Status 7 pm tour: CANCELLED
Due to unfavourable weather conditions, we have to cancel our Whale Watching tour today at 7 pm (19:00). For more information, please contact us at +354 519 5000 or elding@elding.is.
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: Again very good conditions when we sailed out in the bay and more windy and swells on our way back. This was my last tour with Elding Whale Watching, so this diary entry might turn a bit personal. It started of great with a minke whale early on the tour just outside the lighthouse. We could follow it for a while and got good views. My last minke in Iceland? It turned out it was more out in the bay and we got in contact with another 3 whales further out together with hundreds of gannets diving all around us, magical! Have done at least a couple of hundred tours by now and this last one ended in a very special way. Almost back in harbour we spotted a big blow behind us! We decided to turn around and investigate. Closer to the area we had two minke whales and we were a bit let down, were they minkes tricking us with big blows. We had to turn around home. After a while we saw the blow again even further away so we probably wasn't close to the whale with the big blow. It will remain a mystery and a reason for me to come back sometime to Iceland and whale watch some more. I would like to thank everyone at Elding, this have been an adventure I will never forget. I hope this is not a goodbye, instead a see you later! So for the last time in a while... Over and out!
- Marcus "Mr IKEA" Bergström
Tour at 14:00
Report from Elding: We sailed out on a sea that was less choppy then this morning, but still we recommended all passengers to be prepared and take a sea sickness pill just in case. The sail out in the bay was more pleasant than the ride back, cause we had the wind in our back and the sun was coming out from the clouds. In the beautiful sunlight we saw a pod of white-beaked dolphins in front of another whale watching boat. We moved closer and the dolphins changed direction and started to swim closer to us. Some was even bow riding! I think it was a nice experience for the passengers to see the animals so up close. We sailed further out but couldn't find any larger species until we turned the boat to slowly head back home. It was a minke whale surfacing just 100 m from the boat! It stayed underneath the surface for quite a long time but we saw it 3 more times before we once again turned around and head back to Reykjavik on a choppy sea. Even though we had a roller coaster and some rain on our ride back home the sun was shining when we got back to the harbour and I think everyone was happy after the tour!
- Johanna Bergman
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: Conditions had improved much from the morning tour and the sailing out was very pleasant. On the way back we had more wind and swells, but the first half remained very good. We had one encounter with a minke whale out in the bay and it surfaced around us for a long time. We also saw harbour porpoises, maybe 2-4 porpoises in total. On the way back we also stopped around some other whale watching boats because they had dolphins. Sadly they had moved on when we got there so we remained dolphin less on the tour. Nice minke and surprisingly nice weather. Over and out!
- Marcus Bergström
Tour at 10:00
Report from Elding: Pretty rough conditions on the morning tour. Being that said, I am pretty proud of the passengers today. Not many got seasick and they took very nice pictures of the white-beaked dolphins we met today! at least 10 individuals in two different pods. They were even breaching and tail slapping. I think they were chasing some fish in the water and working together in order to catch. Really amazing to witness such behaviour in the wild! After looking for more species with no success we headed back to the harbour. Rough tour with a big reward in the end!
- Jorge Pascual
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: When we were sailing out this morning, the aftermath of last night's storm were still recognizable out at sea. A strong wind made the sea quite choppy so that we had stay closer to shore and sailed along the Reykjanes peninsula. Luckily it stayed dry so that most of our passengers took advantage of our overalls and stayed outside. After about 30 minutes of sailing we spotted our first minke whale. However it turned out to be a rather shy individual so that only a few passengers could see it. We continued further out and saw a lot of northern gannets and puffins for this time of the year, but no more cetaceans. Therefore we decided to give out complimentary tickets to all our passengers so that they can return with us on another tour within two years. May there be more wildlife in the bay next time.
- Barbara Neubarth
Bird species seen on todays tours include: northern gannet, northern fulmar, manx shearwater, arctic skua, lesser black-backed gull, greater black-backed gull, kittiwake, arctic tern, common guillemot, puffin and eider duck.
Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the Old Habour in Reykjavik today. The wind is coming from the south east and is around 9 s/m. There will be movement on the boat today
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