Thursday, 15 July 2021
✔ CLASSIC WHALE TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 09:00
Report from Elding : The day started under a bad weather. A strong wind coming from the south with a bit of rain, waves and swell making the tour a bit rocky. We started heading to the south of the bay where we found the whales yesterday. A subadult northern gannet was following us a lot, sometimes coming to only a few meters from the guiding box. We could see that this bird was entangled in a blue rope, reminding us how important it is to increase our efforts to reduce plastic pollution. After a while we spotted a blow from faraway. We tried to approach and the humpback whale appeared from very close, only 10 meters from the boat. It was a whale that we had previously seen this summer and that was very friendly. It showed us a beautiful fluke dive a few times and was surfacing very often so it was easy to follow. We stayed a while until we decide to go more in the north letting this very nice whale feed alone. There was a minke whale in our back when we were with the humpback but we could not spot it again. We found a second humpback whale that we could see two times. Then it was time to go back to Reykjavik after this very nice morning.
- Miquel Pons
✘ PREMIUM WHALE TOUR CANCELLED | 10:00
✔ CLASSIC WHALE TOUR ON SCHEDULE| 13:00
Report from Elding: The weather had gotten a bit better from before noon, the wind had slowed down and the rain had disappeared. We headed straight out to the spot where we found the humpback whale in the morning – and we did not get disappointed. On the way there we found a solitary minke whale, but lost it quickly. Once in the humpback spot, we quickly found the humpback whale – but the catch was that there were two of them! They were not travelling together but there were still only about 50-100 meters between them. Later on, a pod of about 5-7 white-beaked dolphins appeared with one of the humpbacks, and they were displaying a very interesting behaviour that I've never seen before. They were fishing with the humpback, but not only that – they kept the same breathing/surfacing tempo as him! So, the humpback and the dolphins would surface almost like stuck together at the exact same time a few times, and then go for a 3-5 minute long deep dive together! This was great to watch, but like all good things, this tour had to come to an end.
- Fróði Guðmundur Jónsson
✘ PREMIUM WHALE TOUR ON CANCELLED | 14:00
✔ CLASSIC MIDNIGHT WHALE TOUR ON SCHEDULE| 20:30
Report from Elding : Tonight the weather was much nice. The sky opened a little bit and the wind was less strong. We directly headed to the south trying to find the same whales than this morning and afternoon. There was a lot of atlantic puffin in the water in the beginning and it was very pleasant to see. During the way out we also saw a couple of harbour porpoises that quickly disappeared. After a long search we found a small group of 2-3 white beaked dolphins that we had playing on the bow for a long moment. They were bow riding, coming on the side, under the boat, doing zigzags in front of us. We headed north trying to find something else, and if we found many flocks of birds and beautiful plunge-diving gannets we did not have any other cetacean encounter.
- Miquel Pons
✘ PREMIUM MIDNIGHT WHALE TOUR ON CANCELLED | 20:00
Bird Species ID´d today: Northern Gannet, Atlantic Puffin, Common Guillemot, Arctic tern, Arctic skua, Northern Fulmar, Kittiwake, Eider Duck, great-black backed gull, lesser black-backed gull, herring gull.
Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 10:00 Premium tour and our lovely vessel Elding for the 09:00 and 13:00 Classic tour. Make sure to dress appropriately for the tours as it is always colder on sea than on land. Join us by booking online or contact us directly for more information (elding@elding.is / +354 519 5000).
COVID-19: Keep in mind that passengers and crew are asked to ensure their own hygiene and safety at all times. Washing hands thoroughly with soap and using a hand sanitiser is advised. Masks are not mandatory but are recommended in areas where keeping distance from others is not possible.