Status: RUNNING
Tour at 20:30
Report from Elding: The weather was perfect for whale watching, almost no wind and a cloudy sky. The sea was very smooth although a long westerly swell rocked the boat gently. Early on the tour we spotted a humpback whale! It was rather elusive although we managed to get a few good looks at its blow, back and fluke. Next was a minke whale that traveled slowly in direction to Reykjavík. Further out on the bay we had a brief sighting of 3 harbour porpoises. Far out on the bay 6 white beaked dolphins showed up. At first they were feeding and surfaced at great speed but right before we sailed back to harbour they slowed down and surfaced a few time right next to the boat! Dolphinetly the best sighting of the tour!
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: It was still a bit bumpy but the wind and the swell were definitely dying down, yay! Overall we had good sailing conditions, but we met difficult animals this afternoon. We saw a total of 3 minke whales, but they never stayed around too much. We could see the first one pretty close though. Then we had an encounter with a humpback whale! It did not prove to be more cooperative than the minkes, as every time it went down for 10-12 minutes dives, but we know that patience can work magic and that witnessing a humpback whale in its natural environment is worth the wait! So we waited, and waited, and waited until we go our sightings, and even saw it once lifting the tail out of the sea. We stayed a bit overtime for that, and nobody minded it too much as the way back was a smooth ride.
- Guillaume Calcagni
Tour 14:00
Report from Hafsúlan: On this tour we were extra excited. Of course because of the anticipation of seeing cetaceans, but also because Iceland had a football match against Nigeria while we were on sea! The first cetaceans we saw was 3-4 harbor porpoises swimming quickly by. Not long after that we had an encounter with a minke whale. The minke whale swam close to the boat and one time we were even able to see the head of the whale while it came to the surface. At the end of the tour Iceland was loosing the match, and as a attempt to lighten the mood, we did our very best to find a humpback we knew was in the area. We managed to see one blow from the humpback, but we couldn't’t get close to this individual. Despite the football match, it was a nice day on sea, and it was great to see the minke whale close to the boat.
- Mia Rasmussen
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: We left the harbour with a bit of wind and swell this afternoon. The sky was a bit cloudy, but we stayed dry throughout the entire tour and the visibility was good. About fourty minutes into the tour, we spotted a pod of 4-5 harbour porpoise. Shortly after, we spotted 3 more. After a longer search, we found a flock of birds in front of us and there was a humpback whale! A second one followed shortly after, surfacing right behind the boat. After a deeper dive that lasted a few minutes, the first humpback we spotted, a female we have known since 2016 named Pi, breached out of the water! It was an incredible sight!
-Anne Moullier
Tour at 10:00
Report from Hafsúlan: We once more sailed out with the cloud cover at 100%. Some usual wind gusts and rocky sea conditions made this trip for a real Icelandic adventure. The animals were very shy on this tour, since it took us most of our allowed time on the sea to look for signs of life other than the birds. When we finally spotted a humpback whale from a distance we thought our luck has changed. No, it didn't happen. We waited for a very long time for this whale to come up, but it looks like it wanted to break the humpback world record in diving. Time ran up and we just had to turn back to the harbour. For this reason we gave our passengers the opportunity to come again for free.
-Lucas Heinrich
Tour at 9:00
Report from Eldey: Our tour this morning was accompanied by typical Icelandic weather. A little bit of sunshine, a light rain in between and strong wind. Sea conditions were rather rough, with a medium swell, but our excellent captain managed to keep the boat steady anyway. The cetaceans kept us waiting a little longer during this tour, but we finally came across a minke whale. This individual surfaced repeatedly, allowing most of the passengers to get a good look at it and came quite close to the boat as well. After this lovely encounter we returned to the harbour with the wind at our back, allowing for a very smooth journey home.
- Diana Besel
Birds seen on today's include tours: Atlantic puffin, northern gannet, northern fulmar, manx shearwater, herring gull, razorbill, common guillemot, black guillemot, black-legged kittiwake, arctic tern, arctic skua, lesser black-back gull
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.
