THURSDAY, 8 JUNE 2017

Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: It was a lovely evening, the sun was out, just a view clouds and the sea was calm. The conditions where great! unfortunately we where not so lucky with spotting cetaceans. We spent a lot of time searching and than we saw a blow, it was a minke whale. Everybody had a good look at this one, it showed up a view times close to the boat. With the nice weather conditions and the sun going down I think everybody got some nice pictures. 

- Alexandra Bouman

Tour at 14:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We sailed out for our afternoon tour in great Icelandic summer weather. Everyone enjoyed the sun and the fresh breeze on the outside decks. Unfortunately, the cetaceans were not so cooperative on this tour. The crew spotted a blow in some distance in the beginning of the tour but after we approached the area we were not able to locate the animal again. The same thing happened some time later in another area, when we spotted a minke whale underneath a flock of birds. But when we got closer, again the animal disappeared. So, none of our passengers could actually get a good look at any cetaceans on this tour, so we decided to hand out complimentary tickets for another trip with us. It was still a  very nice sailing adventure but of course it is always so much better when everyone gets to see the animals.

- Nicole Koestner

Tour at 13:00

Report from Eldey: This tour again proved how unpredictable wildlife is. Although the northerly wind was still chilly and fairly strong, we could see blows of whales here in Faxafloi. We first encountered a minke whale which travelled along the boat for a few breaths. As we were heading towards another area where minke whales had been sighted, we spotted another, much larger blow. The blow of a humpback whale! While we stayed with this individual, we also saw another 2 minke whales as well as 3 harbour porpoises that travelled from one side of the bow to the other, so that all of us could see them very nicely.

- Sabrina Voswinkel

Tour at 10:00

Report from Hafsúlan: As the wind was blowing strong from north we advised everyone to put on our warm overalls before we left the harbour. The sea conditions were not as rough as we had expected, although it was very bumpy far out on the bay. This tour was what we like to call a minketastic tour, at least 5 or even 6 minke whales were seen on the tour! Some of them were elusive but others easy to predict and photograph. While watching the minke whales, pods of harbour porpoises showed up. Many pods (at least 20 individuals) of these small cetaceans were seen on the tour, and some even came towards us while we were stop waiting for minke whales to resurface. It almost seemed that it did not matter which direction we looked, a minke or porpoises would pop up. 

- Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir

Tour at 9.00: 

Report from Eldey: There was a cold wind everybody was lucky that they had the overalls. But the sea was pretty calm and even though it was cold the sun was out as well. It took us a bit of time before spotting the first cetaceans. But than we saw a Minke whale, it traveling so it left us soon but we did get a look at it. During waiting for the minke to come up again, some harbour porpoises came to check out the boat. We continued our search and than we came in to a very productive area. There where minkes everywhere! We didn't know where to look, in total about 7 minkes popped up around the boat at different places. Some even came really close to the boat, this way we had a very good look at them. What a tour it was!

- Alexandra Bouman

Birds seen today: arctic tern, common guillemot, razorbill, Atlantic puffin, northern fulmar, little auk, common gull, lesser black-backed gull, black legged kittiwake, arctic skua, great skua, eider ducks, manx shearwater.

 

Tour Status: RUNNING

We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavík today with sunny weather. The sea will be a bit rough today but if you are sensitive to seasickness we do provide seasickness tablets in our ticket office and on board, free of charge! For more information contact elding@elding.is or +354 519 5000.