Wednesday, 10 July 2024

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

Today we will be operating our Classic Whale Watching on our lovely vessel Eldey at 9:00, 13:00, 17:00 and 20:30 and our just as lovely Elding I at 11:00 and 15:00. Our Premium Whale Watching tour will operate on Þruma I-V at 10:00, and 12:00.

Report from Eldey: There was a low swell coming from the South, so we experienced some waves on our way out into the bay. The morning sun greeted us and it was even quite warm during the start of the tour, but in classic Icelandic fashion the weather changed every five minutes and we went through some light rain, fog, then clear visibility again, and back to a foggy Reykjavik. We scanned lots of different areas, but unfortunately the whales were not where we were searching. We therefore gave out complimentary tickets for everyone to come on another tour with us again. 

- Eline van Aalderink

Report from Hafsúlan: Today, although the sea was starting to get choppy, we could still have a great time in the bay of Faxaflói. It was all set: overalls if needed, binoculars, camera ready and excited eagled-eye passengers. So off we went and it took about one hour of sailing until we spotted a big blow in the distance. Getting closer to this one, we also saw a different big splash on the other side, a bit far out. We decided to go for the blow, since the splash stopped and we found a humpback whale in the area! It went for about 3 deep dives for the whole time we stayed with it, cause the rest of the time this one was just doing shallow dives and coming for a breath very fast. All of a sudden, this humpie popped up extremely close to our boat, about 5 meters away. So incredible! We could also track it for a long time through the surface just by looking at the white pectoral fins, making a big contrast with the dark seas. We saw this whale swimming very calm during the whole time, and we saw it was resting. We went to explore other areas, but we were running out of time, so we started our journey back, happy with that close encounter with a calm humpback.

- Milla Brandao

Report from Eldey: We sailed out in a bit rough Faxafloi Bay but the conditions were still good to find any kind of cetaceans because there were only few white caps and just a bit of wind. After a while we saw a grayish back coming up to the surface for short breaths. The back belonged to a beautiful yet mysterious minke whale. We saw it a couple of times but then it disappeared. We then heard about a sighting of a larger balean whale and decided to check out that area as well. And indeed it was a humpback whale. It was very relaxed and trevelling very slowly. We saw it about 7 times and at some points it came up very close to our boat. Amazing encounter. We sailed back still amazed by this gentle giant.

-Lasse Roggenkamp

Report from Elding: Due to the strong winds today the waves had increased again this afternoon. We headed to the same areas as cetaceans had been seen earlier in the day in the hope of finding them again. A few people did unfortunately feel a bit seasick due to the waves but most people were outside and loving the adventure as we ventured into the heart of the bay. After nearly an hour we saw some small dorsal fins ahead. There was a small relaxed pod of 4-5 white beaked dolphins. We followed them for a bit seeing them surface a lot, after a bit of time they started to become more active. They started porpoising, bowriding and jumping. Then ahead of us we could some more dolphins jumping even more, there were bigger splashes. Then just beyond these splashes we also saw a blow. It was about 10-15 dolphins all surrounding a humpback whale. Then out of nowhere, this humpback did a huge peduncle throw! These 2 species were likely feeding together under the water. The humpback kept surfacing super close to our boat, we could almost always see it through the water. Whilst this was happening we could see some big splashes to the south of the bay. It looked like there was a minke whale breaching 3-4 times. In the area we were now though we could also see 2 other blows from humpback whales. So in total we had 3. We went a bit closer to one which was also interacting with 7 dolphins, whilst the other was alone and surfacing a bit less frequently. We then headed home super happy after an incredible tour.

- Rob Hyman

Report from Eldey - this afternoon we sailed out with mild drizzle and foggy surroundings. To our luck soon as we sailed out the drizzle stopped and we were left with calm sea, perfect for whale watching. We headed to the area where we been lucky before hoping to spot some cetaceans and just as we reached a productive area full of birds we saw a minke whale. As we waited for this one to resurface we saw two more in the area, however, all of them were quite elusive so we continued our trip. Just as we were about to turn around we saw a pod of 10 white-beaked dolphins, which were quite playful, coming close to the boat and jumping. They even joined us in our sail for a moment when they were bow riding.

-Aleksandra Lechwar

Atlantic puffin, Northern fulmar, Northern gannet, common guillemot, black guillemot, eider duck, black legged kittiwake, Arctic tern, Arctic skua