Wednesday, 11th March 2018

On a beautiful day we sailed out on our 1 o'clock tour from Árskógssandur. The weather was  good and so was the sea condition. We sailed out the fjord and enjoyed the sightseeing of the landscape on the way. At the entrance of Eyjafjörður we saw a blow coming out of the water and sailed to see what cetaceans we might have today. Unfortunately this individual was diving for a long time and after about 40 minutes of waiting we had to start sailing back to Árskógssandur. We offered our passengers a complimentary ticket to come with us again either within our company here in Akureyri or in Reykjavík and hope they will get to see the whales next time. 

Text and picture by Anna Gunnarsdóttir

Tuesday, 10 April 2018

Whatever we have done to deserve these golden, sunny, April weather, we are truly loving it! Today was as sunny as yesterday, only the wind had picked up a little bit. We did not have to sail long before we actually spotted a blow behind us close to the village of Grenvik. When we came closer, it turned out to be a humpback whale, a familiar fluke which we identified as the individual 'Secret'. It seemed to be hungrily feeding close to the surface and we got super close looks of its back, fins and fluke! Afterwards we sailed on and finished the tour with a brief, but lovely porpoise encounter. A great, fun day out in the fjord.

Text and pictures by Babsi Neubarth

Monday, 09 April 2018

Our tour at 13 o'clock was a true delight today. First, the sea, weather and landscape conditions were wonderful and secondly, we were lucky enough to find a fin whale only 40 minutes after we sailed out. It's sleek, lean body surfaced next to us for multiple times, before going for longer dives of 8-10 minutes. We could even observe its snout with the white underside for a couple of times. This individual turned out to be a very relaxed fellow so that we stayed with it for a while before turning back to Akureyri. It certainly does not happen every day that we find fin whales on our whale watching tours. Hence, another exciting day here in Eyjafjördur.

Text and pictures by Babsi Neubarth

Sunday, 8th April 2018

Today we sailed out on our 1 o‘clock tour from Árskóggsandur, we started the tour with a small pod of Harbor Porpoises near Hrísey. Today the weather was good, the sun was up casting a beautiful light on the mountains showing us the amazing landscape is in Eyjafjörður. We sailed throughout the fjord but unfortunately we did not see any bigger cetaceans today. On our way back we encountered a big pod of Harbor Porpoises and had a good time with them at the end of our tour. Our passenger received complimentary tickets to come again within two years either for whale watching in Akureyri or within our company in Reykjavík.

Text and picture by Anna Gunnarsdóttir

Saturday, 07 April 2018

A gorgeous, sunny and quite chilly Saturday awaited us on two tours today and we set out not knowing that this 7th of April would be full of surprises for us. Our morning tour departed from Akureyri and we sailed for quite a while, almost out of the fjord in search for cetaceans. However, Fortuna was not with us this morning so that we handed out complimentary tickets to all our passengers to join us again, either in Reykjavik or Akureyri. From experience we know that the conditions and the wildlife can change very fast. Hence we were motivated to find some marine mammals in the afternoon, but never would we have expected to find sperm whales! And we did not only find one, but at least three individuals! It was fascinating to observe them for minutes breathing just right at the sea surface before the sperm whales would go for one of their famous deep dives. Up until today, Elding Akureyri had never seen a sperm whale on one of the tours. Of course the crew and our passengers werebeyond delighted! Simply incredible what this fjord can surprise you with.

Text and pictures by Babsi Neubarth

Monday, 02 April 2018

Today we went on our tour at 13:00 from Árskógssandur, first we went north in Eyjafjörður then south criss crossing in search of whales, we went past Hrísey, Kaldbakkur, Grenivík, Hjalteyri, Laufás, Víkurskarð, Svalbarðseyri and ended the tour in Akureyri, unfortunately we did not see any whales on this tour so our passengers received complimentary tickets to come again within two years either for whale watching in Akureyri or Reykjavík, hopefuly they will be able to see the whales next time. 

Text and picture by Gilli.

Sunday, 01 April 2018

Today we sailed out from Árskógssandur, we headed north on the west side of Eyjafjörður, at the opening of Ólafsjörður, another fjord that lies out from Eyjafjörður, we saw a large spout in the distance, as we approached we saw that it was a humpack whale, there were a lot of fisherman's nets in the area making it challenging to follow the whale but we did get get to watch it a few times as it came up to breath and even saw it raise its fluke for us a several times as it went for deep dives. .

Text and pictures by Gilli.

Saturday, 31 March 2018

Today we sailed out from Árskógssandur, as we sailed out of the harbour we were immediately greeted by a pod of harbour porpoises, we then sailed out to the end of Eyjafjörður on the east side in search of larger cetatians, unfortunately we did not see any of the big whales so our passengers received complimentary tickets to come again within two years either for whale watching in Akureyri or Reykjavík, hopefuly they will be able to see the whales next time. 

Text and picture by Gilli.

Friday, 30 March 2018

Today we sailed out from Árskógssandur, we went far north heading far out Eyjafjörður, choppy waves and an undercurrent made some of our passengers sea sick, unforutunately we did not see any of the big whales so our passengers received complimentary tickets to come again within two years either for whale watching in Akureyri or Reykjavík and hope they will be able to see the whales next time. However just before we came back to shore we some some harbour porpoises the smallest of the ceteceans (whales).

Text and picture by Gilli.

Thursday, 29 March 2018

The last few days have been very windy so we were unable to go out whale watching, finally today the weather was beautiful, sun was shining and a calm sea. We got amazingly beautiful views as the sun lit up the fjord and the mountains. We left Akureyri and sailed far and searched for a long time, finally we found some harbour porpoises the smallest of the ceteceans, since we went so far and time had run away from us we came to shore in a small fishing village called Árskógssandur and the passengers were picked up by a bus to go back to Akureyri.
Since we did not see any of the big whales our passengers received complimentary tickets to come again within two years either for whale watching in Akureyri or Reykjavík and hope they will be able to see the whales next time. 

Text and pictures by Gilli.

Sunday, 25th March 2018

Today we headed out the fjord on our 1 o'clock tour ready for our adventure. The weather was good, the sun was up casting a beautiful light on the mountains and brightening up the fjord. As we headed closer to the open sea we had heavy swells and unfortunately some of the passenger got sea sick. We had to sail out the fjord and there we spotted a huge spout that came out of the water. That turned out to be the Sei Whale, the third biggest cetaceans in the sea. It was quite amazing to have this big animal up close and watch it in it's natural habitats. The whale came up often giving us a great time as we stayed with it. What an amazing day here today with this giant creature. 

Text and pictures by Anna Gunnarsdóttir

Saturday, 24th March 2017

Today we sailed out from Akureyri harbor on our 9 o'clock tour. The weather was good and so was the sea condition. Our warm overalls, heated salon and hot drinks available on board were highly appreciated.  As we headed to the open sea we got big swells and unfortunately some of the passenger got sea sick. On our way back in the fjord next to the lighthouse at Hrólfssker we had a very cute sighting. A baby humpback whale approximately one year old was swimming there. We had such a nice time with this individual as it came up every 3-4 minutes to breath, giving us a great time looking at him as he went down for a dive showing us his beautiful fluke. On our way back the sea had calmed so we had a nice boat ride all the way to Akureyri. Great day here in the fjord with the cetaceans. 

Text and pictures by Anna Gunnarsdóttir.

Friday 23th March 2018

Today we sailed out from Árskógssandur on our 1 o'clock tour in a rough sea condition. We had big swells and the boat moved a bit in the waves. As we sailed in the fjord the swells slowly decreased and the boat ride was better. As the sun came up casting a beautiful light on the mountains in our fjord we got to enjoy the stunning view Eyjafjorður has to offer.  However we were quite disappointed not being able to see the whales today but this is nature and it can changes with our warning. We offered our passengers complimentary tickets to come again within two years and hope they will be able to see the whales next time. Tomorrow we are gonna go out again and have a scheduled tour at 9 o'clock in the morning. 

Text and pictures by Anna Gunnarsdóttir

Thursday, 22th March 2018

Today we sailed out on our 1 o'clock tour ready for our adventure, as we sailed closer to the open sea we had heavy swells and unfortunately some of the passenger got sea sick. At the entrance of the fjord we saw a spout and sailed to see what cetaceans we had today. That turned out the be the Sei Whale, the third biggest cetacean in the sea, with the giant creature we had a very good time, the whale came up often to breath showing us it's beautiful big spout. On our way back the sea condition was much better and so was the weather therefor we could enjoy the beautiful view of the fjord on our way back to Árskógssandur. Few minutes before our tour ended we had a nice surprise with a big pod of Harbor Porpoises that were swimming all around the boat. With them we stopped and had such a good time and a great way to end our whale watching tour. 

Text and pictures by Anna Gunnarsdóttir.

Wednesday, 21st March 2018

Today we sailed out on a beautiful day from Árskógsströnd on our 1 o‘clock tour ready for the adventure we had coming. Early in the tour we spotted a Harbor Porpoise and stayed there for little time before we headed further out the fjord to look for other cetaceans.  The sea condition was good today but as we were closer to the open sea we had small swells. We had to sail to the entrance of the fjord to find a whale, what we found there was the third biggest cetaceans in the sea, the Sei Whale. We had such a good time with this individual, and before we knew, another Sei Whale showed up just next to the one we were looking at. They were coming up quite a lot and close to our boat. A wonderful encounter we had today with these amazing giants here in the fjord today. On the way back to the harbor we had a nice spotting of the Harbor Porpoises again in the end of the tour. 

Text and pictures by Anna Gunnarsdóttir.

Tuesday, 20th March 2018

Today we sailed out on our 1 o‘clock tour on a beautiful day from Árskógssandur harbor, as soon as we left the harbor we saw a small pod of the Harbor Porpoises and had a nice time with them before we sailed further out the fjord to look for other cetaceans. We sailed through all the fjord and enjoyed the sightseeing Eyjafjorður has to offer and on our way back in the fjord we had a nice encounter with the big Fin whale north of Hróflssker. It looked like the whale was sleeping because it was logging a bit and coming up very often to breath. Amazing to say the least to have this second biggest animal that has ever lived on earth so close to us. On our way back to the harbor we had quite the surprise when we saw a baby Humpback calve, it was a joy to see this tiny but yet big animal coming up close to the boat. The sea condition was great when we saw the humpback baby calve and we could see the whale when it was swimming under the water and enjoyed this encounter very much. Before we docked the boat in Árskógssandur harbor we saw the Harbor Porpoises again and the passenger could enjoy the last sighting of the tour.

Text and pictures by Anna Gunnarsdóttir

Monday, 19th March 2018

As soon as we sailed out from Árskógssandur harbor on our 1 o‘clock tour, we saw a big pod of Harbor Porpoises just few meters from the boat, a great way to start the tour. We sailed further out and at the end of the fjord we encountered another animal, this time it was the Sei Whale that came up quite a lot. Further out in the sea we saw a really big spout coming out of the water and there we encountered the amazing Blue whale, we had a great time with that individual as the whale came up very close to our boat. To have this biggest animal that has ever lived on the earth up close is magical. As we sailed back into the fjord we had nice surprise close to Hrólfssker were we encountered fifty or sixty White Beaked Dolphins and had a nice time with them, they were very playful often breaching and tail slapping, and with them we saw the Fin Whale, the second biggest animal to have lived on earth. Quite amazing day we had today with these five different species of cetaceans here in our fjord!

Text and pictures by Anna Gunnarsdóttir

Sunday 18th March 2018

This beautiful day we went on our whale watching tour fro Árskógsandur feeling excited what we would find. After sailing out for about 40 minutes we found a whale and not just a whale we found a huge blue whale that was rolling in the surface and came slowly swimming towards us belly up. We stayed with it for over half an  hour. Then the whale had started to be elusive and we went to look for other cetaceans in a area we had seen dolphins and humpback whales the day before.

We dit not find any other species but the tour was really a unique one with this biggest mammal that has ever lived on earth.

Text by Vignir Sigursveinsson

Pictures by Mark Lugtenburg

Saturday 17th March 2018

Today we sailed out from Árskógssandur harbor on our 1 o‘clock tour, the weather was good with some fog covering parts of the fjord. Our warm overalls, heated saloon and hot drinks available on board were good in today‘s weather condition. As we sailed closer to the open sea, the sea state was not the best, we had heavy swell there and unfortunately some passenger did not feel to good. However we had quite the surprise south of Hrólfssker were we encountered hundreds if not close to thousands of Dolphins and with them we had a great time, they were playful jumping and tail slapping all around our boat. On our way back to Árskógssandur we also saw two Humpback whales. With them we had such a nice time, it looked like they were surface feeding when we saw them. They swam all around out boat close to us and because the sea condition was great there, we even got to see them when they were swimming under the water. Amazing day here in our fjord with the cetaceans!

Text and pictures by Anna Gunnarsdóttir

Thursday, 15th March 2018

Today we sailed from Árskógssandur at our 1 o'clock tour ready for the adventure we had ahead of us. The weather was good plus four degree Celsius with no wind. The sea condition was good however as we sailed closer to the open sea the under wave got stronger, we had to go to the entrance of the fjord to find a whale, what we found there was the the biggest animal that has ever lived on this earth the amazing Blue whale and one Minke whale. The sea state there was not the best, it was calm but with heavy swell close to the open sea, and unfortunately some passenger did not feel well, but most could enjoy being very close to this majestic creature. All in all a great day in our fjord today. 

Text and pictures by Anna Gunnarsdóttir and Vignir Sigursveinsson