It was super nice to head out into the bay of faxaflói with calm seas, there was a little rain but not enough to get us too wet. There were two humpback whales and one minke whale that we encountered today but the minke was only seen once by the crew, the humpbacks were good though, one in particular that showed the fluke a few times but they were super chilled out and allowed us to get close.
We still decided to go out and give it our best and the bay was actually full of life. We saw a small pod of about 4 white-beaked dolphins, a minke whale and a humpback whale, however the minke only surfaced once, humpback which was more a grumpy humpy and only surfaced a few times and never showed the fluke.
We started with a stop at Engey, to observe the atlantic puffins gathering on the islands near Reykjavik. We went further in the bay looking for cetaceans. There was flocks of birds which are generally good sign and interesting to watch but there was no whales. We continued our tour until we finally found a humpback whale.
It was heading away from us at an angle so we first thought it was a minke whale, very strange for it to have such a visible blow/spout though and the behaviour was also a little odd for a minke. We were utterly confused. Suddenly the whale turned and surfaced next to us showing us its body, there we could distinguish that in fact it was a very rare sighting of a sei whale!
Unfortunately the whale was gone. We search as much as we could in different areas and came back to observe the puffins on Lundey. Because we didn't see the whales we offered to our passengers a complimentary ticket that allow them to come back on a classic tour.
Unfortunately no whales where seen during the tour. I could spot 1 white-beaked dolphin surfacing one time that immediately disappeared. We tried our best to find the whales but we were not able to find them. We offered complimentary tickets to our passengers, those tickets enabling them to come back in the next 2 years.
Due to unfavourable sea conditions, all our tours today have been cancelled! The safety and comfort of our passengers is our number one priority, and we do hope you understand that this decision was made with that in mind. For more info contact us via email at elding@elding.is or by phone at +354 519 5000.
No tours available today, make sure to prebook and join us another day this week instead!
Unfortunately, there were no sightings, they were very sneaky today and didn't even give us a glimpse. We offered our passengers complimentary tickets to try again either in Reykjavik or Akureyri anytime in next few years. We hope that next time the whales are more in the mood for people watching.
We continued to scan the sea looking for whale activity but all we could find was many arctic terns feeding on the sea surface. We went back and gave to our passengers a complimentary ticket to have the opportunity to come back on our boats for free to see the whales in Reykjavík or in Akureyri.
After an hour we had our first sighting. A minke whale surfaced a few times before disappearing. We went further and saw a humpback whale, very calmy swimming. After one deep dive it reappeared further resting at the surface during a short time. We could see the splashes made by another humpback whale breaching one time far away.
We first saw one discret harbour porpoise followed by a second one much more curious. The water was clear enough to see this individual approaching the boat without surfacing. A bit later we saw the spout of a humpabck whale.
We went far in the bay, in the same area where the whales were found yesterday. They were still there ! The captain first spotted a blow with the binoculars. We patiently approached that blow and find out that there was at least 5 humpback whales in this feeding area.
We were very lucky to find them. First we saw a small feeding flock of kittiwakes and then suddenly a blow. A humpback whale popped up, then another blow. Two humpback whales feeding the in same area. They were roughly diving for about 6-7 minutes at a time but once or twice came close to the boat. Very quickiy a minke whale surfaced just meters from our bow also.
We could see it surfacing a few times before it disappeared. We continued our tour when our captain saw the blow of a humpback whale ! We carefully approached to see the whale fluke dive a few times very calmly, probably feeding. Suddenly the whale showed us a very powerful peduncle slap and and tail slapping for several minutes !
It was the perfect day to do whale watching on our fast rib boat Þruma and with our minimum of two passengers it was also a nice and relaxed tour. We sailed out and came across two humpback whales and a minke whale with smooth sailing all the way.
We were going to the same area where humpback whales were seen last week when we crossed the path of a white-beaked dolphin! This individual was probably travelling because we could not find it anymore. We continued our tour until we found a humpback whale feeding.
No tours going out today unfortunately. Be sure to prebook and join us some other time this week.
We were going to the north when a flock of birds a bit further captured our attention. A few seconds later we saw in that same direction a blow, probably from a humpback whale. The time to arrive, the whale was not there anymore. Only ten minutes later we crossed the path of a minke whale.
Report from Þruma RIB: We could not hope for better weather and sea conditions this morning. A sunny day in Faxaflói bay with a sea looking like a lake. Even if cold wind was coming from the glaciers, we were happy to go outside well protected by our overalls. We just got out of the harbour when we had our first encounter, a group of 4-5 harbour porpoises that was surprisingly easy to approach.
