Tuesday, 15 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 and Hafsúla  for the 09:00, 10:00, 13:00, 14:00, 17:00 and 19:00 Classic Whale Watching tours. Make sure to dress appropriately for the tours as it is always colder on sea than on land. 

• ALL TOURS ON SCHEDULE
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 9:00, 10:00, 13:00, 14:00, 17:00, 19:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00, 12:00, 14:00, 16:00, 20:00

Report from Eldey: We sailed out to beautifully calm Faxafloi bay with southern breeze. Our first encounter today happened really early on, just as we had passed Akurey Island, single minke whale surfaced some 50m from the bow of our ship! It surfaced quite regularly giving us plenty of chances to see its black sleek body. After it took a dive and stayed under for longer time we decided to head out further to the bay but we soon witness splash from a breaching white beaked dolphin it was a pod of 5 individuals and we stayed with them for a while and during that time another pod was seen as well. Very soon after we spotted another 2 minke whales and small pod of harbour porpoises and managed to follow them around for a bit until it was time to head back to Reykjavik and on the way back we saw that minke again very close to Reykjavik City. Wonderful tour with happy passengers. 

- Kristin Ros

Report from Hafsulan: We sailed across the bay with a calm sea and a southern light wind. The sky was grey but we didn't catch any rain during the tour. Just outside the port we spotted the first minke whale but we didn't stop and follow with our course. After a while, we saw 1 pod of 3 harbour porpoises quite far. People were still excited and it was only the beginning of the journey. Suddenly we started seeing 6 minke whales in total all around us. One of them went closer to the bow showing us its rostrum and it was quite cool!! Also, we recognized one of these individuals, it was Humpie, the minke whale. We spotted finally 1 pod of white beaked dolphins, around 3 but very elusive. At the end we started our route back and we could still see few dorsal fins around. 

- Marta Filippini

Report from Eldey: Today we changed blue skies and seas for moody skies and grey seas. Its always nice when the sea is grey as its a little easier to spot the cetaceans as there is a bigger colour contrast and the sea was incredible calm. We sailed out into Faxafloi and after about an hour of sailing found a spot where all the birds were. Birds are bioindicators so we thought this was a good place to start scanning. And we were right - 3 minke whales all popped up at the same time. We soon noticed it was way more than 3, probably 7-10. They would often all come up at the same time and dive down at the same time, but it was pretty safe to pic any direction and you would see a minke whale. One of them lunge-fed multiple times and we could see the belly of the beast with all its ventral grooves. We stayed in this spot for as long as we could and when time was up started our return journey. 

- Anna Richter 

Report from Hafsulan: It was raining when we sailed out from Reykjavik harbor and mostly cloudy trough out the tour. We had to sail far out in the bay before we saw the first cetacean. It was a minke whale and in the same area we saw at least 5 individuals. They were feeding with the occasional lunge feed. Later on we saw 2 harbour porpoises while the sun came out. A nice tour in the bay. 

- Ludvig Hultgren Svensson

Report from Eldey: The ocean looked like a sheet of silk as we sailed out at 17:00. There was very little wind and the clouds had cast a beautiful pattern on Esja. After about 40min of sailing we found our hotspot again and could pretty much pick any direction and see a minke whale. In total it was roughly between 7-10, with 2 individuals lunge feeding frequently. It was a very serene and calm evening and there was a moment where we stayed stationary and watched on as the whales were having dinner around us. Eventually we ran out of time and headed back to Reykjavik. 

- Kristin Ros 

Report from Elding: We sailed out on a Faxafloi "lake"! It was so calm tonight, perfect for whale watching. As we sailed out we got to see a few Atlantic puffins, maybe the last few before they leave us. Not too long later we got our first cetacean sighting a single harbour porpoise. It only surfaced twice and was very shy as is fairly common. We then carried on and over on our left hand side we could see many birds. Feeding alongside them was around 15 minke whales. We sailed around this area very slowly getting a great look at all of them. Some even surfaced right next to our boat. It was amazing. Once we had to head home we then had another two very quick looks at some porpoises. It was a beautiful evening out at sea tonight.

- Rob Hyman

herring gull, great and lesser black backed gull, manx shearwater, sooty shearwater, Northern gannet, Northern fulmar, Acrtic tern, Atlantic puffin, common guillemot, black guillemot, razorbill, eider duck