Tour at 20:30
Report from Elding: A warm but cloudy evening whale watching tour marked the perfect ending to the day. The sea was slightly rough but our tough passengers payed no mind. another vessel was out on the bay and called us to let us know of a humpback they were with, 30 minuetes later and a very quick sighting of a minke whale and breaching white-beaked dolphins in the distance we arrived. A bit of a grumpie humpback whale, going for 7-8 minute dives and always in teh distance. We were all surprised but a sudden breach!, which everyone on board caught but I missed and just saw the big splash. We stayed with the humpback for abour 30 minutes and were able to get some nice pictures of the fluke and blow, Alas, we had to leave and just as we made the decision a pod of 4-6 white-beaked dolphins got our attention breaching in a feeding frenzy. A very nice ending to the day.
- Megan whittaler
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: Hands down my best tour as a guide ever. The sun was beaming down on us as we left port, despite the fact that it was a bit cooler outside, everyone was outside. We went straight out to where we saw the humpbacks before and were soon rewarded by a blow - it was our juvenile humpback whale. While waiting for it to surface, we were soon distracted by a pod of 4 white-beaked dolphins who started breaching right next to us! They didn´t stay with us long, which was fine because the humpback resurfaced right behind us, accompanied by a minke whale. We just had no idea where to look. Our attention was soon monopolised by the humpback whale though as it started breaching less than 100 metres from the boat. We counted 24 breaches! In between the breaches it also had a long sequence of pectoral-slapping. It was magnificent! What an absolutely perfect trip!
-Rachel Pool
Tour at 14:00
Report from Hafsulan: Beautiful afternoon! The weather was great, the wind had gone down and the sun was shining! Perfect weather for whale watching and what a tour it was! It took us a bit of time before spotting our first cetacean but that we saw two minke whale swimming next to each other, so nice. We continued our tour and we found a humpback whale he showed his fluke a few times and he stayed close to the boat. wail watching him we saw a lot of splashes in the distance. White-beaked dolphins where coming our way. It was a big pod of about 10 dolphins. We stayed a bit with them they where so playful and cute. We tuned around to go home but found an other humpback whale this was staying close to the surface and we got to see the white fins under the water. And the end he show his fluke to wave us goodbye. What a tour nice tour it was!
- Alexandra Bouman
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: Despite the sunshine when we returned after our first trip this morning, when we left this afternoon, the sky was almost overcast. Just after the lighthouse though, we were greeted by bright sunshine, which brought our spirits up just in time to see our fist minke whale. But the animal was being elusive so we decided to go further out into the bay where we heard reports of a humpback whale in the area. Sure enough, we saw a blow in the distance and as we got closer it breached right in front of us! It was amazing. It was a juvenile we had spotted earlier in the day and also on previous tours in the past week. After staying with the humpback for a while we decided to leave as there were quite a few boats coming around. Even further out in the bay we found a massive flock of birds and several minkes! There were at least four of them all feeding around the boat. As we turned around home, we encountered a pod of milling white-beaked dolphins. What a fantastic tour, so many great encounters, it was unbelievable!
-Rachel Pool
Tour at 10:00
Report from Hafsulan: When we started our tour we looked into a dark gray sky and as soon as we had left the harbour it started raining. So, everyone was kind of expecting a cold and wet tour. But as soon as we reached our main sighting area the rain stopped and the sun came out. But the even bigger surprise was our first sighting of the day: A humpback whale breaching out of the water to welcome us with a huge splash. Wow!!! This individual was actually quite an entertainer. It stayed with us for more than 30 minutes and showed many of the behaviours, humpback whales are known for: Lunge feeding, logging, creating big blows, and of course showing its beautiful fluke. After we left this animal, we spotted a big group of about 9-12 white beaked dolphins. With the engines turned off, we also spent some time with these beauties, watching them milling in front of the boat and listening to their blows. On our way back to Reykjavik we also spotted a minke whale which surfaced twice in parallel to us. What a great finish of this amazing tour!
- Nicole Koestner
Tour at 9:00
Report from Eldey: If you didn´t know, then you know after this tour that Iceland's weather is unpredictable. While we started with rain, we headed into the sunshine and later returned into the clouds. During the entire trip we had a fairly flat sea which made it good spotting conditions. On our way through Faxafloi, we were greeted by two harbour porpoises traveling by. Short after, two very curious white-beaked dolphins played around the bow of our boat for at least 5 minutes and were so close that it made you want to reach out to touch them. Once we left them and headed a bit further, we encountered a minke whale that appeared to be feeding. It also came up to the surface numerous times, most of those within or less than 100m of the boat. Although it was very nice to see it, we spotted larger blows and flocks of birds in the distance that we headed to take a closer look at. Once we got there is was, as assumed, two humpback whales, most likely a mother and a juvenile, feeding. The juvenile was just amazing, lunge feeding and coming within 10 m of our boat to look at us on more than one occasion. We enjoyed their presence for almost one hour until we really had to turn back towards Reykjavík. However, once turned around, we had anothern pod of at least 7, if not more, white-beaked dolphins and a minke whale. What a tour, huge flocks all around us and four different species encountered. That was nature at it's best.
-Sabrina Voswinkel
Birds seen today: Arctic Tern, Common Guillemot, Bruenich's Guillemot, Atlantic Puffin, Northern Gannet, Arctic Skua, Northern Fulmar, Common Gull, Black-backed Gull and Storm Petrel, razorbill, manx shearwater, eider ducks.
Tour status: RUNNING
We are sailing today from the Old Harbour in Reykjavík. Sea conditions are favorable and the weather is calm. For more information you can contact us by email, elding@elding.is or by phone +354 519 5000.
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