Attention:

All ferry departures to Viðey are currently suspended due to construction. Service will resume once completed!

Warning

FRIDAY, 23 JUNE 2017

Status 20:30 tour : CANCELLED       Status 17:00 tour: CANCELLED

Due to unfavourable weather conditions tonight the tours at 17 and 20:30 have been cancelled. 

If you have any questions, please contact our ticket office at +354 519 5000 or via email at elding@elding.is

Tour at 14:00

Report from Hafsulan: What a peculiar way of ending the day. The conditions were more or less the same kind as in the morning. Maybe slightly rougher and bumpier, but at least the spotting conditions were optimal. We saw two minke whales swimming quite fast and surfacing only a couple of times. Again, we were just trying to reach the position in which the other boats were enjoying a humpback whale. Even a small pod of 4-5 harbour porpoises came along  and showed themselves for a few surfaces. Unfortunately for the time we reached the area and we were trying to look for the humpback we had a passenger suffering from a medical condition and we had to turn back. It was a pity, since we were watching on our back the blows created by the humpback but of course the safety of our guests comes first. Of course, all our passengers will be capable of reschedule their whale watching experience with us!

- Alberto Alejandro

Tour 13:00

Report from Eldey: Because of weather this trip was rocky, but what we saw made it rock! In first hour of sailing we were surprised because of big splashes in front of us. Getting closer we could see that there was for sure some animal jumping. Our first guess was that's a dolphin, but it was way too big for a dolphin. It was a minke whale! Whale performed one breach after another, the final one close to our boat and then it's disappeared. It's not common to see minke whale jumping so we get really excited! Few moments later, again in front of us, we spotted a big blow. Without doubts - a Humpback Whale. We saw fluke of this animal from close twice but the best was still waiting for us. In some distance we could saw more humpback whales, some of them breaching. It take as a while to wait for animal which was next to us, but we were surprised by full breach behind our vessel and few tail slaps. That was spectacular! On the way back we saw something very interesting - a German submarine vessel. 

- Ewa Malinowska

Tour at 10:00

Report from Hafsulan: Even though we sailed out fearing a big swell and a lot of wind making things difficult for us, we actually experienced quite a nice ride on the Faxafloi. It was still bumpy, and the swell was coming from the side now and then making us rolling a bit but overall was a pleasant sailing along the bay. We went straight away to the place in which a few other whale watching boats were watching a humpback whale but by the time we reached the area we wouldn't able to find it. Nonetheless we saw quite a few minke whales (around 3-4 individuals in total), surfacing erratically and always more than 100 m away from the boat. We also saw 4 harbour porpoises swimming quite close to the boat but, of course as usual, they disappeared quite soon. Porpoise style. So we finished the tour giving out complimentary tickets -although we saw quite a few minks- since the experience was not as astonishing as we are used to. We hope that our passengers will be able to join us soon and enjoy the cetaceans of the bay in their full power!

- Alberto Alejandro

Tour at 09:00

Report from Eldey: Luckily, on our morning tour the sea conditions were still rather comfortable, even though we could feel the wind getting stronger during the tour and the sea got more agitated in the end with loads of white-caps. However, the tour started pretty good with 2 minke whales after about 45 min of sailing and a single harbour porpoise surfacing at the same time. The minke whales were not swimming together but appeared in the same area where they were most likely feeding. Throughout the entire tour we saw plenty of flocks of birds eager to catch some fish. While we were following one of the minkes, we saw another blow and the back of an animal appearing and then the tail of this animal came up as well - a humpback whale going for a dive! After this first fluking the humpback whale spent about 25 min under the water surface - quite a long time when you're waiting for a whale to resurface. Fortunately, there were more minke whales around and so we got to see another 2 minke whales feeding underneath the same flock of birds and they surfaced just 20 m away from us at times. it was incredible to see them this close and to spent the waiting time for the humpback whale this way! And just when we thought that the humpback whale had disappeared, it surfaced just 200 m away from us and did a few peduncle throws (throwing the lower half of its body out of the water)! Then it started to travel a bit until it lunged out of the water in the same area where the minke whales had been feeding as well. We followed the humpback whale for some time and got to see a few more flukings as the animal went for a dive. Then we decided to make a circle over some other areas before starting to head home. On the way back to Reykjavik, suddenly a couple of white-beaked dolphins showed up! It was a mother with a calf and they headed straight to our boat, came very close and then we saw them a few more times surfing the waves before we turned around to continue our way back!  

- Hanna Michel

Bird species seen on today's tours include: northern gannet, northern fulmar, manx shearwater, atlantic puffin, common guillemot, razorbill, lesser black-backed gull, kittiwake, arctic tern, arctic skua and eider duck.

Status: RUNNING

We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. The wind is picking up a little bit so there could be some movement on the boat out on Faxabay. We offer seasickness tablets for those who are sensitive to motion sickness free of charge