Friday, 22 May 2026

• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 09:00, 13:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00, 14:00, 20:00

Report from Eldey: Calm waters and almost no wind predicted smooth sailing when we left the harbour this morning. With high visibility we enjoyed the Icelandic mountains all around us as we searched for wildlife. We spotted a blow in the distance but made the decision to continue on because there were already multiple boats with this animal. This turned out to be the right decision because soon we were surrounded by white-beaked dolphins! About 15 to 20 animals were jumping and feeding close to the boat. After 30 minutes we said goodbye to these pods and immediately ran into 10 more white-beaked dolphins! We had a nice look at these ones and then started heading back to Reykjavik. On our way back we spotted a blow again, belonging to a humpback whale! This individual was diving and feeding together with large groups of birds. We observed this feeding frenzy for a while, then realized we were running out of time so we turned on the music and set sail for the harbour. An amazing morning at sea!

- Janiek Schrijer

Report from Eldey: This afternoon we sailed out into a light drizzle and full of anticipation. The tour started off with a short but lovely encounter with 3 harbour porpoises that were passing by us. Shortly after that, we encountered our first whale. It was a humpback whale! We observed a few surface sequences but it took a bit to see a fluke. Eventually we did, and everyone got excited. After we said goodbye to this whale, one of our passengers with some very sharp eyes spotted a pod of 11 white-beaked dolphins. The calm conditions allowed us to get a very good look of their beautiful flank colouring and we could even spot them through the water's surface. The absolute highlight if the trip though was a minke whale! It was a very young animal, no more than 3 metres long. It is already special encountering a minke calf, but it was the curious nature of the animal that made this even more special. We approached carefully and it started showing an interest in the boat. We were beyond giddy observing this whale circling around the boat, doing laps, swimming sideways and upside-down, blowing bubbles and stealing our hearts, taking our breaths away. In our captain Otto's 13 years with Elding, he observed this type of encounter only four to five times. This was a truly special  trip for passengers and crew, and a moment that will stay in our memories forever.

- Hannah Carstens

Atlantic puffin, Artic tern, Northern fulmar, kittiwake, Northern gannet, herring gull