Wednesday, 15 May 2024

Wednesday, 15 May 2024

Today we will be operating our Classic Whale Watching on our lovely vessel Hafsúlan at 9:00 and 13:00. Our Premium Whale Watching departure times are 10:00, 11:00, 14:00 and 15:00 

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

CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 09:00

Report from Hafsulan: in the morning tour, the seas were fairly calm, we had very weak winds coming from Southeast, although the day was a bit cloudy. We sailed out to look for our favorite animals of Faxafloi bay, and after a while of sailing, we spotted a few splashes in the distance! These belonged to a pod of 5 white-beaked dolphins, slamming their bodies at the surface, very playful. We got closer and they also got closer to us, coming about less than 5 meters from us, slowly bowriding. We said goodbye to these huge dolphins and we decided to continue our trip. Not so far ahead, we got to a very nice spot full of life: the amount of Northern gannets plunge diving gave us the hint that we might have more individuals in the area. We were not wrong! A minke whale popped up, and then another one! We had 2 individuals around, not far from us. We got to have a very good and closer look of one of them, while slowly came for a breath, and lunge fed close to the surface. We started to continue our trip due to the amount of boats there, but we also faces another pod of dolphins, and at one point we had 5 individuals o our left and 10 more on our right. Plus 2 other minkes and 2 harbour porpoises at the same area. Very pleased, we started our journey home, happy with so much life around us!

- Milla Brandao

CLASSIC WHALE WATCHING | 13:00

Report from Hafsulan - this afternoon we sailed out in calm seas and some showers of rain. Before we even left the harbor we already spotted some bird activity, northern gannets and puffins flying all around. The first sighting was a minke whale that appeared on our bow out of nowhere. We saw it surface a few times but as it seemed that the animal was traveling fast so we kept sailing. After another 30 min we reached the area where we been successful this morning and indeed, the birds and minke whales were still there. For the next hour we saw countless minke whales, mostly feeding and coming up occasionally. We got a glimpse of a humpback whale as well although the animal was taking long dives, up to 20 minutes at a time. Last sighting before we headed back to the harbor was a pod of white-beaked dolphins traveling slowly and coming close to the boat.

- Aleksandra Lechwar

CLASSIC WHALE WATCHING | 17:00

Report from Hafsulan: Sailing out again this late afternoon, we went out to the same sighting spots we were previously lucky with. Quite quickly, we encountered again similar pods of white beaked dolphins, with about 8 individuals roaming around the boat. As we got to stay with these cetaceans for a while, we then decided to continue heading out to try our luck. A good decision, as we encounter 2 minke whales, one of which got close enough to the boat for all to see. We headed back home with everyone happy with our last tour of the day. 

- Alex Paumier

Birds encountered today include:

Atlantic puffin, Northern gannet, black guillemot, common eider duck, Arctic tern, Northern fulmar, herring gull, common gull, great black-backed gull.