Status Tour at 19:00: CANCELLED
Unfortunately we have to cancel our Whale Watching tour in the Midnight sun due to unfavorable sea condition. If you have any questions please don´t hesitate to contact us at +354 519 5000 or elding@elding.is
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: The weather looked good on the way out and was pretty good throughout the beginning of the tour. On our way out we spotted a minke whale pretty close to the boat. This minke was clearly traveling in the opposite direction to our boat and it was moving pretty fast. Unfortunately for that reason most of the passengers did not manage to spot the animal. We sailed further out and had to look very hard for any sightings, eventually we manage to find a very cute pod of harbor porpoises, around 5-7 individuals. This pod surfaced out of nowhere very close to the boat but was also very quick to disappear. On our way to Reykjavík we sailed back against the wind. Most of our passengers didn't manage to see ant whales and only a poor sighting of harbor porpoises so we decided to give out complementary tickets, which are valid for the next two years. Hopefully everyone will have a chance to join us again in searching for cetaceans.
- Katrín Björnsdóttir
Tour at 14:00
Report from Elding: The weather did not change from this morning, only the wind was blowing from a little bit more in the North, but mainly still calm sea and some wind ! What did change drastically though were the sightings. Only one species was found on this tour, but we got to spend a delicious moment with it. About one hour after sailing straightforward to the West, we met a pod of at least a dozen of white-beaked dolphins ! And the best part of it were two adorable tiny calves that were surfacing as fast as a lighting, and sometime practicing some jumps out of the water. Some adults of the pods also joined in impressive full body breach ! The whole group was moving together, surfacing synchronically, changing direction and going under our boats. It was hard to tell if at some point they were feeding or if they just became curious of us while staying cautious. Some hectic movements were happening, but in any cases we had a great time following them. Ultimately we parted with them to find other cetaceans, but our research was fruitless. Sometime you can't have everything, but we did have a special encounter with the dolphins and merciful sea conditions, which is plenty enough to spend quality time out at sea !
- Guillaume Calcagni
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: It was a windy and slightly damp day as we set sail into Faxafloi. The sea was a bit wavey but nothing to fret about. We used our eyes and binoculars to search for animals and it took us a long time to locate these cetaceans. As wildlife can sometimes be a bit challenging to find as they are constantly on the move and actively feeding or traveling ect. After a long time of searching a few black fins of the white-beaked dolphins surfaced just 200 meters in front of us! The dolphins came up multiple times and swam towards us and then right under the boat!! It was incredible to watch these beautiful animals surfacing all around us. Unfortunately as time was running out we did have to turn around and start heading back to harbour. As we were only able to watch these wonderful animals for a short time we decided to give out complimentary tickets to allow our passengers to come on another one of our tours for free. So that they can have a better look at these fantastic animals.
- Tess Hudson
Tour at 10:00
Report from Elding: A grey color invaded the bay today, as clouds covered the entirety of the sky. Despite some fog in the distance hiding the landscape, our visibility on the sea remained fairly good, and the sea was pleasantly calm. Only the wind was not in our favor, and we got showered a tiny bit by some temporary rains. Overall, we had surprisingly nice conditions, even if the weather forecast was not looking bright ! It allowed us to have an easy trip until we encountered a minke whale. It has been difficult at some point to follow it, as it was only showing a small portion of its body while surfacing. But with patience and perseverance we succeed in getting close views of this animal. After staying long enough, we went further away and found a pod of 8-10 harbour porpoises. Going against the stereotypes that we have about them, these porpoises showed quite a lot, dashing out of the sea in our vicinity. They were so small that most of the time they were covered by the water splashes they generated by surfacing quickly, but we could steal glances at their tiny body. Then the rest of our tour consisted in going back home facing the wind, giving us the opportunity to test our resolve in an Iceland climate.
- Guillaume Calcagni
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: Although the forecast had looked unfortunate our full boatload of passengers were only briefly showered with rain on this tour. We had been traveling around 40 minutes when we encountered a pod of 5-6 white-beaked dolphin, including some calves in the group! Perhaps due to being protective over their young ones these dolphins were behaving quite elusively. Although we did have some close encounters, perhaps no more than 50 m from the boat, we were struggling to keep up with their constant turning and so decided to leave this pod after 10 minutes. It was a little harder sailing from there in the bay, every time we heard of the radio of a sighting and headed towards it we were unlucky and didn´t see them ourselves. We headed back a little early, giving us time to stop if we encountered anything - and encountered animals we did! We came across 2 minke whales very close to the boat on the way home and were able to stay with them a little while. Really close sightings of this often elusive whale really made the rain worth it, and the passengers left with a smile on their face.
- Ophelie Humphyre
Bird species seen on today's tour include: northern gannet, common guillemot, northern fulmar, manx shearwater, arctic skua, great skua, atlantic puffin & lesser black-backed gull.
Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out today from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik. The wind has been picking up over the night so there will be movement on the boat out in Faxa Bay.
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