Wednesday, 1 June 2022

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

COVID-19: Keep in mind that passengers and crew are asked to ensure their own hygiene and safety at all times. Washing hands thoroughly with soap and using a hand sanitiser is advised.

Report from Hafsulan : The forecast today regarding waves and wind sounded perfect, and it actually was excellent. It took us a good hour to find our first cetacean : a humpback whale. The animal was calm, surfacing quite close to the boats at times, as we were the first to see it it offered us some really nice looks on its impressive body size, white pectoral fins and spine. As we had spotted another individual humpback from the distance we decided to try to venture out to spot again that other individual. After some time of sailing we did not manage to find again that other individual humpback, but saw by some rib boats a nice pod of white beaked dolphins. The pod was at the beginning quite elusive and started speeding to then change its behaviour and became quite playful, jumping around, and coming toward our boat. It was a pod of about 10 dolphins to more composed of 1 juvenile dolphin. After some nice look of the dolphins we started heading back toward the harbour observing some of the sea birds species we can see around Iceland.

- Melanie Magnan

Report from Elding 1:

Started off the morning with some lovely weather, overcast but good lighting and small waves, so leaving the harbour we were ready for some awesome sightings. It didn´t take long before we found a pod of 10 white beaked dolphins playing in front of another whale watching boat. We stayed with them for a while and watched them make patterns in the water when they came up for air, then decided to leave them alone and see what else could find. It can be lucky not being the first boat out as we can check to see the other whale watching boats to see if they have found a whale and after doing so we discovered a humpback whale coming up to breathe. As we got closer some of the other vessels left and we got to be nearly alone with the animal as it made shallow dives to catch food. After spending time with this individual and taking lots of photos we realised the time for trip was sadly over and decided to head back to the harbour, but we didn't head back disappointed.

- Liam van Walsum

Report from Hafsúlan: The weather and sea conditions didn't change much from the morning tour. On the way out into the bay, we encountered two very elusive harbour porpoises, fast as always, they just popped up very briefly. Going on further a blow could be seen at the distance, it was a humpback whale! The humpback was swimming in a relaxed manner around the area and even made a few  close appearances for us to be able to photograph it. We spent some time with this marine mammal, but had to leave it eventually to go a bit further out in the search of other marine life. Shortly after we found another little pod of about 3 harbour porpoises and also a pod of white-beaked dolphins! Probably all in all we encountered 8-11 dolphins, among them one calf and two juveniles. It was fantastic when eventually they changed direction and approached our boat and surfaced very close. It is always a delight to encounter this special dolphins and to see them how they are in their natural environment. We stayed with the pod for some time and continued the tour with another humpback whale. This time this animal showed us a few times its huge fluke when going for a deep dive. We had slowly run out of time and it was time to return to port. On our way back another humpback whale crossed its path with us and many many puffins making this trip interesting till the very end!! Another great tour full of wildlife!

- Estel Sanchez Cami

Report from Elding: We left a rainy Reykjavik behind as we set sail for our 14:00 tour. It was a little windy but in true icelandic fashion the weather changed and the sun came out. We spotted a blow in the distance and made our way there. It was a humpback whale! This individual circled us and showed part of its fluke. It decided to move on eventually and so did we.  Soon after we were met by a pod of white beaked dolphins! We were surrounded by 10 individuals with 2 young ones. They seemed to be playing in the waves caused by a nearby rib. When they decided to leave, we started our return journey and came across another humpback whale! This individual was a bit more elusive. We saw it a few more times before we decided to head back to harbour. 

- Anna Richter

Report from Hafsulan : As the day passed the sea kept on getting better and the light swell and wind speed have decreased for that tour. It is after about 1 hour we got our first encounter, a humpback whale, but a different individual from the ones we had seen on the 9am and 13am tour. That whale was extremely relaxed, surfacing many times close to the boat, and resting by the side of the boat for some minutes. As we were observing that animal, we spotted some dolphins 500 meters away. The pod of about 5 to 10  white beaked dolphins came straight toward the humpback, seemingly to wake it up from its sleep. We observed that interesting scene for a few minutes before we decided to head off to see if we could find any of the previous humpbacks seen during the day. During that sail we encountered an other pod of white beaked dolphins, of about 10 to more individuals, with a juvenile, and by getting closer we noticed another individual humpback whale in the middle of that pod. That whale was not the same as the one spotted before during this tour, incredible to see another humpback having also an interaction with dolphins on the same tour. As it looked a bit disrupted by our dolphins, and with an elusive behaviour we decided to leave the cetacean and slowly start our way back to Reykjavik. It was a great day, and really interesting sightings to finish the day with.

- Melanie Magnan