Tour status: RUNNING
Tour at 20:30
Report from Eldey: The wind didn't change directions for our tour, we went out facing a cold wind blowing from the West. Fortunately, the sea was still calm so it made for an easy sailing. Unfortunately good conditions don't guarantee successful sightings. Despite the best efforts of the crew members and the passengers, not a single fin was spotted. Therefore, complimentary tickets were issued. We wish a better luck next time for our returning guests!
- Guillaume Calcagni
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: Weather this afternoon was great but a we had the wind in our face on the way out, but that just woke us up more and made us ready for the spotting. We spotted a great big blow in the distance and we went closer. It turned out to be a humpback whale! It was surfacing very slowly so we got to se the back of it and the blow a lot. After some time it showed us the fluke before going for a short dive. It did that a couple of times so we got a good look at the fluke and saw that we had seen this whale once before in 2016, great to see it again!
-Kolbrún Þóra Sverrisdóttir
Tour at 14:00
Report from Hafsúlan: It was overcast sailing out from Reykjavik, but not too cold. We had only sailed for half an hour, when we saw a birds flying to our area, creating a large flock. We off course looked at the birds, and suddenly a minke whale came to the surface and it was clearly hunting fish! It was very easy to predict the behaviour of the minke whale, as it continued to surface in the middle of the birds for 10-15 times! Just as quickly as is began, just at quickly did it stop, and the birds scattered. We decided to search the bay after other cetaceans, and we found a humpback whale. We got a few good looks of the blow of the large animal, and we saw the fluke once! When we were looking at the humpback whale, the sun started shining. The whale was traveling, and we got to see it a few times, before we had to head home towards the harbor. A lovely day at sea with sunshine and whales!
- Mia Rasmussen
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: the weather had turned this afternoon and it was getting brighter, a little blue sky was also peeking through the clouds. It was getting brighter that sunglasses were needed, a rare need this summer. We started our tour with enjoying the flocks of puffins flying past and the fulmars as they swoop past passenger heads. We first spotted a pod of 4-5 harbour porpoises that seemed to be socializing and playing in the surf. A baby porpoise was also seen amoungst the larger adults. After over an hours sailing we reached our productive area and saw a hugh flock of birds, under these birds a minke whale was actively feeding, num num. over and over again the minke whale came under and around the birds feeding on the small sandeels just 10-20 meters from the boat. We were able to see it feeding until the fish had been gobbled up and then the minke went looking for other feeding locations. Another 3-4 minke whales were also seen on the tour, one we know called 'Midi' seeing for over 10 years. Happy Anniversary Midi. On the way home a humpback whale was spotted and it first seemed to be a grumpy humpie but in the end we believed it to be just resting. Surfacing very slowly next to us and we could easy follow it just under the surface. A fantastic tour. Very lucky passengers onboard.
- Megan Whittaker
Tour at 10:00
Report from Hafsúlan: We sailed out of the harbour with very poor visibility and with the corresponding weather connected anxiety. But after an hour of looking, we came to a spot where we could see a lot of different bird species. The mist has cleared out by now and it made possible for us to enjoy the 3-4 minke whales that could be seen here and there around the boat. We spotted a group of 5-7 white-beaked dolphins. These animals were very active, hunting for fish and exhibiting behaviour that looked like playing or possibly even mating. They came very close to the boat. At one point two of them swam under the boat, in between the two hauls of our catamaran! We left these toothed whales alone and went back to the baleen whales. The minke whales were now all around us, surprising us with really close to the boat encounters. One of them did a half breach and we could see the first half of it's entire body. We also encountered a small pod of dolphins very close to land, as we were just outside the harbour of Reykjavik. I didn't look like it at the beginning, but it ended up to be a fantastic tour.
-Lucas Heinrich
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: Smooth sea and a little mist this morning but the whales don't care so we were excited. We sailed for around a hour with few birds but all of the sudden we had birds all around. We looked to a big flock of feeding birds just by us and all of the sudden we saw a minke whale surfacing just by the flock. We then saw another and another, they were basically surrounding us! We had a good time with about 4 minkes and then we heard of some dolphins so we decided to check that out. There were around 10 white-beaked dolphins that were very active and we got to witness some mating! They were bow-riding and jumping and spinning, truly amazing to see. We left the area and started to head back to harbour after this amazing tour!
-Kolbrún Þóra Sverrisdóttir
Birds seen on todays tours include: Black legged kittiwake, northern gannet, northern fulmar, blacked backed gull, Atlantic puffin, arctic tern, arctic skua, Manx shearwater, common guillemot, razorbill.
We are running our tours today from the Old Harbour in Reykjavík. We are expecting some rain out on the Faxa Bay today but sea conditions are favorable. We do provide all of our customers with wind- and waterproof overalls to keep them warm and dry throughout our tours. Please don't hesitate to contact our ticket office for further information, either via phone +354 5195000 or elding@elding.is
