Monday, 18 March 2024

Today’s weather was mild. There was a moderate northern breeze creating some small waves, but, a considerable swell. The visibility was okay and improved throughout the tour.

We sailed to Hjalteyri where we encountered a Humpback Whale. This whale was behaving very different to the previous weeks and appeared to be sleeping/resting. The whale moved very slowly, breathing very frequently, and never showed the fluke. Because of this, we were able to stay very close to the whale, without moving and without disturbing it. The whale maintained this behaviour for the whole tour, giving us confidence in the fact we had not reduced its vital resting period. We witnessed many close sights of thew whale and managed to hear the breath very clearly on almost every surfacing.

Text & Pictures: Mac

Departure: 1300 Classic

Sunday, 17 March 2024

Today’s tour was unfortunately cancelled due to unfavorable and unsafe weather conditions.

Saturday, 16 March 2024

The weather and sailing conditions were incredible today! Great visibility, a flat fjord and no wind. A super beautiful, sunny day.
During our tour, we encountered several pods of Harbor Porpoises as well as many different bird species. We additionally spotted one Humpback Whale south of Hjalteyri! We had great encounters with this whale and saw it plenty of times as it resurfaced over and over again after very short dives in between! We saw it close to us and heard its breath, when it surfaced. These encounters were just stunning in the calm scenery of Eyjafjörður.
We truly enjoyed the weather, scenery and of course the cetaceans on our tour today!

Text & Pictures: Cheyenne
Departures of the day: Classic Tour 13:00 o’clock.

Friday, 15 March 2024

Our weather conditions today were near perfect with glass-like seas and no wind. We did, however, have fairly low visibility with low hanging cloud.

Our first sighting was the Humpback Whale we have names ‘Camel'. It was feeding in the area just around from the harbour in front of the industrial area. The whale was seen moving frequently around this area and up towards Svalbarðseyri showing prime evidence of feeding activity. We saw several surface straining behaviours and even a singular lunge feed where the whale surfaced with its mouth still agape.

We traveled slightly further out in search of our second whale, and we found it located in the shallows around the green buoy. Here was our second Humpback Whale, Magnea. This whale was seen traveling quickly, again seemingly chasing food, on the edge of the shallow water just a few meters deep. Because the water was so shallow, we did not see any fluking behaviours, but, we were able to track the whales movements via the footprints it was leaving on the surface from swimming so shallow. We also had some prime evidence of feeding here in the form of surface straining. As we decided the leave we observed a very strange behaviour, the whale lunged out of the water to feed and then followed this with a series of head stands sitting motionless with the fluke out of the water. The whale then moved the fluke back and forward several times before going up and down in the water. This continued for several minutes.

Text & Pictures: Mac

Departure: 1300 Classic

Thursday, 14 March 2024

Our weather conditions today were overcast with a moderate, cold, eastern wind.

Today we encountered both Camel and Magnea; the two Humpback Whales we have been seeing across recent weeks and have subsequently named. Once again they were in the place we have frequently encountered them, between Svalbarðseyri and our harbour with a great deal of movement in this area throughout the tour. Magnea demonstrated prime evidence of feeding in the form of surface straining, and on one occasion almost a lunge feed like surface. Magnea appeared to be chasing some sort of fish close to the surface, changing directions frequently; exploding up and straining; and rarely fluking. Camel was behaving slightly different, with shorter inter-breath intervals, however, showing us its black and white fluke frequently.

Text & Pictures: Mac

Departure: 1300 Classic

Wednesday, 13 March 2024

Weather: Overcast skies with poor visibility; heavy snowing; and minor norther wind creating small breaking waves.

On our today we encountered 2 Humpback Whales located between our harbour and Svalbarðseyri. These individuals are once again the same 2 we have been seeing in recent weeks, showing consistent behaviours with previous encounters. Our first whale was observed with numerous high flukes while the second whale, Magnea was only seen fluking on one occasion. This fluke, however, was quite interesting in that the whale dived very slowly not arching much of the back but then almost stopping while horizontal to wave the fluke back and forward several times. An interesting display of elegance.

Text & Pictures: Mac

Departure: 1300 Classic

Tuesday, 12 March 2024

Another great day out on the fjord! Fantastic, calm weather conditions and good visibility.
During our tour, we encountered several pods of Harbor Porpoises as well as two different Humpback Whales around Svalbarðseyri! The whales showed similar behavior as they did in the recent days, mostly coming up for one or two breaths before arching their backs to go for a deep dive.
Our absolute highlight of the day was when one of the Humpbacks lifted its tail really high above the surface, indicating a deep dive, just before it breached!!! We got to see one full body breach close to us. It was simply amazing, a moment of a lifetime.
We are extremely excited for the tour tomorrow!

Text & Pictures: Cheyenne
Departures of the day: Classic Tour 13:00 o’clock.

Monday, 11 March 2024

Our conditions today were mostly flat with a slight northern wind and chill in the air.

We sailed to just north of Svalbarðseyri on the East coast. Here, we encountered our first Humpback Whale. We stayed with this whale while it swam north and then west across the fjord, rarely fluking, often with large breath intervals. We saw primary evidence of feeding with a sights of surface straining. We also saw a second Humpback here that was swimming south, however, harder to spot and also not fluking. Some time later our whales converged and we were once again treated to repeated tail throwing and simultaneous breaching from both whales. An incredible display. It has started to seem as thought my streak of missing the breaching was over, however, of course most of the breaching today happened while I was fiddling my camera. Typical.

Text & Pictures: Mac

Departure: 1300 Classic

Sunday, 10 March 2024

The weather today was absolutely beautiful, clear open skies, no wind, glassy seas and kinda warm.

The weather was not the only high point of our tour today, however, as just around the corner from the harbour, opposite the Heiti Foss, we spotted a Humpback Whale. This whale has been a regular around this area and today we followed it on its usual circle of our harbour. Today, however, the whale decided to come super close to the harbour, swimming just meters from our office.

Text & Pictures: Mac

Departure: 1300 Classic

Saturday, 9 March 2024

Today was perfect. The weather was calm and good, with a fjord like a mirror!
We encountered two Humpback Whales just south of Svalbarðseyri. One of them was observed lunge feeding and we stayed with this whale for a bit, had fantastic and extremely close encounters, before sailing further out to continue our search.
On our way back, we encountered the same Humpback Whale again just north of Akureyri, where it suddenly began breaching!!! It breached continuously, even close to our boat. Just as we decided to sailing back to town, it actually breached right in front of our boat! This was one of the closest breaches I have ever seen and everybody on board was absolutely excited.
As we then continued our way south towards Akureyri, we encountered the other Humpback Whale just north of the warm waterfall, where it also started to breach! We could hardly believe our eyes: Two Humpbacks breaching within one tour, so close to each other!
A day that left us speechless and truly a tour to remember for everyone on board! Wow.

Text & Pictures: Cheyenne
Departure of the day: Classic Tour 13:00 o’clock.

Friday, 8 March 2024

We had good overall weather conditions today and the wind only picked up a little bit as we sailed further out.
Just after leaving our harbor, we spotted the first blow, which belonged to a Humpback Whale! This whale was just north of Akureyri. A second Humpback was found just south of Svalbarðseyri! We were lucky to observe both whales surface feeding, resurfacing very often after shorter deep dives. We had plenty of nice encounters and even some very close ones! What a sight! It was truly exciting to see the whales feed, coming up to the surface with an open mouth in the process of their lunge feeding several times!
Along the way, we also encountered several pods of Harbor Porpoises in different locations as well as plenty of different bird species!

Text & Pictures: Cheyenne
Departure of the day: Classic Tour 13:00 o’clock.

Thursday, 7 March 2024

The day today was incredible flat, comparatively warm with open skies.

We spotted our first whale before our tour even started today, a Humpback Whale in the harbour as we were boarding the boat. Unfortunately once it came to leaving, this whale disappeared and it wasn’t until we were further out we could once again see it to our 6 in the distance. This was not to worry, however, as we had found another Humpback around the Svalbarðseyri. There were many fishing the boats here and the whale was doing its usual behaviour from previous weeks; large gaps and distance between each breath, rarely fluking.

Text & Photos: Mac

Departure: 1300 Classic

Wednesday, 6 March 2024

We had fabulous weather conditions today with a mirror like fjord and hardly any wind!
South of Svalbarðseyri, we spotted two Humpback Whales and several pods of Harbor Porpoises!
The Humpbacks were feeding actively, always surfacing frequently after very short deep dives. They mostly arched their backs to indicate their deep dives, but also showed us their unique flukes several times!
We got to have a few incredible and close encounters when the whales just came up to breathe right in front of us, passing our boat, before diving deeper again! What an experience!
We simply cannot get enough of watching the cetaceans here in Eyjafjörður and are excited for our tour tomorrow!

Text & Pictures: Cheyenne
Departure of the day: Classic Tour 13:00 o’clock.

Tuesday, 5 March 2024

Our tour today was a roller coaster, however, the weather stayed consistent; warm and overcast with a minor southern wind.

We sailed out to just North of Svalbarðseyri where we had our first encounter, we could see a blow near another whale watching boat operating in the area, but, decided to first focus on a second blow we spotted around the same latitude to the West. Both were Humpback Whales. We stayed with our first whale while it slowly made its way travelling to the middle of the fjord where both whales convened. From this point we saw both whales and now both were showing their flukes with more typical dives. We kept our distance, maintaining a very slow speed with minimal moving, but, where treated to a close encounter when the whale emerged around 20 meters from the side of our boat. As we were stationary the whale swam right below us out of sight and reappeared in spectacular fashion via a spinning breach on our right side. An amazing sight. The whale then continued its previous behaviour shallow diving and lifting the fluke just above the behaviour. The whale maintained a very calm behaviour throughout and showed no signs of distress or discomfort. A great encounter.

*Here, I have attached the first pictures, kindly taken and given use of permsion by one of our passengers Hugo. The last picture in the series is the picture I captured of the same moment, whoops.

Text & Photos: Mac

Departure: 1300 Classic

Monday, 4 March 2024

We had a beautiful day today! Mostly calm weather, only a little wind throughout our tour, plus degrees and sunshine!
As we sailed out on our tour in the afternoon, we spotted the first blow just by Svalbarðseyri! It turned out to be one Humpback Whale, which we spotted there. It resurfaced frequently and we got to enjoy watching this Humpback for a while, before heading further north to take a little round in the fjord.
Meanwhile, we saw plenty of different bird species and of course the wonderful scenery of Eyjafjörður!
On the way back, we encountered the same Humpback Whale again by Svalbarðseyri, just north of Akureyri. We got to watch the whale lunge feed and surface often, once again!
What a great day with nice Humpback Whale encounters during our tour today!

Text & Pictures: Cheyenne
Departure of the day: Classic Tour 13:00 o’clock.

Sunday, 3 March 2024

Our first encounter came just next to the harbour across from Heiti Foss. Here we saw a Humpback Whale just a couple meters from the edge of the docks. We stayed with this whale for a while and moved slowly with it as it traveled north. Often shallow diving, with large breath intervals and rarely fluking. We then left this whale once it had reached an area with many birds and a few fishing boats, just south of Svalbardseyri. We traveled slightly further north in search of a rumored second whale but did not find it, we turned around near the green buoy and here in the distance we spotted the second whale. The whale was by Dagvaðareyri and here we saw Camel, a whale we have been frequently seeing in very shallow water. And today was no different; the whale was once again in around 7 meters of water very close to the shore. We watched the whale moving around frequently shallow diving and were treated to a very unexpected lunge feed as the whale exploded out of the water, mouth agape, swarmed by birds. The whale did this just the once and later finally showed us the fluke as we were gearing up to head back.

Text & Photos: Mac

Departure: 1300 Classic

Saturday, 2 March 2024

Today had clear open skies and a slight southern wind making for an almost flat sea condition.

Our first encounter was right off the bat as we encountered 2 Humpback Whale just around the corner from the harbour. It was very difficult to know which whale was which and we only photographed 1 individual, however, there was confirmation of two whales. The whale was mostly shallow diving with large distances and time between each breath. The whale also frequently moved around changing directions and spending a great deal of time in extremely shallow water, just a couple meters from the shore. We left the whale here and traveled a little further north to the green buoy, to see show off some of the fjord, before circling back for the harbour.

Text & Photos: Mac

Departure: 1300 Classic

Friday, 1 March 2024

Today’s tour was cancelled due to unsafe weather conditions.

Thursday, 29 February 2024

Today’s’ weather was mixed with minimal wind throughout but decreasing visibility and heavy snow. The temperature today was incredible cold and this meant thick sea ice in and around the harbor.

We saw a Humpback Whale in both tours, the first being just around the corner and into the harbor. This encounter this morning then developed into us slowly following the whale as it made its way north up the fjord. The whale was strictly traveling in its behaviour all morning, rarely fluking, and we left it just north of Svalbarseyri. Our afternoon tour was spent with the same whale, however, this time we did not encounter the whale until slightly further north; around the green buoy. The whale was behaving strangely, shallow diving and disappearing for large stretches in very shallow water. We later rediscovered the whale just south of Hjalteyri and here we had much more consistent sightings and regular fluking.

Surprisingly on our way home we stumbled upon another Humpback by Svalbardseyri, however, this was an unseen individual not seen on either tour.

Text & Pictures: Mac

Departures: 0900 & 1300 Classic

Wednesday, 28 February 2024

The weather was good today! It was cold and we had to break some ice in the harbor, but we had calm conditions on this great tour in Eyjafjörður!
While we were sailing out, we spotted a blow just by Svalbarðseyri! It was a pleasant surprise to encounter one Humpback Whale this far in our fjord! We were very excited.
We got to watch the Humpback resurface numerous times, with only short deep dives in between. It was heading south towards Akureyri and we got to watch it over and over again.
We had a great day and even got to see the sun today!

Text & Pictures: Cheyenne
Departure of the day: Classic Tour 13:00 o’clock.