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FRIDAY, 13 JULY 2018

Tour status: RUNNING

Tour at 20:30

Report from Elding: The sky tried to intimidate us for our evening tour with dark clouds and pouring rain, but we whale adventurers are not easily stopped, and the flat sea that welcomed us made us optimistic nonetheless. The tour started with a pod of 6-8 white-beaked dolphins that we were surfacing erratically and fast, so we had to hold on to secure some sightings. Seeing that the dolphins were busy, we moved on further off-shore, and ended up in an area where we saw no less than 4 minke whales! First we met a young individual that took interest in our boat and lazily swam around us, close enough to see the white patches on its pectoral fins from above the sea water. After this rare and adorable encounter, we could watch a bigger minke that was surfacing in a relaxed fashion, so we could have great looks at it. The tour ended with our on board troubadour singing suave songs while passengers were warming up and drying in the saloon area, and with the satisfaction of having beaten the odds of Friday 13th.

- Guillaume Calcagni

Tour at 17:00

Report from Eldey: The evening started with light showers and it continued for the vast majority of the tour. But it didn't matter how wet we were because we were out in the bay to see some animals and we did. In total, we spotted 3 minke whales, one of them was very curious and it was checking us all the time coming very close towards our boat. But the start of the tour wasn't a cetacean. It was a beautiful individual of basking shark, the first spotted this season. They are only coming close to the surface when is warm enough and this one delighted our trip with very close encounters so we could see his gigantic white mouth while filtrating plankton. A unique experience without any doubts. 

-Rodrigo A. Martinez Catalan

Tour at 14:00

Report from Hafsúlan: Where do I start with this tour? The water was good, still cloudy but at least not windy. On our way out the bay we saw 2 minke whales in the distance but did not stop and look for them as we saw a big flock of birds and some activity in front of us. As we came closer we saw a minke surfacing underneath the flock. It did a little spyhop and we clearly saw some feeding. Even tough it was an amazing encounter it did not compare to our next encounter! As we were sailing around another minke whale surface really close to the boat. It did that a couple of times so we decided to turn of the engines and for about 40 minutes this minke swam all around the boat checking us out. It was rubbing itself on the boat and doing spyhops. This was a tour that people are going to remember for the rest of their lives!

-Kolbrún Þóra Sverrisdóttir

Tour at 13:00

Report from Eldey: The conditions were good, the sea calm. Weather was cloudy, slight rain sometimes. After a while of sailing we encountered a minke whale and a bit further another one. These animals are very fast, especially when they are feeding. This time they were good to see which made us happy. Hopefully the rest of todays tours will be as succesfull.

- Valentin Witek

Tour at 10:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We started our morning tour with some light rain, but barely any wind when heading out into Faxaflói Bay. Sea conditions were very calm, so it was very smooth sailing on the way out. It didn't take us long to find an area, where seabirds were very active, with some big flocks feeding close to one another. Altogether we found 4 minke whales feeding together with the seabirds. There were 3 adults and also one calve. The whales surfaced all around the boat and everybody was able to get a good look at them. After a while the whales moved to a different area, but the feeding seabirds allowed us to find them again and we were able to enjoy some more time with these amazing animals.

-Diana Besel

Tour at 09:00

Report from Eldey: The morning started with light showers but later on the day was just improving second after second. After a while sailing, we suddenly spotted massive flocks of birds which appeared out of nowhere. We knew that something was going on and we were proved right when minke whales started to pop-up literally everywhere. They didn't give us a moment of break. One of them was a little one which enjoyed our presence surfacing several times very close to us. Furthermore, we  could identify one of them as "Midi", a well-known minke which has been seen in the bay since 2008. To round up the tour, sun was sighted in the way back, what else can you ask for?

-Rodrigo A. Martinez Catalan

Birds seen during our tours: northern fulmar, blacck-legged kittiwake, manx shearwater, northern gannet, lesser black-backed gull, razorbil, common guillemot, black guillemot, atlantic puffin, arctic tern

We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavík today. We are expecting good sea conditions and we look forward to welcome you on board with us!

For more information please contact our ticket office at 00354 5195000 or elding@elding.is