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.

Tuesday, 27 February 2024

Monday, 26 February 2024

Today we had extreme weather conditions with intense southern wind. Because of this, our journey north was very nice and almost felt calm. We did encounter, however, increasing waves around Hjalteyri. We sailed to the Western side of Hrisey, where the sea was calmer, but unfortunately we did not encounter any cetaceans. We continued searching on our journey South but again to no avail.

Our guests were all given complimentary tickets to come back with us again free of charge, but everyone was very happy with their experience of a proper ‘Icelandic weather’ tour.

Text & Photos: Mac

Departure: 1300 Classic

Sunday, 25 February 2024

Today we had beautiful open skies with excellent visibility. The sea conditions were good with some fair southern wind experienced on our route south.

Unfortunately, on our tour today we were unable to find any cetaceans. We sailed up to Hrisey, with similar news coming in from the other ships in the area. Nonetheless, we had a great tour of the fjord with excellent views and stories of the local geography and history. Our guests were also given our company standard complimentary ticket to come and sail with us again.

Text & Pictures: Mac

Departure: 1300 Classic

Saturday, 24 February 2024

Friday, 23 February 2024

Today, we sailed out in a snowy fjord with a bit of swell while sailing out.
We searched the area very well and encountered many different bird species. Unfortunately, we did not encounter any cetaceans during our tour today.
Of course, we offered all of our passengers a complimentary ticket to join another tour with us for free within the next two years in Akureyri or Reykjavík. And we are looking forward to welcoming them back on board with us soon!

Text & Pictures: Cheyenne
Departure of the day: Classic Tour 09:00 o’clock.

Thursday, 22 February 2024

A great day all round, very flat seas but very poor visibility with very heavy snow.

It was extremely tricky to know where we were at any given point during the tour. We sailed up the East coast up to just north of Hjalteyri with no sightings. The water was amazingly flat, however, and the snow and floating ice made from some beautiful scenes. We sailed a little further north when we saw an ice flat with 3 resting seals; a very cool sight. We just started our journey back when we saw some large groups of Harbour Porpoises and out of know where, a diving Humpback Whale. We did not see this whale again, but, the Porpoises stayed around us for quite some time and in the peaceful silence we could hear them breathing. We then continued on further south after waiting for the whale to return at no avail, when, just East of Hjalteyri, another Humpback appeared. This whale was the same individual as yesterday. It dived around us several times and we had one really nice encounter as the whale rose up from the deep just to the side of the boat with many passengers seeing the rising white wings of the whale as it came up to the surface for its first breath.

All round a great tour with challenging sighting conditions yet still plentiful sightings.

Text & Pictures: Mac

Departure: 1300 Classic

Wednesday, 21 February 2024

The weather today was mixed with mostly flat seas but various velocity winds coming from the West.

Our morning tour started with flat seas all the way out to around the northern tip of Hrisey. At this point after no sightings we turned around and continued searching the Eastern side. We still had not seen anything until around Hauganes we spotted a blow in the very distance along the west coast of the Fjord. This blow was extremely far, approx 6 km, and it wasn’t until some time later we found the whale. It was a Humpback Whale, travelling very fast and staying in extremely shallow water. Our afternoon tour was spent with the same whale, now a little further north, in line with Hjalteyri. The whale during this tour was spending time in water at a depth of less than 10 m, however quite interestingly, was still fluking fairly regularly through a mixture of non fluking dives and high fluking. The tour was then capped off with a very close encounter when the whale decided to pop up next to our boat just before we started sailing back.

Text & Pictures: Mac

Departures: 0900 & 1300 Classic

Tuesday, 20 February 2024

The weather conditions were good today with sunshine and only small waves on the way back.
Today, we spotted two Humpback Whales southeast of Hrísey again!
We had beautiful moments with them! At first, they were swimming very close to each other, but later split and were each swimming on their own with more space between them.
They, however, resurfaced often and even close to us! We could hear them breathe and see the fluke prints on the surface after they lifted their tails to go for their deep dives.
The sailing conditions further north in our fjord were also fantastic, with very calm water.
We had a great tour with many special moments with these two Humpback Whales today and are looking forward to tomorrow!

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