Saturday, 4 March 2023

Saturday, 4 March 2023

Today we will be operating on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 9:00 and 13:00 Whale Watching tour. Make sure to dress appropriately for the tours as it is always colder on sea than on land. 

  • CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 9:00
  • CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00

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. 

CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 09:30

Report from Eldey:

We enjoyed quite rare weather for March, super calm seas and hardly any wind. We were very excited to hit the seas and see what was going on in the bay. We found plentiful birdlife after about 1 hours sailing under a beautiful double rainbow but no other life was around. We search thoroughly but in the end we continued. It wasn’t until about 2 hours into the tour we heard from another vessel about a minke whale they had spotted. Once arriving we had to be patient as the minke whale was being very challenging, no pattern of surfacing at all. We were able to see three surfaces, some passengers saw all threes, some only one and some none at all. Time was running out unfortunately and we had to start heading home. On the way we got to see many harbour porpoises, at least 20-30 in total. They were great and everyone got to see them alas because we didn’t see the whale properly and no sightings of dolphins we decided to offer our passengers complimentary tickets in the hope they will have better luck next time they come, anytime in the next two years.

- Megan Whittaker

CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00

Report from Eldey: The tour started with a very flat sea and a sunny day. As we were heading out of the port we briefly saw some harbour porpoises. They showed their backs couple times and then disappeared. After some time navigating through the bay a bunch of dorsal fins in the distance. As we got closer we realized they were white beaked dolphins! They were very active so we could see them really close to the boat and also some of the passengers could see two of them mating!! Extraordinary! We spent some time with them and we decided to go on to look for bigger cetaceans. We saw white beaked dolphins again, this time with calves. After some time we decided to go back to Reykjavik so we could get there in time. It was a lovely tour with so much action!

 

- Nicolás Corral

Bird species encountered today include:

Common guillemot, razorbill, black guillemot, European shag, Great cormorant, northern fulmar, black-legged kittiwake, black-backed gull, glaucous gull, eider duck, ruddy turnstones

NORTHERN LIGHTS CRUISE | 22:00

Report from Eldey: Tonight we sailed with the moon by our side illuminating the sky. There were some clouds but making it still possible to see the auroras in case they appeared. We enjoyed the view of the city and mount Esja while we were waiting for the northern lights to appear in the sky. Unfortunately we had to start heading back to the harbour without seeing northern lights. The captain made de decision with the rest of the crew to give complementary tickets to the passengers. With the tickets they can join another tour with elding hopefully next time seeing some northern lights in the sky.

- Rodrigo Silva