Wednesday, 20 July 2016

Tour at 20:30

Report from Eldey: Whales in the midnight sun - I`m pretty sure that this tour fulfilled everyone´s expectations. It was a beautiful evening with the sun slowly sinking towards the horizon when after about 50 min we came across a humpback whale that suddenly came up a few hundred meters away from us. We approached it gently and then watched it for a while as it was surfacing very frequently without going for any deep dives. The whale made a very relaxed impression and was probably resting. After a good amount of time we moved on since we saw several more blows further in the distance. It was difficult to decide where to go due to all the blows in all direction. So, one of the humpback whales made the decision for us by showing incredible behaviours. It was surround by thousands of birds, mainly kittiwakes, and then showed us almost everything a humpback whale is able to do: tail-lobbing, tail-slapping, pec-slapping, a bit of a spy hop... this adorable humpback was in a very playful mood and must have turned this tour into a true highlight! It definitely was for me! Additionally, we had an almost complete rainbow over Reykjavík to look at, besides many birds and a humpback whale entertaining us for almost an hour. This was definitely a very memorable tour for both passengers and crew!

- Hanna Michel

Tour at 17:00

Report from Eldey: Conditions were absolutely fantastic this evening, mirror calm with beautiful light between the clouds. After only 20 minutes into our journey we spotted a small dark dorsal 1 km in the distance, which turned out to be a pretty rotund minke whale! We were so pleasantly surprised to see this individual so close to harbour. It was truly living up to it´s slinky minke nickname, often popping up in completely unexpected places but thankfully never to far from the boat. After a lovely 20 minutes we headed out further offshore, and hadn´t been travelling long when we saw a blow 2 km on the sunlit horizon - we were so excited to realise this was a humpback whale! This amazing individual put on such an amazing show, breaching not once, not twice, but THREE times within 200 m of the boat. Many of the passengers got amazing photos along with the memories, but unfortunately our photographer was pointing the wrong way at all times. At one point this humpback came probably 10 m in front of the bow of the boat, giving the passengers down the front quite a fright! After this we headed in the direction of more blows, and came across a second sleepy, slowly travelling humpback that came up so frequently as well as a third humpback milling around and never really giving us a sign it was about to dive. Whilst watching this whales we must´ve seen at least 3 more blows in the distance, so the bay is clearly full of life at the moment. What a fantastic view we got of these whales on this tour, and nobody could´ve been more pleased than me!

- Ophelie Humphrey

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: Amazing trip with incredible behaviours exhibit by our beloved whales today at 14.00! About 40 minutes after our departure we encountered our first humpback whale, although the animal wasn't exactly the most active of the animals. It seemed to be traveling, or resting, since it was almost all the time surfacing really quietly without going for long deep dives. We spotted in our front another humpback, and we decided to go for it. By far, the wisest of the decisions! The animal was feeding on the surface at the beginning, and we actually saw it lunge feeding in the center of a flock of arctic terns, with the mouth wide open. The animal then decided to enjoy a little, maybe just because of the fishes it had just eaten, but the thing is that it started to rolling, showing us its beautiful and extremely long white flippers. The animal even made a spy hoping, to see what was going on in its surroundings. We left the area, already really happy, to try to find some more whale and we did it really fast. As soon as we turned the boat we spotted a minke whale surfacing for a few times. We tried to follow this tricky animal but at the end we gave up, since it was constantly going for long deep dives. Time was running out and we decided to take a last look to the happy humpy, but we didn't know what was just about to happen. The animal made another spy hoping. like it was controlling and checking on us. Then it disappeared for a minute and then, suddenly... it breached! And not once but 3 times! And immediately after that it started to slap the surface with one flipper first and finally with the fluke! It was incredible that the same individual exhibited mostly all of the impressive behaviours in the same tour. We came back home, with an impressive experience that's hardly going to be forgotten by our passengers... and by the crew.

- Alberto Alejandro

Tour at 13:00

Report from Eldey: We left the harbour proudly wearing our sunglasses on this tour, which is a rare feat in Iceland. As it was warm, most of the crew and passengers were not even wearing an overall ! Needless to say, those perfect conditions pumped all of us up for this whale watching trip. While we were heading out, the wind picked up slightly, but nothing that would harm our enthusiasm. We went straightforward to the same area than this morning, and quickly encountered a humpback whale ! We met a serene individual, that was surfacing regularly and never too far away from where it was taking dives. We could have great looks and could stay for almost half an hour. It even tail-lobbed once ! It was never going for a deep dive, so we could never see the fluke of this whale. Because we stayed a long time, we decided to give this humpback a break and went to look for something else. In our wandering, we met a second humpback whale. Mirroring the first one, it was a relaxed one, although a little bit more of an adventurer. It came several time in the vicinity of our boat, less than 60 m away from us. It even gave us the privilege to see its magnificent fluke twice ! Again we could hang out with this whale for a while, and when time was due we got back to Reykjavik harbour. Easy time with the humpbacks !

- Guillaume Calcagni

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: We sailed out in very good sea conditions, the surface of the ocean was like glass! We had been sailing for about 40 minutes when we spotted our first humpback whale. There were a lot of feeding seabirds in the area and the humpback was only coming up once for breath between long dives so it was probably feeding. Then it suddenly changed behaviour and started rolling around and stopped so it was lying on it's back, it was like it was happy now that it had eaten. After that it was staying close to the surface and resting so maybe it was taking a nap after lunch. It was really fun seeing all those behaviour changes. After we had been following it for a while we decided to see if there was anything else lurking in the bay and sure enough, we found another humpback whale. The other one hadn't fluked for us so we were really hoping to see the fluke this time and luckily it fluked twice. Then it was time to head home and the weather got even nicer as we got closer to the harbour. A tour with two happy humpbacks.

-Bryndís Ösp

Tour at 9:00

Report from Eldey: Almost full boat this morning. 183 souls set off on a wonderful journey. Our quest: finding the first cetaceans of the day. It did not take long. After 30 minutes we saw the first minke whale of our tour. Rather elusive than friendly it kept on surfacing a few times. Nevertheless, people got a good look at the animal. Another boat in the bay informed us while watching the minke whale that there were some white-beaked dolphins in the area. Very true indeed. We saw it just a few minutes later. I saw at least one pod with 8 individuals. 2 of them were proper calves. That way of leaping out of the water is only done by energetic and playful ones. They even got under the boat swimming from one side to the other. Amazing. After some time we went to look for more species and we found 2 humpback whales feeding and lob-tailing (this behaviour is basically a powerful movement of the fluke against the water, they actually slap their tales) in the same area. Very nice to see them working together to get the fish. In my opinion they were using it to communicate with each other and maybe knocking the fish down so it becomes easy prey. However, you never know with whales. On our way back we encountered another pod of about 10 white-beaked dolphins and another minke whale! Amazing trip with amazing sightings! It was definitely a great start for the day!

- Jorge Pascual

Birds seen on today's tour include: northern fulmar, greater black-backed gull, common guillemot, arctic tern, atlantic puffin, arctic skua, kittiwake

Status: RUNNING

We are sailing out from the old harbour in Reykjavík today. The sea and the wind is quite calm on this lovely day. So make sure you are booked on the next whale watching tour this afternoon.