Saturday 14th August
Today we will be operating on Þruma RIB for our 09:00, 10:00 and 14:00 Premium tour and our lovely vessel Eldey for the 09:00 and 13:00 Classic tour. Make sure to dress appropriately for the tours as it is always colder on sea than on land. Join us by booking online or contact us directly for more information (elding@elding.is / +354 519 5000). It is windy out in the bay today, so there may be some movement on the boat. Sea sickness Tablets are always available free of charge from our ticket office, and onboard our boats.
✔ CLASSIC WHALE TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 09:00
Report from Eldey: This one was tough. Apparently no whales nearby in about 2 hours of sailing but thanks to our colleagues at sea finally we managed to find at least 2 humpback whales. Even one of them was breaching, lob tailing and even checking us out on our starboard side close to the bridge. Lovely end of the tour. As we had used up most of our time we had to rush back into town.
- Jorge Pascual
✔ CLASSIC PUFFIN TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 10:00
✔ PREMIUM WHALE TOUR ON SCHEDULE| 10:00
Report from Þruma RIB : Wind from north west was in the bay today making the sea quite choppy and rough. If the sky was covered in the beginning it started opening and getting sunnier during the tour. We first stop at Akurey to see the puffins and went out to find whales. We first encountered a pod of 4-5 harbour porpoises. There quite easy to observe today and we stayed a few minutes with them. Then we had the info that there was a humpback further out so we left. We had to zig-zag a bit because of the choppy water and when we were arriving we saw the humpback whale breaching three times from faraway. We got closer and could admire from quite close the animal doing one more breach ! Amazing ! Then it was slapping the water with its tail, sometimes on its back and sometimes in the more standard way. We stayed a while a went back checking on a second humpback whale that was just travelling. We went back very happy after such a nice tour.
- Miquel Pons
✔ CLASSIC WHALE TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 13:00
Report from Eldey: The wind and swell that was felt in the mornings tour persisted into the afternoon. This time we headed in a north west direction, straight to where we had the sightings in the morning. The sail was smoother as we had the waves directly in front or behind, minimising sideways motion which can make people feel unwell. We first found a lone minke whale that approached the boat on our right, looped behind and moved within 5 metres along the port side. Whilst watching the minke, a pod of white-beaked dolphins were spotted over a kilometre away as they were jumping from the ocean. On our approach they moved out of sight, being lost in the swell but the blow of two humpback whales became visible. We decided to watch the whale furthest away due to the presence if other boats and had this individual all to ourselves. The humpback surfaced many times, lifting its fluke on a few occasions and came very close to the boat. Whilst waiting for the whale to resurface after a deep dive, it arrived with a bang as it rose from the deep with power to breach clear from the water from only 20 metres away.
- Mike Smith
✔ PREMIUM PUFFIN TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 13:00
✔ SEA ANGLING TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 13:00
? PREMIUM WHALE TOUR PENDING | 14:00
Report from Þruma RIB : The wind was still there and it felt that the sea was even more rough than this morning. We started in Engey and found some nice puffins there. There will leave soon unfortunately so it is nice to see them there. We went out and it was quite bumpy. After a while looking we decide to go south to have a smoother ride and because we found a whale in the south yesterday. We went there but we could not find anything so we had to head back a bit disappointed but still enjoying the ride in the sun. We offered complimentary tickets to our passenger to give them a chance to try a new whale watching tour on Elding, in Reykjavik or in Akureyri. During the way back in the harbour we found a small boat with a family that was stuck, they could not turn the engine on. We helped them to go back to a deck in very friendly little rescue mission.
- Miquel Pons
✔ CLASSIC WHALE WATCHING ON SCHEDULE | 19:00
Report from Eldey: The conditions worsened in the evening, even more so than the forecast predicted, resulting in a large westerly swell. We battled through the swell to find many very active whales. First, a large minke whale was breaching continuously. Jump after jump, displaying its full body to the passengers. It was tremendously impressive to watch this behaviour in a usually calmer species. After the whale stopped which took many minutes, we continued as a humpback whales blow was spotted and soon after, it too began to breach. We watched this happen repeatedly for some time which led into tail slapping. We called the trip a little early due to the amazing sightings and tough sea conditions.
- Mike Smith
Bird species observed: northern gannets, northern fulmars, puffins, common guillemot, black guillemot, great skua, arctic skua, arctic tern, black legged kittiwake, herring gull, lesser black backed gull, greater black backed gull.
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. Masks are not mandatory but are recommended in areas where keeping distance from others is not possible.