Wednesday, 24 August 2022

Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00, 13:00, 14:00 and 16:00 Premium Whale tour and on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 09:00, 10:00, 13:00, 14:00 and 19:00 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
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 13:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 14:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 16:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 19:00 

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: After being deserted by whales for a month they came back with a vengence! We saw a blow on the horizon and began to approach it, passing a sneaky minke whale. Then another blow, and another; 3 blows as 3 humpback whales reared their tails high out of the water as they dove all together! To our added fortune the three humpbacks were surrounded by a pod of 5-10 white-beaked dolphins jumping around this gang of whales. One of the humpbacks was in a very playful mood, rolling onto its back and showing us its pectoral fins. After watching these amazing creatures all interact with each other it was time to leave them alone and search for other marine life in the bay. And that we found. A fourth humpback whale that blew and went for a deep dive. This one was less social and did not come up again but we got some close looks at some more minke whales and a second pod of dolphins in the distance. What rare sightings today!

- Cindy Schwenk

Report from Hafsúlan: Amazing trip. The dry but cloudy weather - which meant no sun glare - guaranteed prime cetacean spotting conditions, with just the waves making it a bit harder to see the whales' body at the ocean's surface. We went straight for 3 very relaxed humpback whales that were reported in the bay, which were floating ("logging") together, and from time to time taking some very lazy fluke dive. These were staying very close to each other and seemed very comfortable around our ship, coming often underneath us!! We then sailed out and saw about 4 minke whales while cruising around, appearing quickly but sometimes close to our ship. The trip finished with an amazing sighting of a pod of white beaked dolphins, about 10 strong, which were taking leaps, checking the ship out and jumping out of the water. One particularly goofy individual was jumping out of the water slapping its back multiple times! The animals were in a very cute and funny mood today!

-Francesco Golin

Report from Eldey: Within minutes of leaving port a small black head popped out of the water, illuminated by piercings rays of light emanating from the shattered clouds. Just as quickly as it appeared it was gone however, and onwards we continued, with a speedy sighting of harbour porpoise zooming past our right hand side. Again passing 3 minke whales and a pod of around 10 white beaked dolphins bow riding us we finally spotted our prize, a large blow on the horizon, that could only be created by one animal, a humpback whale. This individual spent lots of time on the surface for us, only taking short dives with its massive fluke lifted out of the air. Surrounding it were northern gannets plunging into the waves, minke whales lunging for food at the surface, and... hang on, is that another humpback? A smaller individual was also present in the area taking longer dives. Suddenly a minke whale lunge fed upside down 100m from the boat as the first humpback resurfaced. During this time more white beaked dolphins appeared and began to play a little with the boat before leaving. After spending time with these humpbacks we began to leave and found some more minke whales, white beaked dolphins jumping in the distance and another pod of fast harbour porpoise before returning. You know we saw a lot today when I gloss over bow riding white beaked dolphins... One of my better days this summer.

- Liam the whaler watch

Report from Hafsúlan: Amazing and incredible trip. The dry but cloudy weather - which meant no sun glare - guaranteed prime cetacean spotting conditions, and no wind so perfect conditions to spot the animals. Despite the report of two humpbacks ahead of us we decided to cruise around the bay for a while, in order to avoid bothering these beautiful animals with too many ships - a lot of them were surrounding the humpbacks already. Our adventurousness repaid us as we quickly found 4 minke whales, some of which were swimming really close to our ship, so close we could see the white on their fins. After cruising along and adventuring even more into the bay, at the distance we spotted a huge blow, the one of a humpback whale. We managed to get quite close to it, and it proved to be very relaxed, taking some very lazy but long deep dives. We decided to leave the humpback alone as it was taking long deep dive, probably looking for food. We headed to an area where there was 2 humpback together. And we were far to be disappointed. The 2 humpback whales were firstly resting when we arrived and then started to be super social and curious about our boat. Then swam very close to us, swimming around us still very close. The boat was still, motor off and still the animals stayed with us for quite a long time. The passengers could see clearly the white color of the pectoral fins through the water. They stayed with us around 15 minutes and then they decided to swim a little bit away from us. We started to head back to Reykjavik and on the way we saw a big pod of more than 10 white beaked dolphins and around 2 to 4 harbour porpoises in the area and also 3 minke whale a bit further away. People were super happy and lucky to see the 4 main species of this bay.

- Enorha Guimard

Report from Elding: with very calm seas during our adventure this evening, we had our first encounter with a white-beaked dolphin, within 10 minutes of the trip and quite close to the harbour. As we couldn't see it again and continuing our trip, we saw at least 6 harbour porpoises on our way, showing us their very tiny dorsal fin. In this trip, we had short periods between encounters and soon enough we spotted 2 minke whales around us! Also, at the same area, we could see 2 humpback whales, Going for beautiful fluke dives, we left these ones and went further away to see what else we could find. And then we spotted another blow in front of us! Another humpback was around, blowing beautifully in the sunset. Fluking up, rolling and showing us its belly and huge pectoral fins, we enjoyed this sighting for a while. In the distance, we also saw a pod of white-beaked dolphins jumping, joining the area. However, they didn't come much closer, but we could see many minke whales around us as well, and even smell the breathing of one! Not pleasant, but it's not everyday that you can smell it! After hanging around with the humpback whale, that was still close to us, we saw that we were running out of time and we needed to head back home. A beautiful sunset followed us until Reykjavik, a thing that only the evening tours can give us.

- Milla Brandao

Atlantic puffin, common guillemot, northern gannet, northern fulmar, lesser and greater black backed gull, herring gull, sooty shearwater, manx shearwater, eider duck, black-legged kittiwake, glaucus gull