Status Tour 5pm and 8:30pm: CANCELLED
Unfortunately we have to CANCEL the tour at 5pm due to stormy weather and rough seas. Please contact our office at +354 519 5000 or elding@elding.is.
Tour at 14:00
Report from Elding: The sea conditions were getting worse, on the way it it felt smooth but at the sighting grounds it was very rocky. The first thing we noticed when we were reaching the sighting grounds were large splashes, we were still far away and therefore could not see what caused them but the other boats informed us it had been an breaching minke whale. The splashes soon stopped which meant we had to start searching for other animals around us. Another minke whale was spotted but only 2 times before it disappeared. Two pods of harbour porpoises swam passed our boat, but they were not so easy to spot between the swells. We sailed between a few flocks of birds in hope to find cetaceans surfacing close by. One humpback whale surfaced about 500 meters from the boat, after waiting for the humpback to resurface for a while the sea conditions had gotten worse, therefore we decided to start heading back to land. On the way back we spotted one minke whale, we tried following it but soon gave up so we could get back to land. Although we saw three cetacean species on the tour we never got good looks at the animals and therefore decided to offer everyone a return ticket for another tour. We hope to see most of you again on another tour and that you will be luckier next time with the animals.
-Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: Sea conditions were fairly rough with windspeeds between 10 and 15 m/s and weather was overcast. On our way out we spotted a single surface of one harbour porpoise, unfortunately most of our passengers missed it. It took a little while to spot the next cetaceans, but worth the wait, we spotted BREACHING MINKE WHALES(!!!) about 20 minutes later. They were breaching a bit in the distance and it was a little difficult to identify them at first; but getting closer, we saw that it was a minke whale. Sadly the whale stopped this behaviour as we got closer, but we were able to spot this individual as well as a second one around this area for a couple of surfaces. Waiting for them to resurface, we spotted maybe the same whales breach again at our 12 o´clock 500-1000m away. This was absolutely awesome and after getting a bit closer we saw them surface again a couple of times, but they stopped breaching once again. As we made our way back to Reykjavik, the wind picked up even more and we had a quite adventurous return. Unfortunatley, some people became sea sick on this trip, but I hope that all were able to take back some great memories from this tour.
- Friedrich Rittner
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: We sailed out in Faxaflói fearing that the conditions will make the whale watching a complicate task this morning, but we found out that, actually, it was much nicer than expected. Although the wind was picking up more and more throughout the tour, the only problem that threatened the spotting was indeed an incessant rain that was falling during almost the 3 hours of the tour. Nonetheless we spotted a few blows in the distance after one hour of sailing! After approaching the area, a humpback whale came up on our back and allowed us to follow it for a few minutes. Almost at the same time a couple of harbour porpoises swam quite close to our boat and even a minke whale decided to pop up as well less than 100 m away. After this moment we scarcely saw any other cetaceans, but still was a great experience to see 3 out of the 4 most common species of this bay swimming so close to one each other.
- Alberto Alejandro
Bird species seen on todays tours: arctic skua, arctic tern, atlantic puffin, northern gannet, common guillemot, black guillemot, razorbill, manx shearwater, black-legged kittiwake, great black-backed gull, lesser black-backed gull, herring gull, northern fulmar, and eider duck.
Status Tour 9am, 1pm and 2pm: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. There is wind coming from the South East and there will be movement on the boat. On board there are heated indoor areas but we also have overalls to keep you warm out on deck. For those sensitive to motion sickness we do provide seasickness tablets to take before the tour, free of charge! For any further information please contact our ticket office at elding@elding.is or by phone at +354 519 5000.