Tour at 19:00 Report from Elding: It was a beautiful sunny evening on sailing out into the bay. The sea was fairly flat and the sky wonderfully clear allowing us a beautiful view of the setting sun. Not long after our search began we encountered our first cetacean, a minke whale. This animal surfaced in a wonderful surface sequence before going for a deeper dive. On heading out further into the bay we encountered another minke that surfaced beautifully infront of us, we could even see its rostrum popping out of the water for us. The landscape was bathed in a rainbow of light which was just magical and made searching a delight. A few harbour porpoises popped up to greet us and played around in the surf while we watched! This usually shy animal indulged us in some wonderful surfaces before disappearing beneath the waves. We were then lucky enough to encounter not only one but another two minke whales. These minkes were surfacing together, coming up many times in very slow surface sequences. What a lovely way to end the tour! Bjarni our famous musician kept us wonderfully entertained on the very smooth and relaxing sail back to Reykjavik.
- Tess Hudson
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: It was a beautiful evening, sunny no wind and the sky was pretty. The condition where perfect for whale watching. During the tour we got to see at least 8 minke whales and maybe more! They where all around us, so awesome! We found the first one soon after we left the harbour and than we got to see more in the distance. We followed a few of them and than other came up. Because the condition were so nice even the once that where not close to the boat we saw them very good. On the way back 2-3 harbour porpoises came really close to the boat so nice to be able to see these cute little animals. It was a beautiful tour, what a nice way to spent an evening in Reykjavik.
- Alexandra Bouman
Tour at 14:00
Report from Hafsúlan: Winds had picked up a little, which made it more chilly than in our previous tour but with overalls all was fine. We encountered a total of 6 minke whales during this tour, although all of them, except the last two, were moving through the area alone. Our first 4 minke whales were elusive, only surfacing a few times before moving far away. It was still very exciting when I recognised one of them to be an individual called "Humpie" due to it's distinguishing dorsal fin. Already on our way back to the harbour we then encountered our last 2 minke whales which showed themselves much closer to the boat and surfacing with loud breaths everyone could hear.
- Sabrina Voswinkel
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: Despite the amazing weather, the animals this trip were not feeling the party-atmosphere and decided to be elusive. We encountered our first animal, a minke whale about half an hour from Grotta and it just surfaced twice before disappearing without a trace! We then had a humpback whale blow a couple of times but always a little too far away from us and by the time we got to the area the animal disappeared. As a result of the poor sightings we handed out complimentary tickets.
-Rachel Pool
Tour at 10:00
Report from Hafsulan: This day started just as good as the last one ended: Sunshine, blue sky, a light breeze and a very calm sea. Thus, everyone gathered outside and enjoyed the warm sun. Our first encounter of the day was a minke whale which showed its beauty when surfacing a few times in about 50m to our vessel. But it disappeared just as quick as it popped up underlining how fast these whales move around. Only briefly later we spotted another minke and a pod of 5 white-beaked dolphins. These guys were much easier to follow around than the minke as they surfaced very often and even approached the boat. While we enjoyed this pod we spotted at least 3 more minke whales in the area. One of them we followed after watching the dolphins for about 20min. And this minke did not seem to mind having us around for a bit. It surfaced a few times close to us so that some of us could even take pictures of the minke which can be challenging on some days. So we returned to Reykjavik with a smile on our faces and some tan from the Icelandic sun.
- Nicole Koestner
Tour at 9:00
Report from Eldey: it was a very nice morning. The sun was shining and and there was almost no wind the sea was like a mirror. When we left we found a pod of 11-12 white-beaked dolphins they were not very interested in us so it was difficult to follow them. But we did had a nice look at them because the condition where so nice. When we left them we found a minke whale. This one came up a few times, so nice. On the way back we found an other minke whale not very close but again because of the perfect weather we all got to see him.
- Alexandra Bouman
Birds seen on today's tours include:northern gannets, black headed gull, arctic terns, atlantic puffins, common guillemot, eider duck, greater black-backed gull and northern fulmar.
Tour Status: RUNNING
We are sailing from the Old Harbour in Reykjavík today, the sky is clear and we have a small breeze from the east. For booking or further information please contact us on elding@elding.is or by phone +354 519 5000. Hope to see you today!
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