Tuesday, 29 July 2014

Tour at 20:30

Unfortunately we took the difficult decision to cancel this evenings tours due to unfavourable sea conditions and difficult minke whales. Sorry for the inconvenience and if you require further information please come and see us at the office (open till 9pm), call us on +354 519 5000 or email us on elding@elding.is.

Tour at 17:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Although the weather looked quite nice in the harbour the winds were strong when we got out to sea. After about 40 minutes sailing we spotted a Minke whales that popped up very close to the boat! The sea was quite rough but we were lucky that the minke pierced through the surface with it's nose first so we got a good look at the animal. As we were watching the minke we  could see from it's dorsal fin that this was an animal called Humpie, which has been a frequent guest here in faxaflói bay for the past summers. After the minke whale humpie took a deeper dive we continued to search for him, but all of a sudden the 2nd minke showed up in front of the boat! We also got to see that animal for a couple of surfaces before both of the minke's seemed to disappear. This tour was a bit of an Icelandic sea adventure, but we were lucky to see two minke whales!-Freydís Ósk

Tour at 14:00

Report from Elding: The brilliant skies continued over Faxaflói this afternoon, hopefully everyone brought their suncream to Iceland! It was still quite windy though so while we were sailing into the wind it may have felt chilly, as soon as the boat would turn everyone could continue sunbathing as we were sheltered from the wind. We had known of the previous tours struggles to find something so we sailed into a new area beside the fjord Hvalfjörður and the town of Arkranes. This is a really beautiful area as you can see right into the fjord and you are dwarfed by the mountain Arkrafjall. Unfortunately there were no whales or dolphins in this area so we turned offshore to where we normally sail, we did hear about a Minke Whale from another boat far away which when we found that area made just two surfaces. As this wasn´t the sighting we were all hoping for we offered complimentary at the end of tour so everyone could try again within the next two years.

- Jack Ball

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We sailed out in windy conditions today with some rough swells. The sun was shining though so we were quite hopeful that this would be a good tour. We started our search quickly and pretty soon caught sight of a blow and shortly after a dorsal fin belonging to a Minke whale. This individual was very elusive however and we didnt get a good look at it. Continuing on we spotted some more blows and splashes in the distance but to no avail. It seemed that the whales were otherwise occupied this afternoon, perhaps in search of food elsewhere. Despite the difficult tour our passengers did not leave empty handed as we gave them all complimentary tickets valid for two years. We hope they will come again and experience a tour on a better day.

-Ívar Elí

Tour at 10:00

Report from Elding: This was one of those days where you really wished the sky and sea were the same, the sun was shining and the sky was blue but the sea didn´t agree with this. It was quite windy and the sea wasn´t very smooth, so our journey out of the city wasn´t the most comfortable. But we would have a good start to our journey with the animals in the bay, our first sighting was of White-Beaked Dolphins! It was a pod of 5-6 individuals that were intent on being as entertaining as possible, there were very playful. They were constantly bow-riding and jumping around us, it was a really fantastic dolphin experience! After some time with them we moved on and for the rest of the tour our searching was quite difficult but towards the end of the tour we did manage to find a Minke Whale that surfaced several times but it didn't stay for long. The highlight was definitely the dolphins but the blue sky and sunshine weren't bad either!

- Jack Ball

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan and Skrúður: We sailed out with blue skies, strong sun but quite strong winds, which means the sea was rather choppy and our passengers were advised to to take a free sea sickness tablet we offer on board. We had a lot of passengers this morning too, so we took two boats out instead of one for our 09:00 scheduled tour. We encountered 3 pods of White-beaked Dolphins, (1st pod - 4-6 dolphins, 2nd pod - 2-3 dolphins, 3rd pod - 5-7 dolphins). The last pod was the best, even played under and around the boat for a little while. I felt they were socialising, maybe even mating by the way they were moving. Dolphins are always really enjoyable to watch. We also saw a Minke Whale but only a couple of times and I don't think many passengers got to see it. A lovely morning out in the bay, but of course we always hope to show our passengers more whales, nature is nature after all.

- Megan and Arnór Tumi

Birds seen on today's tours include: Northern gannets, puffins, fulmars, arctic terns, arctic skuas, lesser black-backed gulls and kittiwakes.