Tour at 20:30
Report from Elding: What a whale trip! It was just awesome, but let´s start from the beginning. We left the harbour with the sky totally cover by clouds,it didn´t seem to be the perfect time for a midnight sun tour. But things slightly changed as long as we were going deep into Faxafloi. Rain and clouds remained in Reykjavik and all the elements were combined to offer us a clear view of the midnight sun. However, we weren't´t there only for the sun, we were there for cetaceans and certainly we found them. As soon as we reached an area with thousands of seabirds flying around, we spotted two big blows in the distance, they were two humpbacks whale traveling. We decided to follow them a little bit in order to get a better view but they were extremely elusive. Meanwhile, we weren't´t alone, the area was full of minke whales, they were popping up now and then during the whole tour. Suddenly, when we though we had lost our humpback, a pod of white-beaked dolphins appeared from no where just next to our boat, it was a delightful encounter! We enjoyed them for a while but we took the decision to insist with the humpbacks, we surrounded the area for a while but the only cetacean that we were able to see was the minke whale. Sadly, it seemed that our humpies were refusing our contact but once again (we are quite stubborn with our animals) we saw a blow in the distance and we chose to follow our instincts and give a last try to this one and, indeed, it was the best decision ever. Just in front of us, the humpback whale was having a fest eating a lot of fish and zooplankton. It was showing an spectacular behaviour called surface lunge-feeding, coming up to the surface to eat and half-breaching, it was amazing! After this incredible sighting we came back to the harbour with live music and the best of the moods.
-Rodrigo A, Martinez Catalan
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: Although it was overcast, we still only had very weak wind, so spotting conditions were ideal. We headed in the direction of Kevlavik Airport as we were heading out. There were not many birds around, so we were just scanning the water surface for a dark dorsal fin or a blow to find the animals we look for. After about 50 minutes we saw our first blow of the tour! It took us roughly another 10 minutes to get to where we saw it and then we just slowed the engines and waited. A few minutes in, a humpback whale surfaced. It was most probably milling in the area, not really moving far but also without particular direction. Although it was always very slow, it was being difficult to predict as it always surfaced randomly and for only 1-2 breaths. We also saw a minke whale surface a few times, but it also wasn't to keen on coming closer to us. So we moved on to another humpback we again saw in the distance. This proved to be the best decision of the day. It was a younger individual, still nowhere near it's full size. But still full of curiosity! It came within 3 metres of our boat and just stayed there for over one minute, looking at all of us! It was an unforgettable moment in time.
- Sabrina Voswinkel
Tour at 14:00
Report from Hafsulan: We had lovely weather, just a bit of wind almost no waves and it was sunny! a very nice afternoon to go whale watching. As soon as we left the harbour we saw some other boat together in the distance so we headed that way. There we found 2 humpback whales, they where swimming next to each other and surfacing a lot. Also we got to see their fluke a few times. It was very nice whit these easy whales. We left them to look for some other cetaceans. After a bit of time we found an other humpback whale this one was a bit harder to follow. We decided to go back to the other two whales we had seen earlier on the tour. We spend a bit more time with them, before going back to harbour. On the way back a minke whale popped up next to the boat. He came up three times what a nice surprise! It was a lovely tour, really enjoyed this humpback tour.
- Alexandra Bouman
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: The weather got way better this afternoon - after warning people about overalls due to the cold breeze experienced this morning, I looked like a fool when we left the harbour and there wasn´t even a whisper of air moving. Not too far out we caught our first glimpse of a large blow and it was a humpback whale. Upon closer observation we realized it was actually two whales and it was a mother and juvenile! They were very slow surfacing and staing mostly in the same area, so we believe that they were milling. It was amazing, we could see their bodies under the water so we had some perfect shots of them as they actually came to breathe at the surface. We also had some incredible fluke shots, as they were being super cooperative today when they were diving. In between we also had 2 harbour porpoises providing entertainment in the intervals between the humpbacks´surfaces. To minimize any disturbing effects on the whales, we decided to leave them and venture further out into the bay. Just before we turned around to return, we all caught wind of a foul smell. Sure enough, as soon we stopped the engine the dorsal fin of minke whale appeared. Unfortunately we only got to see it a couple of times before it dived, but we were soon distracted by the appearance of another large blow. It was yet another humpback! Once again this animal only surfaced one more time before giving us one last fluke shot. Overall a very satisfying trip, with everyone basking in the sun on our way home!
-Rachel Pool
Tour at 10:00
Report from Elding: the perfect sea conditions made spotting easy for us. We soon heard news from our 9 o´clock tour that they had found an area with many sightings. One humpback whale and at least 2 minke whales were still around when we arrived. The humpback was relaxed, surfacing slowly and fluking every now and then. After a great show with the humpback we went further out and followed two minke whales around, one of them traveled past our boat, coming close enough for us to hear it. By then, other boats had found two humpbacks traveling together, so of course we decided to head to there even though we could not stay for long as we were running out of time. This was an incredible encounter! Shortly after we arrived the humpbacks came towards us and within 50 meters distance they both BREACHED! In total they jumped 6 times out of the water before they calmed back down. This was an unforgettable ending of a great tour.
-Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir
Tour at 9:00
Report from Eldey: This was a great morning to go out. The surface was flat and with the overcast sky there was no sun glare to blind us when spotting. Our first encounter was actually surprising. We had spotted a large blow from about 1 mile away, so we were expecting one whale. Instead, we had a minke whale, a humpback whale AND 4 white-beaked dolphins all in the same spot. The white-beaked dolphins were wave-riding the humpback whale, which was so fun to watch. They were very playful, swimming from one side of the whale to the other, sometimes even leaping out of the water. The humpback whale moved really slowly due to all these dolphins around him and stayed close to the water surface, which was perfect for all of us to get photos. We spent over half an hour with these great animals until we decided to leave them their space and go looking for possibly another species. Which we found! We encountered 3 minke whales that appeared to be feeding together, surfacing almost synchronized. It looked just beautiful. Overall a wonderful tour in Faxafloi that really made you appreciate our marine life.
- Sabrina Voswinkel
Birds seen today: Arctic Tern, Northern Gannets, Kittiwakes, Storm Petrels, Common Guillemot, Black-backed Gull, Common Gull, Manx Shearwater, Atlantic Puffin, Northern Fulmar, Arctic Skua, and Eider Ducks.
Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. There could be some undercurrent out on Faxabay due to the wind past days but if you are sensitive to motion sickness we do provide seasickness tablets to take before the tour, free of charge! For any further information please contact our ticket office at elding@elding.is or by phone at +354 519 5000.
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