Status: RUNNING
Tour at 20:30
Report from Hafsúlan: Once again on this day, calm seas and a "full house". The other guides have already written a lot about the lovely sightings and beautiful weather on the previous tours and this one was no exception. Harbour porpoises, white-beaked dolphins, minke whales and of course, let's not forget the star of the week, our lovely friend, a humpback whale called Charlie ( he doesn't know he's called that, we gave him this name). It's not a competition, but we had all these exciting encounters And had Gisli play the guitar for us in the saloon on the way back :) One more for the registry of excellent memories!
-Lucas Heinrich
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: As there had been a lot of sightings in the last tours we headed out to the calm sea hopeful of another great tour. Our first sighting was a pod of 6 white-beaked dolphins. They seemed to have young ones with them so they were cautious and protective of the young so we let them be and tried to find something else. We saw a minke whale surfacing in front of the boat. It came to the surface quite a few times and during our stay with it we spotted 2 more in the area. In the distance we saw a big flock of feeding birds and decided to have a closer look. It turned out that there was in fact a humpback whale underneath the birds, it was once again Charlie. We also saw 4 harbour porpoises and more minke whales all around. Charlie put on a amazing show for us, breaching and slapping its pectoral fins on the water surface. We left this amazing whale to head back to harbour and it is safe to say that everyone on the tour left with a big smile on their face!
-Kolbrún Þóra Sverrisdóttir
Tour at 14:00
Report from Hafsulan: Not only most calm weathers and seas would make this an unforgettable tour. Along the duration of this excursion there where at least 5 minke whales to be witnessed and among them one rare couple which was hard to understand. They were surfacing side by side many times and stuck closely together. However after we left the area we found white beaked dolphins and a humpback whale in the middle of them. Another rare observation, since the dolphins where jumping around and almost on top of the humpback to annoy it, perhaps to drive it out of their hunting grounds. Also this humpback turned out to be Charlie, a humpbackess well known for her willingness to interact with boats and especially with Hafsúlan. We stayed with this enormous, beautiful animal, the captain turned off the engines so we were floating on the sea very peacefully and soundless and Charlie would not leave our boats side for at least half an hour, spyhopping every once in a while and mainly diving along our side and underneath us.
- Valentin Witek
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: With almost no wind of this tour, needless to say the sailing has been a pleasure! Under such perfect spotting conditions it didn't take long before we spotted our first cetaceans. The first ones to appear were 8 white-beaked dolphins. They were a bit cautious so when we got our looks we moved on to a minke whale, only for a short period of time. We heard of something bigger, and on our way toward the promised area we spotted another 4 minkes around us, and 5 harbour porpoises as well. Eventually, we met Charlie, our beloved humpback whale! It showed us its beautiful tail several time until we decided to leave due to the high affluence of vessels in the same area. And we were right to do so as we met one more minke whale that decided to check us out, circling around the boat in a slow motion. A 4 species tour it is then, and a beautiful one!
- Guillaume Calcagni
Tour at 10:00
Report from Hafsulan: A mystical trip into the secrets of Faxafloi is the best description four our 10 o´clock tour. Surrounded by a dense fog we sailed in the waters of the biggest bay in the country. Despite our skepticism at the beginning, we found a lot of cetaceans. Firstly, 2 shy harbour porpoise appeared/disappeared very fast. Secondly, few minke whales started to pop up every now and then (8 in total during the tour). Thirdly, a beautiful humpback whale surfaced totally relaxed next to us but as a culmination to our trip two pods of white-beaked dolphins (4 and 6 respectively) jumped around us doing very acrobatic behaviors. It was a marvelous morning in the bay.
-Rodrigo A. Martinez Catalan
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: We had a lot of fog but the sea was so calm when we left the harbour. Our first sighting was a pod of 5 white-beaked dolphins that were feeding. We got a good look at them as they came close to the boat. We saw some minke whales in the distance so we went to have a better look at the beautiful whales. On our way we encountered loads of harbour porpoises, at one moment we were surrounded. There were feeding birds all over so we slowed down and all of the sudden we had at least 4 minke whales all around. As we slowly drifted on the mirror sea we encountered about 12 minkes and 15 harbour porpoises, it was truly amazing how many animals were in the area! Later on we heard of a humpback whale so we went and gave it a try and we were not disappointed. We saw the humpback whale and when we left the area it gave us a wave goodbye with its fluke. On our way back to harbour we got a few glimpses of minke whales as well as harbour porpoises. Truly an amazing tour!
-Kolbrún Þóra Sverrisdóttir
Bird species seen on today's tours include: atlantic puffin, black-legged kittiwake, common guillemot, black guillemot, arctic skua, lesser black-backed gull, arctic tern, northern gannet, eider duck, northern fulmar & razorbill
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. There is little to no wind but there could be some swells out on Faxabay from yesterday. If you are sensitive to motion sickness we do have seasickness tablets free of charge at the ticket office. On board there are heated indoor areas but we also have overalls to keep you warm out on deck. For more information please contact us via phone at +354 519 5000 or by e-mail at elding@elding.is.
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