Tour at 20:30
Report from Elding: It was a wonderful evening! Amazing weather sunny and dry. We left the harbour but it was a bit difficult to find the cetaceans. We heard from other boats that they saw white-beaked dolphins but we could find them. During our search a minke whale came up to the boat really close, we even got to see the front of his noose. And that after a bit we found the white-beaked dolphins. They where giving us a show! Jumping out of the water and flapping their tales, so amazing. We got a call for an other boat that they saw a humpback whale. We headed in their direction and what we saw there was unforgettable! This big whale was feeding he was having a late night snack. He stay in one area and we got to see the baleen plate a couple of times! Also a minke came in the area to feed what a awesome thing to see! We all enjoyed it a lot. We had to say goodbye to the humpback but on the way back we had some really nice music. It was a night to never forget.
- Alexandra Bouman
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: This was another one of those trips that showed how different the weather can be if you leave Reykjavík to go out into Faxafloi. We started with rain and clouds, but as we moved on, were greeted with sun shining on our faces. We needed about one hour to get out to where the fish seemed to be today. And this area was amazing! We had thousands of seabirds feeding and flying just everywhere. Our first encounter was a minke whale, one of the total of 5 that we saw throughout the trip. It surfaced 3 times, twice really nice and close. At first we wanted to stay with it longer, but then came to know of a different species up ahead that we definitely went straight towards. It took us a while to actually find it, but when we did, it was just beautiful. A juvenile humpback whale just made our day. It came right to the boat, less than 2 metres away at times. It circled us several times and showed numerous lunge feeds as well. To top it off, it did a full body breech, coming completely out of the water, less than 30 metres away. We were absolutely awestruck. After an hour of pure joy with this individual around us and three minke whales showing up inbetween, we left the humpback to be by itself again. We wanted to start our direction back towards Reykjavík, but instead stayed a little while longer as we encountered a pod of first 3, later on joined by another two, making it 5 white-beaked dolphins. They were leaping out of the water and shortly even came very close to the bow of the boat. When time was really way past the time we should leave, we reluctantly turned our boat towards the harbour. Even on our way back, we encountered 2 pods of harbour porpoises, first seeing five of them and later another three. What a tour! My cheeks still hurt from smiling.
- Sabrina Voswinkel
Tour at 14:00
Report from Hafsulan: Most of this tour we sail under shining sun, the swell was bothering us at the beginning but with time the waves get smaller. We started our journey going in direction where other boats had seen whales but it started to be interesting before we get there. Two minke whales, one after another, popped up suddenly next to our boat. When we stopped to look for them we were unsuccessful to find them again. Luckily, we didn´t need to wait long to found ourselves in area full of minke whales. There was at least 6 of them, some of them were surfacing very slowly, close to boat giving us perfect view for their slender bodies. When we were sure that all of us took a look at them, we went further looking for a humpback whale. Unfortunately this one was elusive and after showing fluke once it disappeared. At the end, another minke whale swim just in front of us, just on the surface giving us amazing view!
- Ewa Malinowska
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: As we sailed out on our 13:00 trip, sea conditions were even calmer than on the previous trip. When we were heading out towards the area where we saw the humpbacks before, we spotted a minke whale and some 2 - 3 harbour porpoises. As we were waiting for the minke whale to resurface, we actually spotted a second one in the same area. These minkes surfaced a few times, which was awesome and everyone go to see them quite well. The whales became a little elusive, so we continued sailing towards the ´humpback area´. On our way there, we spotted some white-beaked dolphins on our left leaping out of the water. This was quite awesome to look at, so we decided to turn and try and get closer. We didn´t have to go far, because the dolphins actually swam our way and soon enough they were very close to us and a pod of 5 individuals were swimming around us! Sadly they left us shortly after, so once again we continued our way out towards where some of the other whale watching vessels had spotted a humpback. Unfortunately, we never got to see the humpback whale, but the trip was still amazing. We kept seeing minke whales here and there on our way through the sighting area and on our way back, we actually got to see the white-beaked dolphins again. After passing them they even joined us to ride our wake for a little while.
Tour at 10:00
Report from Hafsúlan: Today was the day of the minke whales! After about 30 min of sailing, these small whales started to pop up every where around us! Large flocks of feeding birds indicated that there was a lot of food around and this is what also the minke whales were after! Once we could see one of them skimming though the water at the surface with it's mouth open. In nice sea conditions and with the sun shining through the clouds here and there, it was a nice day to enjoy the minkes. Two times we also came across small groups of harbour porpoises and actually got a pretty nice look at them as they were swimming around us for a couple of minutes. In total, we saw around 8 porpoises and probably 7-8 minke whales as well!
- Hanna Michel
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: What a great day to start the day. Although the sky was covered with thick clouds it felt rather warm on the bay, and the only movement on the boat was due to long swells coming from the opening of the bay. The visibility was fantastic, at least 7 minke whales and 15 harbour porpoises were seen throughout the tour. Two humpback whales were also seen on the tour, we spent at least 20 minutes with each of them. One of the humpbacks gave us an exciting show when it started tail lobbing, making loud noises when the fluke splashed on the surface. Although at least 7 minke whales were seen throughout the whole tour the best ones were seen on our way back when two minke whales continued feeding underneath a large flock of sea birds next tour our boat. In between the minke whales we could see harbour porpoises feeding, forming splashes when they surfaced fast. The last sighting of the tour was between the island only 15 minutes from harbour, that was the last pod of harbour porpoises that surfaces slowly, making it easy for us to photograph their small bodies!
- Sigurlaug Sigurdardottir
Birds seen today: Arctic Tern, Common Guillemot, Atlantic Puffin, Northern Gannet, Arctic Skua, Northern Fulmar, Common Gull, Black-backed Gull, Storm Petrel, razorbill, manx shearwater, and eider ducks.
Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. There is little wind but there could be some movement on the boat out on Faxabay. If you are 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.
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