Tuesday, 1 August 2023

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00, 12:00, 14:00, 16:00 and 20:00 Premium Whale tour and on our lovely vessel Eldey, Hafsúla and Elding  for the 09:00, 10:00, 13:00, 14:00 and 20:30 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
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 12:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 16:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 17:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 19:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 20:00

Report from Eldey: We started the tour with a misty bay today. It was warm and nice but the visibility was not the best. However, we got to see around 6 minke whales and a very quick humpback whale. Passengers got to capture a fluke dive with their cameras!! After that we got to see some white beaked dolphins too! It was around 20 of them. It was a beautiful tour.

-Nicolas Corral

Report from Hafsúlan: with he sun shining on our faces and the most beautiful flat sea, we sailed out excited to see our favorite animals. First, we spotted 2 harbour porpoises not far from us, and we could all see it because the sea was like a real lake today! The very tiny dorsal fins passed by us and we continued our trip, heading to an area where we could see many flock of birds; some resting, some feeding like crazy. On the flocks that were feeding, we started spotting many minke whales, beautifully shining with the sun. On total, we had at least 10 minkes around us, popping out in different spots, sometimes simultaneously! The silver color of these animals got us amazed every time they appeared. We also spotted a blow of a humpback whale, and we decided to check it out. Getting closer, it breached right in front of our eyes!! It was super fast and unpredictable, popping up in the distance, then super close to us, then in the distance again. It was Aang, an individual we know quite well. Aang was feeding, as we could see by the deeper dives and going to different directions, and even rolling on the surface, showing its very pink belly and then the long pectoral fins. On the way back, we spotted more 5 harbour porpoises and many minkes feeding next to the flocks of birds. Lovely morning with these lovely animals!

- Milla Brandao

Report from Eldey: It was lovely whale watching conditions this afternoon: the sun was shining and the sea was calm. After travelling out into the bay and passing many Atlantic puffins we arrived upon an area with lots of diving seabirds. Within them we started to notice some minke whales. We saw 10-15 in total during this tour. They would surface regularly all around the boat. Some were lunge feeding. We also got a very quick look at some white beaked dolphins. About 6 of them made some splashes right in front of our boat, but only for a few seconds before they disappeared into the ocean. We then noticed a blow. We had found a humpback whale! We got to see this amazing animal fluke dive a few times too! At one point it rolled and we saw a pectoral fin lifted out of the water. We then started to head home, on our way back we saw another couple of minke whales. We also had a very fast look at 1 harbour porpoise. It only actually jumped out the water twice though again showing why they are a tricky species. This overall was a fantastic tour with all 4 of our most common species.

- Rob Hyman

Report from Hafsulan: Today the sun was shining and the views were amazing. The ski was blue and the animals were at the surface enjoying the sun as well. We went straight to the same spot as this morning to try to find the animals again. When we arrive there the birds were still feeding and some minke whales were lunge feeding. The sea was calm so everytime the minke would appear at the surface we could see the splashes very well. Eventually the big one showed up, 1 humpback whale surfaced quite close to the boat. This animal did this for a couple of times and some beautiful fluke dives. The weather was perfect and the whales were having there best time having a lot of food, so everyone in the boat was enjoying their presence.

- Rodrigo

Report from Elding: Again, we had great conditions for this tour. We somehow managed to see even more individuals in this tour that we had earlier in the day. After around 30 minutes of sailing we spotted a pod of white beaked dolphins in the distance all jumping out the water but we carried on as we knew of bigger animals further out. Once we got to this point we were greeted by around 15 minke whales, 1 humpback whale and another 2 pods of white beaked dolphins. The minkes were surfacing everywhere, any direction you looked in you would see a minke whale. Some were also lunge feeding. One of the pods of dolphins was very active and the other appeared to be resting. The humpback whale was a known individual called Aang. We got to see many beautiful fluke dives from this humpback. He even lifted his pectoral fin out the water at one stage. On our way back we found some more dolphins. They were very playful. They jumped lots and came very close. There was around 20 indviduals in this pod including calves.

- Rob Hyman

Report from Eldey: The sea conditions were perfect with a clear sky and a good visibility. We first saw puffins flying around with they flappy wings. Then after looking for a while we saw splashes in the direction of Akranes. W found 2-3 harbour porpoises and 5-6 white-beaked dolphins in the area, the porpoises immediatly disappeared but the dolphins greeted us and came around very social and friendly, bow riding sometime doing a small jump. After enjoy this marvellous encounter we continued and found an area with a lot of bird activity. There was 4-5 minke whales in this area maybe still feeding. There were surfacing sometimes close and sometimes far we stayed for a while to observe them. We decided to go a bit further out and when we were going to come back we spotted some more splashes. Going in the direction of the splashes we saw a blow so we obviously continued there. It was a humpback whale. We were out of time but we stayed a few more minutes and could see the humpback going for a few surface sequences and two beautiful fluke dives. Seeing the tail we could recognize Aang, an individual that we have seen a lot in the last couple of weeks. We went back home seeing a few more splashes from dolphins a one or two more minke whales, with a nice sunset in our back.

- Miquel Pons