✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 13:00
Report from Elding: Sailing out this afternoon was pleasantly smooth, just the slightest underswell that made no problems for anyone. The sky was still with grey clouds, an occasional drizzle of rain coming from them, but simply wonderful spotting conditions. That said, it took us only around 45 minutes to spot our first minke whale of the tour. It was a fantastic animal, feeding actively and very close to our boat. It was actually so close, we did not need to look for it, listening for it’s blow was enough! Those are always special moments, being able to experience nature with all our senses. After a little under half an hour of being with this whale, we decided to leave it be, always trying to keep our times around whales to a limit, and use this great weather to spot something more for our passengers. Sure enough, we encountered another 2 minke whales, staying with one of them for a short time, but leaving it as our crew spotted dolphins in the distance. As we approached, we saw at least 6 white-beaked dolphins that were surfacing rather calmly but also randomly. We had some great sights and photo-opportunities of them as well as our seabird life in Faxafloi, before we had to slowly make our way back to the capital city.
- Megan Whittaker
✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 09:00
Report from Elding: It was a smooth but drizzly morning. A very fine rain that you hardly felt joined us this morning. It was a strange morning with few sightings but still a special memorable tour. Close to Engey, an islands puffins breed close to the harbour we saw a couple of surfaces of about 2 harbour porpoises. Then after about 50mins sailing we saw 2 white-beaked dolphins that were definitely not in the mood this morning as we got to about 300 meters from them before they dove a disappeared, we searched for about 5mins before deciding to continue. Then another 20 minutes went by before the captain spotted a large flock of seabirds and a minke whale surfacing underneath. The minke was so relaxed, surfacing now and again very close to the boat, then suddenly just 5 meters from us and circled once around us staying 2-3 meters rolling to look up at the amazed passengers. Its always a wonderful feeling to get a wild animal interacting with us, especially a minke whale which are more renowned fr their shy behaviour. We don’t have that problem in this bay as they are always the stars.
- Megan Whittaker
Birds seen on today’s tours include: atlantic puffin and chicks, manx shearwater, common guillemot, arctic skua, northern gannet, storm petrels, kittiwake, black-backed gull, northern fulmar, eider duck.
We are sailing from the Old Harbour in Reykjavík today for the tour at 09:00 and 13:00. There could be some movement out on the bay today, so if your are prone to sea sickness we have sea sickness tablets available at our ticket office. 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.
At this time we have to ask that all our guests and staff ensure their own hygiene and safety at all times. Washing hands thoroughly with soap and using a hand sanitiser on a regular basis is advised, as well as wearing a face mask when keeping a 2 metre distance from others is not possible. Masks are available for purchase in our ticket office and hand sanitiser stations are located in high traffic areas.
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