09:00, 10:00, 13:00, 14:00, 17:00, 20:30: RUNNING
Tour at 20:30
Report from Elding: We sailed out from Reykjavik with a bit of swell. Early on it was obvious we were not going to see the midnight sun, as we had overcast and fog. We searched the bay for wildlife, but this tour was very challenging, due to the visibility. Suddenly it did get exciting, as a passenger saw a large blow in the fog. We confirmed it was in fact a blow from a large cetacean. We waited and waited and waited... but we didn't see the spout again, or any sign of the animal for that matter. This is how it sometimes goes; so close, but yet so far. Unfortunately we had to return to the harbour and we gave our complementary tickets to our guests, so they can try once more for free. On the way back we had an excellent time being entertained by our musician who rocked the guitar.
Mia Rasmussen and Lucas Heinrich
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: There was some light rain throughout our tour today, but the stronger swell we had experienced earlier today was almost gone by the time we started the tour. About an hour in, we caught a glimpse of a minke whale, surfacing 3-4 times about 200 meters away from the boat, before going for a deeper dive. After that, it didn't resurface for a while as we circled the area, so we decided to continue our search somewhere else. We soon found a large flock of feeding seabirds, and after waiting a little bit, we had another chance to see two minke whales surface, one just 100 meters away from the boat, and one a bit further away. The whales were elusive on our tour this afternoon, and did not reappear after these two sightings. For this reason, we offered complementary tickets to all our passengers, giving them a chance to come on another tour with us, either here or in Akureyri anytime in the next two years. Better luck next time!
-Anne Moullier
Tour at 14:00
Report from Hafsúlan: It was overcast the entire tour, but fortunately it didn't start to rain until we were almost back in Reykjavik Harbour, which was nice. This trip was all about minke whales! On the tour we saw minimum 10 minke whales in Faxafloi. We started spotting the whales after 30 minutes of sailing, and this continued until we were heading home. There was especially a lot of activity, in a area full of birds, and there was a minke whale every direction we looked. We even saw them feeding in the surface, just beneath the birds. It was truly a abundance of whales, and it was a great day on sea!
- Mia Rasmussen
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: A nice relaxing tour with a slight under swell which made a few bellies feel a little nausiated but soon forgotten about once we were out spotting the wildlife. First to watch all the puffins flying to and from the islands close to the city and then a very chilled pod of 5-7 white-beaked dolphins what were milling around and resting. Felt they were a bit annoyed with our presence so we left them alone and headed further into the bay. Then it was minke whales everywhere, with every flock of feeding birds at least 2-3 minke whales were there also feeding, rolling, blowing bubbles, absolutely incredible watching them surface feed. We must have seen at least 10 minke whales close and loads in the distance too. A great tour this afternoon full of wildlife.
- Megan Whittaker
Tour at 10:00
Report from Hafsúlan: To comment on the weather has become a bit redundant at this point. We sailed out, had an amazing time and that is all that really matters. The minke whale tour total was 8. They were popping up all over the place and at one point there was no sense to point them out because we were surrounded by them. As awesome as this was, it wasn't by far the best moment. The epic breathtaking moment was when we encountered our friend "Pi" the humpback whale. Pi was quite relaxed and slapped it's pectoral fins on the water surface. This created loud, gunshot like sounds and we definitely all enjoyed this silly exhibitionist. :)
Lucas Heinrich
Tour at 9:00
Report from Eldey: We had an overcast sky for our tour this morning, but we still were lucky enough to get some beams of sunshine as well and the wind was not too strong either, which made for a rather smooth sailing. About 45 minutes into the tour we spotted our first 2 minke whales. These were soon joined by the star of the tour a humpback whale. This whale was travelling just parallel to our boat, allowing all passengers to get a good look at it. While we were focussing our attention on the humpback whale there were also 2-3 other minke whales surfacing arround our boat. Towards the end of our trip we came across another minke whale, which was a really nice way to finish this mornings tour.
- Diana Besel
Birds seen on today's tours include: atlantic puffin, northern gannet, northern fulmar, arctic tern, arctic skua, razorbill, common guillemot, lesser black-backed gull, black-legged kittiwake
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. There is some wind and swells out on Faxabay so 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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