Wednesday, 11 May 2022

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

 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 Eldey: Today we were met with sunshine and a cool northern wind. The swell was small and we were a small group on a big boat with a lot of happy faces. We set off on time, in search for cetaceans! After about an hour we spotted white beaked dolphins! They were a playful bunch investigating and swimming closely to the boat. While we were focused on one pod another appeared. We saw 3-4 pods consisting of 5-8 individuals. We spotted more dolphins in the distance that were breaching! As we headed towards this pod, we were met by another along the way. Dolphins everywhere! After a while we decided to give the animals some space and continued looking when we found a humpback whale! It was a calm individual that came quite close to the boat, showing us its fluke multiple times. A perfect ending to our trip as we then headed back to Reykjavik.

- Anna Richter

Report from Eldey: The weather was still great, with a nice sun and very little wind. We took the direction of the same area than this morning hoping to encounter whales again. We had a very short encounter with a group of 4-5 harbour porpoises. As usual they quickly disappeared but we felt like it was a good sign. We continued observing from far flocks of birds, seeing some Atlantic puffins and guillemots in the water. Suddenly a big splash appeared far away! We went in that direction and we were still seeing smaller splashes, then a blow, then more small splashes. With binoculars we could see that it was a humpback whale on the side pectoral slapping the water, that probably breached earlier producing the big splash. It was far and after a few minutes the whale was not visible anymore. We approached the area and kept looking when we saw a blow much closer this time. We could see the humpback very relaxed, going for fluke dives and showing us its tail. It was changing direction a lot and it felt like it was feeding. After a good moment the animal was swimming slowly and going for shallow dives only, probably resting. We went to another area with less boat to let this cetacean rest. Very quickly we spotted another blow. We got closer and it was another humpback whale, also very relaxed. We were chilling in the sun admiring the landscape and the calm swim of the whale when it went for a shallow dive, followed a short minute later by a breach at 40 meters from us! Spectacular and so unexpected! After that it continued its relaxed swimming. We said goodbye and we went back to Reykjavik.

- Miquel Pons

Atlantic puffin, northern fulmar, black-legged kittiwake, black-backed gull, black-headed gull, herring gull, Arctic tern, eider duck, common guillemot, European shag, Arctic skua