Wednesday, 19 April 2023

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00 and 14:00 Premium Whale tours and on our lovely vessel Hafsúlan 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 Hafsulan: We had really calm seas this morning which was very exciting. The boat glided on top of the sea. We had cloudy skies and the occasional drop of rain but generally it was very good conditions. Around 25 minutes into the tour we could see many harbour porpoises around the boat, probably around 20-25 in total. The conditions made this normally elusive animal very easy to spot as they came out of the water to breathe. We headed on further into the bay and spotted a fluke. It was from a humpback whale. This individual surfaced fairly regularly giving us a good look at it. Because of the low wind it made it easy to listen out for the blows as well. So we didn't disturb the whale too much, we carried on. We spotted a few other individuals during the first humpback sighting. So we checked some of these out. First we saw a minke whale which surfaced many times having been tricky to spot to begin with. This was very cool. We also saw a couple of other minke whales from a distance. Next we had a nice interaction with a second humpback whale. This one came very close to our boat which gave us a fantastic opportunity to see how big these whales really are. This was a great final sighting from a really good tour. 

- Rob Hyman

Report from Hafsula: Even though it was forecast to be raining all day, we were quite lucky in the morning and the afternoon and managed to avoid the rain! As we sailed out the wind picked up a little and therefore also the swell but it was still a relatively calm day. We first saw 3 harbour porpoises. These quickly vanished as we continued our sail. A little further out we spotted a blow! Then a few more in the same spot! A humpback whale! We caught up with the individual and at the shortly after spotted a pod of 7 white beaked dolphins too. The dolphins came closer to us and the humpback whale vanished! While we were searching for the whale, we spotted another pod of 5 white beaked dolphins in the distance. As a few more boats came to join we decided to head on and give the animals some space. Onwards into the bay! Not long after we saw another blow and found another humpback whale. This one was much more friendly coming up regularly and close to the boat. We saw a few fluke dives and when time ran out headed back to Reykjavik. 

Atlantic puffin, Northern fulmar, black legged kittiwake, black backed gulls, black headed gulls, black guillemot, common guillemot, eider duck, Northern gannet, glaucous gull, Canadian goose, golden plover