WEDNESDAY, 21 AUGUST 2019

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 19:00

Report from Elding: The sea was very serene and our surroundings were enhanced by a golden light as the sun was settings. The weather conditions were great, but our cetaceans were no where to be found, despite of the crew’s greatest effort. This is the unpredictability of Nature. Therefore all our passengers were offered complementary tickees so that they can come back again with us for free, on another whale watching tour!

- Inês Cunha

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 17:00

Report from Eldey: Oh my god, what a tour we had. Not just that the weather could not have been any better, with almost no wind, super flat seas and a slight overcast it was the most perfect conditions for whale watching. And whales we did see. All we had to do was getting out of the harbour and there were already two whale watching boats waiting for us, observing 1 minke whale, calmly feeding on the bottom of the very shallow bay, very close to Akurey island. We were able to have the animal coming up once or twice really close to our boat and every passenger got to see it. When moving on, we had 2 harbour porpoises travelling with us into the same direction. And that direction was where the action started. We were so lucky to find a pod of possibly 6-10 white-beaked dolphins feeding and showing very playful behaviour. It was a real treat to have two of the animals super close to the boat and hunting so close to the water surface, with northern gannets plunge diving right inbetween them. It was simply spectacular to watch those animals interact for such a long time. Once we also spotted more harbour porpoises close by, also feeding. And on the way back to the harbour we found another minke (possibly the same individual as we saw earlier) and more harbour porpoises. Those really shy animals just kept popping up all around us, which was a special treat for me, as they are usually so hard to spot. What a way to finish our tour :)

-Christina Winkler

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 14:00

Report from Elding: It is so wonderful how fast the weather can change in Iceland - at least when it changes for the good like it did today. Only a few hours after our first tour, we now had near nill wind and nill waves, making it so easy to spot. The cute harbour porpoises were around us two times on this tour, once on the way out and also close to the harbour on the way back. We also were able to see at least 3 minke whales surface a few times this trip. They were all a bit sneaky, coming up only a few times and then disappearing, but everyone managed to see them anyway.  We left this area only to see if we could find the dolphins we had seen on our previous tour. Sure enough, we found 4 white-beaked dolphins feeding in between some fishing nets close to Akranes. Even a 4th minke whale showed itself. Also northern gannets and common guillemots were enjoying the feast. It was a blast when the dolphins decided to jump right in front of us and a lot of laughter and joy was heard amongst our passengers. To put a grand finalé to our tour, we finished with a 5th minke whale, surfacing very close to the boat, just as we reached the lighthouse Grotta!

- Diana Besel

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 13:00

Report from Eldey: The weather and sea condition have been going better during this afternoon whale watching tour. The sea was calm and it was really pleasant to stay on the outside decks, even if we had some small drops at the end of the tour. The marine mammals that we were looking for were a little bit hard to found. We enjoyed the landscape and seabirds at first because we needed almost 2 hours to find our first encounter of 6-7 white-beaked dolphins. They were calmy and slowly swimming. At the same moment we saw a pod of 3-4 harbour porpoises. We enjoyed this peaceful moment for a while until we went back to Reykjavik. During the way back we found a minke whale ! We had a great view on this beautiful cetacean surfacing close of the boat. We were close of Reykjavik when we saw another pod of harbour porpoises. What a wonderful experience at sea this afternoon !

-Miquel Pons

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 10:00

Report from Elding: This morning the sky was cloud covered and the wind was up and awake, blowing quite strongly and ths creating some adventorous waves for us. Luckily, not only did we enjoy the waves and wind, so did a pod of 5 white-beaked dolphins that were clearly hunting some fish inbetween jumping and surfing the waves. There were many of the beautiful northern gannets diving in the same area as well which are always so stunning to watch. Even some harbour porpoises decided to join in at a point, showing up behind our boat. And eventhough we saw 2 species today, we felt we wanted to do even better and offered complimentary tickets for another trip out at sea with us.

- Sabrina Voswinkel

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 09:00

Report from Eldey: With the wind still blowing from easterly direction but not much waves in the bay, we sailed out this morning into Faxafloi Bay. The visibility on the tour was perfect, with us being able to look all the way to Snaefellsjokull. After about 30 minutes into the tour, we had our first, but very conspicuous encounter with two white-beaked dolphins. They surfaced once directly next to the boat, but then disappeared on us. With only two passengers having seen them, we decided to move on. And after over one hour sail we returned to an area where fishing nets were layed out on the bottom of the sea, apparently indicating a fish rich area. Because that was where we spotted 1 minke whale twice, always surfacing twice before going for longer, deeper dives. Inbetween the dives we were surprised by 2-3 harbour porpoises, surfacing multiple times really close to the back of the boat, which excited especially the guide (me), as those shy animals can be very hard to spot. And while trying to find the minke whale once more, we started spotting a pod of 4-5 white-beaked dolphins! Those animals are usually good fun to watch, so we followed them for a while and were able to watch them leaping out of the water and dive around our boat, playing quite some tricks on us. Even though tricky to take pictures of, it was a beautiful encounter for all passengers to watch and allowed us to just lay back and relax on our sail back into the harbour. 

-Christina Winkler

Bird species identified today: Atlantic puffin, northern gannet, northern fulmar, arctic tern, manx shearwater, common guillemot, black-backed gull, black-headed gull.

We are sailing from the Old Harbour in Reykjavík today. 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.