Tour status: RUNNING
Tour at 20:30
Report from Elding: The midnight sun tour for today unfortunately did not have any sun, but we headed out to the rainy bay anyways. We had a rollercoaster ride for most of the tour but our adventurous spirits held us up. Our first encounter was with 2 harbour porpoises right outside of the harbour, so it show that it pays to go outside even though it is raining. They were quick to leave the area so we headed out to the rocky bay. It payed off as we spotted a humpback whale right in front of the boat. We were able to travel with it for a long time and it was so relaxed in our present, slowly traveling right under the water surface so we got to se it in the water every time before it surfaced again! It was an amazing encounter with this animal that I am sure people are not going to forget, great way to end a hard, wavy tour.
-Kolbrún Þóra Sverrisdóttir
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: Even though the weather remained uncooperative, the day could have not finished on a higher note, as we were in for another extreme Icelandic whale watching experience. We were fortunate enough to observe 3 different species along the tour. Not too far from the harbor we were surprised by 6 active harbor porpoises. Usually these animals tend to be quite elusive and hard to keep track with as they tend to disappear just as fast as they pop up at the surface. These group however, turned out to be quite easy to fallow as they were re-surfacing quite frequently and close to the vessel. Shortly after we found a minke whale. It require a bit of patience to stick with this one as it was mostly going for deeper dives, but we were able to observe it for a while. And finally, as we were chasing another minke whale from a far, for everybody’s astonishment, suddenly a humpback whale breaches out of the water just a few meters from our boat! With chins dropped, we realized that it was not only one, but 2 humpbacks that were just in front of us! We kept being overwhelmed by these magnificent animals until we finally ran out of time and started heading back towards Reykjavik. After that experience, even the heavy weather felt quite light.
- Ines Cunha
Tour at 14:00
Report from Hafsulan: This magical catamaran with his experienced crew and all the curious passengers from all around the world dared to sail out into a wild bay which turned out to be a lot of fun and fulfilled our wishes to see marine wildlife. On the way to find at least three minke whales, these torpedoes of baleen whales, our most exciting encounter should be all the harbour porpoises on our way back and forth. There were at least three pods of them and especially the one close to the harbour walls heading back took our breath. There were far more than ten individuals to observe for such a long time that we stayed with them for almost fifteen minutes. This rare opportunity brightened many smiles even more and made it up to those who could not enjoy the rocky ride that much.
- Valentin Witek
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey:The wind had picked up from the morning and as rain in Iceland is not coming from the sky but rather horizontally, we went out with the rain in our face. Nevertheless some fearless guests stayed outside looking for cetaceans and it definitely payed off! After some time cruising we suddenly saw our first minke whale. As it is in their nature, it was really fast swimming but we were patient and waited for it to resurface as we spotted a second individual followed by a third one. So beautiful to see this animals coming in a bit close to the boat for everyone easy to spot. Until the end of the tour we had probably seen 4 or even 6 individuals, a bit hard to tell as they were in the same area but not seen together. All in all a beautiful successfull tour even though the weather was not the best.
- Sarah Kompatscher
Tour at 10:00
Report from Hafsúlan: A rainy miserable morning on the bay, our viking passengers wrapped up warm and a few lasted a long time outside with most enjoying the warmth of the saloon. We went to our usually place for the last week or so and once again saw a few flocks of seabirds, mainly kittiwakes and lesser-black backed gulls and a few puffins and guillamots. 5 minke whales were spotted throughout the tour, first few very difficult to show our passengers but there were a couple fo times we got a good look at their long backs and triangular dorsal fins. It was a fun tour but we will definitly be waiting for the next sunny day in Reykjavik, hope we get another soon.
- Megan Whittaker
Tour at 9:00
Report from Eldey: After yestrday's exceptional sunny day, today the weather went back on "iceland-mode" as we sailed through moody winds and grumpy rain throughout the tour. Nevertheless, the weather had on influence on the success of our endeavor, as we started by spotting a shy minke whale, that we were able to fallow for some time. Its elusive behavior might have been due to the possibility that it was foraging, as it was spotted among an area of high bird activity and most likely a lot of prey in the area. Later on fallowed an encounter with around 6 white-beaked dolphins that could be observed for a while and at some point quite close to the boat.
- Ines Cunha
Birds seen on today's tour include: northern gannet, northern fulmar, black legged kittiwake, eider duck, arctic skua, atlantic puffin, lesser black-backed gull, common guillemot, arctic tern, northern fulmar.
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. There is some wind and swells out on Faxabay so if you are sensitive to motion sickness we do have seasickness tablets free of charge at the ticket office. On board there are heated indoor areas but we also have overalls to keep you warm out on deck. For more information please contact us via phone at +354 519 5000 or by e-mail at elding@elding.is.
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