THURSDAY, 10 MAY 2018

Status: RUNNING

Tour at 17:00

Report from Eldey: The weather conditions leaving from Reykjavik were still relatively good, though the visibility was lower than earlier on in the day, due to light rain. Upon reaching our main sighting ground, we were able to witness an incredible moment as five humpback whales were all lunge feeding in the same area, helping each other out by pushing all of the fish into one area, where flocks of seabirds such as northern gannets, kittiwakes and arctic terns opportunistically foraged. The whales did not seem to mind the boat and surfaced several times very close to the boat all around us. Humpback whales were not the only whale species adundant in the area, at least 4-5 minke whales were also feeding and 1 even joined with the co-operate feeding of the humapback. After almost an hour with the humpbacks, we made our way back to Reykjavik, happy to have witnessed such an exceptional moment, here in the bay of Faxafloi! 

-Anne Moullier

Tour at 13:00

Report from Eldey: Similarly to this morning, the weather conditions were quite favourable as we left the Reykjavik harbour. Early on in the tour, we spotted at least three individual harbour porpoises, that surfaced a few times. On our way to our main sighting grounds, we we spotted two minke whales that surfaced a few times around our boat and followed us for a little bit. We eventually reached an area of high bird activity with northern gannets, kittiwakes and arctic terns all feeding in small flocks. There we encountered at least two white-beaked dolphin and two humpback whales. We suddenly found ourselves surrounded with at least 8 humpback whales, close and far and 3-4 minke whales scattered in teh area too. The humpbacks got closest to the boat and surfaced several times. We stayed for over half an hour, watching all the humpbacks and minke whales resurfacing several times around our boat, before eventually leaving the area. On our way back to the harbour, a young minke whale followed us back, getting very close to the boat. Overall an incredible tour with exceptional viewings of the humback and minkes!

-Anne Moullier

Tour at 09:00

Report from Eldey: We started our tour from the old harbour in Reykjavik. Seaconditions are being amazing, mirror-flat sea and slight wind coming from south-east seemed to be promising conditions. Enjoying the wonderful visibility we sailed along the Snæfellness penninsula as suddenly some harbour porpoises joined us on our way, seeing probably 6-8 individuals over the tour. This elusive animals still gave us the opportunity to take some pictures even though they are really fast. Going on further out in the bay we spotted 2 white-beaked dolphins. We stayed with the animals for some time as suddenly more joined in and we were seeing them everywhere. Some of the animals started to jump out of the water again and again, putting on a real show for us! It is always a pleasure to see this animals and observe their behaviour in their natural environment. We stayed for a long time, seeing in the end probably 20-25 individuals but decided then to move on. We did not look invain as we spotted the 3rd species of our morning tour: a minke whale! The animal came up even really close to our boat, giving us a real good possibility to take some more pictures. Unfortunately it was about time to head back to the harbour, with lots of beautiful memories and impressions from this morning tour!

- Sarah Kompatscher

Bird species seen on today's tour include: Atlantic puffin, arctic tern, northern gannet, common guillemot, arctic skua, northern fulmar, manx shearwater, 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.