. As we sailed along we spotted two minke whales one coming up very close to the boat. After the brief encounter it was time to sail back to Reykjavik.

-Aleksandra Lechwar

Report from Elding: Our afternoon started with sunny skies and hopeful smiles as we sailed out into the bay. Not long after we left the harbour we spotted a blow in the distance, as we approached the area we started seeing a lot of arctic terns flying so we waited a few minutes before we spotted our second blow! A minke whale! The whale was feeding in the area but she seemed more interested in the food than on the boat. So we decided to continue our trip and not long after we heard the news that was a humpback whale around! We got closer to where it was previously sighted and we arrived just in time to see it lunge feed just in front of our bow! We stayed with this whale for a few minutes and while we were waiting a second minke whale decided to check us out! It got really close to our boat as we could see it clearly under the water passing just under our bow! It was incredible! As the time was running out we started our journey back to the harbour but we still had time to check out a third minke whale!! 

-Maria Ernesto

Report from Eldey : We left Reykjavik on a sunny summer evening, with a broad visibility on the surrounding landscape and fluffy clouds striping the sky enough to bring the promise of a gorgeous sunset. As we advanced inside the bay, the northern wind intensified and we started feeling the swell. A harbor porpoise suddenly crossed close to our boat and disappeared after surfacing a couple of times. After exploring the bay we unfortunately did not encounter any more whale and distributed complimentary tickets to our passengers, to offer them a chance to come back and enjoy better sightings next time. 

- Olivia Garcia