Tour at 19:00
Report from Elding: We started this tour prepared for rough sea but it wasn´t bad at all. We even enjoyed real sunset with sun shining and nice rainbow from Esja till Reykjavik. First we encountered pod of 3 white-beaked dolphins which were resting, surfacing slowly from time to time. We could get nice look at them so we went further. In distance we saw splashes where another pod of 5-8 dolphins were more active. This ones were very tricky, going for long dives and changing directions but this time we had a chance to see them from close. After a while of sailing we saw another splashes and we went there. This time pod of dolphins was HUGE. More then 20 individuals were playing and jumping and swimming in area. Some of them came very close and start bow riding our boat! We spend there around 15 minutes enjoying. When the time run out we started to heading back still seeing dolphins from time to time. When one passenger came and told me that he saw a whale jumping first I ignored him, thinking that he just saw dolphins. But when I look in that direction I saw a blow. Humpback Whale! Humpback breach one more time and we could see dolphins messing with him. Whale even few times made trumpet blow - that sound mean that whale was very angry. To avoid dolphins whale went for a deep dive, so long that we couldn't´t wait any more. It was amazing tour!
- Ewa Malinowska
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: Sailing out, conditions were actually really good. The wind had calmed down a lot and some of the clouds had also cleared up. As we were sailing through our main sighting area, we spotted some white-beaked dolphins fairly early into the trip. It was a pod of about 6 individuals with some juveniles amongst them, which were jumping out of the water. This was very nice to observe and as they came closer to the boat, people got to see them really well. After staying with them for a while and observing their different behaviours, we decided to head on and look for more cetaceans. This was not that difficult as we spotted a minke whale not too long after, however the more difficult part was spotting it more than once. We had between three to four different sightings of minke whales, however each time, we only saw them for one surface sequence before they disappeared again. Regardless of this, everyone got to see the minke whales and with good conditions throughout the trip, this was a very enjoyable tour!
- Friedrich Rittner
Tour at 14:00
Report from Hafsulan: To our surprise, weather was better then on our previous tour. Wind and waves were much easier to handle and less passengers get sick. With this positve moods we sailed out to discover what is waiting for us hidden in water of bay. Quiet fast we found minke whale. Animal surface twice close to our right side and few fast eyes could take look at it. Few minutes of waiting later another minke appeared in distance behind our boat, but to far for the same individual. After a whale of waiting we went further because this animals went for too long dives. Later sun came and we could beautiful landscape, but no more cetaceans. We know that we could provide our guests better encounters with whales that´s we offered complimentary tickets for one more tour with us!
- Ewa Malinowska
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: Weather conditions improved considerably compared with the previous tour, so that meant only one thing: more chances to spot cetacean. But not only weather conditions were important in our afternoon trip, apart from the crew members it seemed that we had excellent passengers with an extremely sharp eye who were able to see animals quite fast! We started our trip leaving the harbour and we were able to see a small harbour porpoise just crossing by next to the boat, a good sign! Later on, we spotted 3 white-beaked dolphins that were traveling totally relaxed. After enjoying a while with them, we sailed further out and in our way we found a minke whale, surfacing couple of time in front of us. But the last surprise was waiting at the very end. We were almost in the port and a pod of 6 white-beaked dolphins popped-up and they gave us a great show, jumping out of the water backwards, it was an incredible moment! Dolphinitely, it was an awesome afternoon.
-Rodrigo A. Martinez Catalan
Tour at 10:00
Report from Hafsúlan: As expected, we had high waves making the first part of the tour an adventurous ride. But as everyone was warned before coming onto the boat, most passengers knew what to expect and actually enjoyed the rocking in the waves. After about 40 minutes of heading out, we found a very nice, feeding minke whale. It surfaced very frequently, always heading in the same direction, making it easy to predict and to take photos of. After leaving it around 20 minutes later, we encountered a pod of 4-5 milling white-beaked dolphins. While their slow movements made it easy to watch them, it also meant we didn't see much of their body besides their dorsal fins. This seemed a bit disappointing to many, but it is a natural behaviour as, of course, any living being at some point needs to rest. However, only a few minutes later another pod of at first 4 white-beaked dolphins actually found us and played around our boat, diving from one side to the other and bow riding. When they were joined by 3 more dolphins, they headed away, probably traveling to another part of th bay. So we just kept on heading towards Reykjavík, enjoying the wind that the had calmed down and was now in our back.
- Sabrina Voswinkel
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: Sailing out conditions were a little rough. Heading out we were heading into the swell and wind from the west. This looked like it was going to be tough to spot wildlife today, but relatively early, even before reaching our main sighting area, we spotted a minke whale on our right. This guy only popped up maybe two or three times, so we decided to look for more animals. After looking around for a while, we eventually came across some watersplashes, which turned out to be a pod of white-beaked dolphins. This was a pod of 6 individuals which were swimming around and even jumped out of the water at times. This was really cool, but after observing them for a while, we decided to look for more whales. For the rest of the tour, we were trying to get better sightings of some minke whales, however even though we spotted two or three of them, they never really gave us better opportunities to see them up close. Just at the end, we saw a minke come up within 50 meters from the boat, but this one was also ciaosos after one surface.
- Friedrich Rittner
Birds seen on today's tours: Arctic tern, Eider Duck, Northern Gannet, Atlantic Puffin, Manx Shearwater, Northern Fulmar, Common Guillemot and Black-backed Gull.
Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. There is wind coming from the North-West and there will be movement on the boat. We do provide seasickness tablets for you to take before the tour, free of charge! For any further questions please contact our ticket office at +354 519 5000 or elding@elding.is.
