Wednesday 25 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
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 12:00
• 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: the tour started with a beautiful rainbow and passing-by clouds which, together with mount Esja, gave the panorama the aspect of a movie about vikings. We sailed towards Seltjarnarnes cape, close to which we sighted the first whale of the day, an humpback. This appeared to be quite active, going very often for deep dives and showing the fluke each time. After leaving alone this one, we sailed north, but it didn't take too long before spotting a minke whale, which unexpectedly stayed close to the surface and spouted for a few times. While making a detour on our whale back, we stopped to visit two very relaxed humpacks, who were just chilling at the surface, at times floating motionless. They were possibly sleeping, but their tiredness didn't stop them from showing curiosity, as they gradually moved closer to the ship, with one of them even peeking out with one eye to check us out.

Report from the RIBs: This morning was rainy in Reykjavik but once we got out on the water skies cleared and the water was calm. Great conditions for whale watching! We searched the flat sea for any sign of whales and dolphins and heard that another whale watching boat had seen a minke whale. We went to the area but couldn't find anything so we continued with our tour. Not long after we spotted a pod of 5-6 white-beaked dolphins behaving very calmly surfacing around us. After a while they headed away from us but right at that moment, we saw a blow from a humpback whale not too far away! We headed towards it and found a small individual surfacing regularly and making shallow dives. The humpback wasn't diving for long so we were able to watch it at the surface quite easily. At one point, we even saw it blowing bubbles under the water which was really special! Unfortunately our time was starting to run out so we headed back towards Reykjavik. On our way we encountered another humpback whale tail slapping the water a lot. We slowed to watch for a couple of minutes but then the whale went for a deep dive and showed us its tail for the last time.

- Emily Erskine

Report from Hafsúlan: Going out again after the wonderful weather and sightings of the morning trip we were all looking for ward to more good sightings and luckily the whales were still in the area and the weather held up because boy did we get some good sightings. We saw a humpback almost immediately upon passing the bouys marking the channel into the harbour. This individual dove in front of us regularly and we chose to move on. Suddenly in the distance a humpback rose fully out of the water before crashing down again in a full breach, however upon getting closer to the animal it was resting, the breach likely taking a lot of energy out of it. Seeing a blow in the distance we sought to move on and leave the animal to rest however along the way another humpback was sighted who was full of energy and zooming around the boat in a circle before diving again. After leaving this guy because he wasn't spending much time at the surface we managed to find a very friendly humpback who kept rolling around on the surface and waving at us with its pectoral fin, so naturally we all waved back. A friend of his the decided to show up and go for some dives next to boat. After spending some quality time with these two we decided to finally say goodbye and head back to the harbour with 5 humpback whale sightings in total, with 2 possibly of the same individual. It was a great day!

- Liam van Walsum

Atlantic Puffin, Northern Fulmar, Black Guillemot, Black-legged kittiwake, great cormorant, Arctic Tern, Black-headed gull, Lesser black-backed gull, greater black-backed gull, Eider duck, Northern gannet, Greylag goose, Glaucous gull.