SUNDAY, 14 JULY 2019

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  09:00

Report from Eldey: Overcast continues. Having a good feeling about altering the course slightly to the North of our usual course, we headed towards Akranes. We started spotting a black and white dot appearing and disappearing on the horizon. As we got closer, we realized that what we are seeing are white-beaked dolphins leaping into the air. Usually in these situations they stop with their activities when we get to them closer. This time this wasn't the case. We observed how this pod of 10-15 individuals swam, dived, jumped and sped up all around us. It was a beautiful sighting, but nature had more in store for us. Closer to Akranes we spotted another pod with the more-less same number of individuals. This time they were really really close and the guide and deckhand took a combined number of 600 photographs. It was truly a treat for the mind and soul. Hands down, best dolphin sighting this summer. Go white-beaked dolphins!

-Lucas Heinrich

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  10:00

Report from Hafsúlan: During this trip the sea was still rather calm and winds were not too strong. We had to search a little bit longer for the cetaceans today, but eventually we found 2 minke whales. One was traveling faster next to our boat and the other one was feeding in between a flock of seabirds. We could stay with one of the whales for some time, before it suddenly vanished. 2 more minke whales appeared in the same area, but further from our boat. Still, we manged to see these whales surface a few times, before starting our return to the harbour. On the way back we kept enjoying the plentiful bird life, that we had during the whole tour, seeing some more Atlantic puffins and more of the beautiful northern gannets as well. 

- Diana Besel

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  13:00

Report from Eldey: If the sea was still really smooth in Faxaflói bay, the rain started and has not stopped during this afternoon tour. We went near to Akranes, to find the white-beaked dolphins seen this morning, but those cetaceans apparently moved to an other area because they were not here when we arrived. Those animals can swim over big distances, following the fish schools like mackerel, herring, or cod. We saw really briefly a seal in our way to Akranes. We looked everywhere doing our best to find some whales to show to our passengers, but unfortunately they were really shy today. We enjoyed to see the several sea birds species, especially the northern gannet, the biggest seabird of the region, that have been really abundant those last days. Because we didn't see any whale during this tour, we offered to our passengers a complementary ticket. Our passengers can use those to go in another tour for free during the next 2 years. And those tickets works in Reykjavik and in Akureyri as well !

-Miquel Pons

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  14:00

Report from Hafsúlan: It started raining as soon as we left the harbour to never stop. The wind was quite mild and it wasn't cold because the wind was coming from the Southeast. We were scanning the surface constantly until we found a minke whale! At the beginning, it was surfacing far away from us, but still got the chance to see it twice rather close to the boat! After that, it went for a deeper dive and never came back in our sight. We waited but eventually decided to continue our search for other animals. Unfortunately, it was really difficult this time and we were not able to find anything else. Our sighting was quite short and some people were not able to spot the minke, so we decided to give all the passengers the opportunity to come back and try again free of charge. I really hope to see all of them again on board soon.

- Elena Gutiérrez Ruiz

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  17:00

Report from Eldey: The weather conditions did not improve dramatically from the last time we went out at 1 o'clock. We managed to dodge most of the rain, but unfortunately we also dodged the cetaceans. Other than the 2-3 harbour porpoises that a few of us spotted, we didn't succeed to spot anything bigger. For this reason we gave out complimentary tickets for our guests to try their luck another time. Nonetheless we did see plenty of interesting bird species including the atlantic puffins and a lot of northern gannets that were a sight to see. The harsh weather conditions made us more respectful towards the fast changing pace of nature here in Iceland.

-Lucas Heinrich

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  20:30

Report from Eldey: The sea conditions were still rather calm and even though the sky was dim cloudy it never rained on us. After searching in the main areas where the whales and dolphins have been the last few days we were left with no sightings. On these unsuccessful tours we hand all our passengers return tickets for another whale watching tour. Hopefully, we will be have more luck with mother nature tomorrow!

-Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir

Birds seen today on the tours: atlantic puffin, arctic tern, arctic skua, northern gannet, northern fulmar, common guillemot, eider duck, common red-shank, black guillemot, lesser black backed gull, great black-backed gull, black-legged kittiwake, black-headed gull.

We are sailing from the Old Harbour in Reykjavík today. The seas should be calm today, but if you are prone to getting sea sick, we do have sea sickness tablets available free of charge at the office and on board. Make sure to dress warmly and make use of our warm overalls as it is always colder on sea than on land. For more information contact us by email elding@elding.is or by phone +354 519 5000.