Tour status: RUNNING
Tour at 20.30
Report from Elding: The sun was still shining when we sailed out from Reykjavik, but the wind had picked up a little. We searched the bay quite intensely, to spot ceteaceans, with no luck. Finally we found a flock of birds, which can indicate ceteacean activity, but still we did not encounter any. On our way home, while we were enjoying the sunset, we did stumble upon a creature! It turned out to be the worlds second largest shark, the basking shark! It swam straight for out boat, and it was incredible to see the large mouth of this plankton-eating shark. On our way home we were entertained by the troubadour playning live on the boat. Unfortunately we did not see any whales on the tour, and we therefore invited people to come and try again, by giving complimentary tickets. Better luck next time.
- Mia Rasmussen
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: A beautiful sunny evening to be out on the boat with the golden light shining on the bay. Some strong winds as we left the harbour however they decreased throughout the tour giving us some very calm conditions. A quiet start to the tour with not much activity on the water but we got some good looks at a few flocks of birds. After changing course and heading in a more southerly direction we spotted a minke whale, it was surfacing regularly and didn´t seem to be moving very fast but lead us to another minke so we had two around us! The smaller of the two minkes was quite active with fast movements and even breached 3 times so everyone could get a good look!
- Vieve Richardson
Tour at 14:00
Report from Hafsúlan: Today I woke up with a smile on my face because I knew it was going to be one of the seasons best days for whale watching. The sun was shining merciless, not that anybody would complain. The whales were up for being watched aswell as there were at least five minke whales moving around with big flocks of birds following them. Work felt like holidays today and everybody had a lot of fun!
- Valentin Witek
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: What a whale of an afternoon! We sailed out in nearly perfect conditions, bright sun, flat sea, just the wind in our face. The visibility was great to look at all the surrounding landscape sailing into the bay. After some time we started to see the first big flock of feeding seabirds and also the first minke whale. It just got better and better as we saw more and more minke whales, some traveling and some actively feeding! A few times we could even witness them rolling under the water surface, causing some really impressive waves close to the boat. This was just fantastic as at one point we could see the white belly of one of the whales shining through the water surface! Moreover we saw lots of loud feeding and fighting seabirds, another exciting experience out in the bay.
- Sarah Kompatscher
Tour at 10:00
Report from Hafsúlan: Sailing out from Reykjavik in amazing weather, we were excited to see what wildlife Faxafloí had to offer today. The bay did not disappoint! We started out seeing a pod of 8-10 white beaked dolphins in a area full of birds feeding! After that we enjoyed 5-7 minke whales surfacing around the area, sometimes two swimming together. We decided to leave the minke whales, to see if we could find a larger cetacean to show. It was a good choice to do so, as we found 1 humpback whale. It was great to see this large whale, and because of the sunshine we could even see a rainbow in the blow! Faxafloi really showed a abundance of activity on this tour!
- Mia Rasmussen
Tour at 9:00
Report from Eldey: This morning we had a really calm sea ahead of us and winds were not too strong either. After heading out into the bay for a while, we came across a big flock of feeding seabirds and soon the first minke whale popped up. In total we had 8 minke whales in this area, all feeding in between the seabirds, which was a great sight. And in this very moment the sun was breaking through the clouds as well, which made this moment even better. In the same area we had 3 white-beaked dolphins coming out of nowhere and doing some bow riding! To top off this incredible tour we found a humpback whale and 2 more minke whales on our way back to the harbour and got to spent a few minutes with these amazing animals again, while enjoying the sunshine. Altogether a very exciting and unforgettable experience for everyone!
-Diana Besel
Birds seen on today's tours include: atlantic puffin, northern fulmar, northern gannet, arctic tern, lesser black-backed gull, black-legged kittiwake, arctic skua, common guillemot, greater black-backed gull, manx shearwater, storm petrel,
We are running our tours today from the Old Harbour in Reykjavík, sea conditions are favorable and looks like we might get some sunshine today. Please don't hesitate to contact our ticket office for further information, either via phone +354 5195000 or elding@elding.is
