Status: RUNNING
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: The wind picked up early on in the tour, as we made our way out of the harbour. We encountered about five harbour porpoises in the earlier part of our tour, some of which got very close to the boat. As we reached our prime spotting ground, we witnessed a large flock of seabirds feeding and shortly after, a minke whale surfaced. It became elusive after the first sighting, we moved on to an area with higher activity, where we encountered at least four pods of two or three white-beaked dolphins! Some of them followed the boat even after our stop to sight them and came very close to the boat, surfacing frequently. We eventually made our way back to the Reykjavik harbour and even though it was windy, we were happy to have witnessed this incredible, close-up sight of the dolphins.
-Anne Moullier
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: The weather conditions from the morning did not change and so we started our tour in high spirit. We started our tour heading straight to the area were we last see the whales. On the way we met lots of different seabirds allowing us to observe them really close. A few times we saw harbour porpoises, maybe 8 in total, but as in their nature they just let us have a short look at them. After some time we finally spotted one of our bigger cetacean, the minke whale. It seemed to play hid and seek with us but with the spotting support of everyone we were able to stay with it for quite some time. Happy with our sightings and unfortunately running out of time we turned back to the harbour.
- Sarah Kommpatscher
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: We sailed out from the old Reykjavik harbour today. The conditions were ideal, with nearly flat water, and only a bit of light wind. The visibility was excellent, so we were able to enjoy the beautiful sight of the Snæfellness peninsula. Very shortly after leaving the harbour, we encountered a pod of three harbour porpoises. When we reached our main sighting grounds, after 50 minutes of sailing, we sighted flocks of northern gannets as well as other bird species feeding in the area. We saw an air battle, as an arctic skua stole fish from a kittiwake. We then encountered two minke whales! The whales were likely feeding, as they resurfaced quite a few times in one area. Another four or five harbour porpoises circled around us as we watched the minkes. As the minkes were quite close to us and frequently surfaced, almost all of passengers were able to enjoy the sight of these beautiful animals several times. On the way back to the harbour, we saw three more minke whales! The activity level was quite high, and the whales were close to the boat. As we continued to make our way back, we sighted a humpback whale! Although more elusive than the minkes, we did see it resurface a few times, and a few of our passengers were able to see it. We then reached the end of our tour after a morning filled with exciting sightings from a variety of different species.
- Anne Moullier
Bird species seen on today's tour include: Atlantic puffin, arctic tern, northern gannet, common guillemot, razorbill, arctic skua, northern fulmar, black-legged kittiwake, lesser black backed gull & eider duck.
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. There is not much wind but there could be some movement out on Faxabay. All our boats have inside and outside areas and to make the tour even more comfortable we provide warm overalls. For more information please contact us via phone at +354 519 5000 or by e-mail at elding@elding.is.
- Image
- Image
- Image
