Tour status: RUNNING
Tour at 19:00
Report from Hafsúlan: We sailed out with high expectations, since the tours were so superb on the previous tours. It was interesting though that we became quite anxious after time went by and by and by and we only had a short glimpse of 2 harbour porpoises. Just as the tension has started to be very noticeable, something amazing. 2 mm away we saw huge splashes from a jumping minke whale! We turned the boat and after sailing in the right direction for what seemed to be hours, our patience has paid off. 2 beautiful minke whales could be seen surfacing 20 m around us at times. With the lighting from the setting sun behind the clouds, quite a sight to be seen. After a few moments there was a another surprise! A lovely pod of 7-9 white-beaked dolphins were playing around the boat and made us all feel like little children again, guessing what side of the boat are they coming out from. Needless to say, they were very close. The cherry on top was our musician Simon who made everyone feel even better with some nice rock'n'roll.
-Lucas Heinrich
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey:The wind picked up a bit on this afternoon tour, but the conditions stayed good. After about 45 minutes of sailing, we came across the first pod of white beaked dolphins, with around 10-15 individuals. They were a bit elusive, however, and after having surfaced a few times, they disappeared and were not seen again. We continued our cruise further into the bay and found a second pod, that approached the boat a little closer. There were around 10 individuals, including one mother swimming with her calf! After another hour of sailing, we found a minke whale! It surfaced a few times, very close to the boat, before getting further and further away. On our way back, we saw a third pod of 5-7 dolphins, further away this time, with some individuals jumping in the distance. A pleasant tour in Faxafloi!
-Anne Moullier
Tour from 14:00
Report from Hafsulan: Again we went out in calm seas and it just took us 20 min to spot our first cetacean! It was a minke whale, swimming really slowly direction Akurey, so we stayed for some time and went then further out into the bay. This was already a really nice start, so we were eager to find more as suddenly 2-3 harbour porpoises leaped out of the water close to our boat. Unfortunately they were really elusive and we just went on with our tour. A bit further out we saw a pod of white-beaked dolphins waiting for us. They were really active, leaping out of the water, some continuously jumping and being very curious around our boat, what a pleasure to watch this animals! We stayed a long time with them and were slowly running out of time so had to turn around and at that moment spotted another minke whale! In the end we spotted 3 minke whales during this tour, one of them coming again for a quite close look, so we were able to take some nice pictures.
- Sarah Kompatscher
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: The weather conditions were perfect for finding cetaceans, and we left Reykjavik excited to see what we could encounter today. We had only sailed for 15 minutes when the first minke whale was spotted. We saw 4 minke whales on the tour in total, but they were elusive and a bit tricky to get close to. Luckily we found a big pod of white beaked dolphins. The 8-10 dolphins we encountered were completely opposite of the minke whales today. We got to witness incredible behavior, as they were jumping all over the place. The dolphins were swimming really close to our boat and bow-riding. There was even three jumping simultaneously next to our boat. Truly a unique experience!
- Mia Rasmussen
Tour at 10:00
Report from Hafsúlan: We sailed out and immediately realized that the sea conditions are perfect for whale watching. Almost mirror flat seas and no wind combined with excellent visibility. It didn't take us long to spot our first cetacean. We saw a couple of white-beaked dolphins, but they were not in such a good mood, so we let them be. It was not the end of the world because soon after we came across a large pod of 10-15 white-beaked dolphins and boy were these guys in a playful mood. The swam all around us, jumped out, did some porpoising, dived under the boat and generally gave us a great show. Finally we turned the boat towards the harbour, only to have the same exact situation with the minke whales! They were all around, maybe 5 of them, including two youngsters who were checking us out, coming only 3 meters close to the vessel. The rest of them was also not further then 10 meters at times. Beautiful!
-Lucas Heinrich
Tour at 9:00
Report from Eldey: We sailed out under the pale, Icelandic morning glow, with cloudy skies but excellent visibility. The sea was completely flat, so we had the best conditions possible to spot cetaceans. About an hour into the tour, we had our first sighting, when a young minke whale surfaced twice, very close to the boat. This minke was elusive and and wasn't seen again after that. We continued our search a bit further, until we saw a large flock of feeding seabirds. Next to it was a large pod of at least 15 white-beaked dolphins, surfacing regularly, bow-riding, swimming under the boat and jumping around us for a while. We left the dolphins and soon found 2 more minke whales, feeding in the same area, both resurfacing predictably around the boat, very close to us several times. On our way back to the harbour from this incredible sight, we found another pod of at least 10 white-beaked dolphins, also jumping and bow-riding once we got closer. An unforgettable morning in the bay!
-Anne Moullier
Bird species seen on today's tours: Atlantic puffin, common guillemot, black guillemot, manx shearwater, lesser black-backed gull, greater black-backed gull, northern fulmar, northern gannet, eider duck
We are sailing from the Old Harbour in Reykjavík today. We are experiencing some wind out on the Faxa Bay today so prepare for a little movement on our tours today. For more information please contact us by email at elding@elding.is or by phone +354 519 5000.
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