Thursday, 3 July 2014

Tour at 20:30

Unfortunately due to unfavourable weather conditions in Faxaflói Bay we have cancelled the evening tour, Whales in the Midnight Sun.

Tour at 17:00

Report from Elding: We left the harbour in Grindavík with high hopes - to find the orcas o humpback whales from the last trip again... We did not manage to find anything in the area where we had seen them in the afternoon but after some sailing further towards the East our amazing Heiður spotted the pod of Orcas right underneath some feeding seabirds! We slowly moved closer to the pod of at least 7 individuals and as we stopped our boat they continued swimming towards us and passed right behind our boat. They were so close we could almost touch them and seemed in no hurry to move away from us. We stayed with the pod for over half an hour and they kept moving around us, constantly changing direction and repeatedly swimming right up to the boat. We even got to see a few flukes and tail slaps as well as them "surfing" through the waves. It was an absolutely amazing sight to see them so close up and seemingly undisturbed by our boat! All the while we were also surrounded by lots of seabirds following the whales. What an incredible tour - these killer whales really "killed" it! =)

- Linda

Tour at 14:00

Unfortunately due to unfavourable weather conditions in Faxaflóí Bay we have cancelled the 14:00 tour today, instead we are going to another area called Grindavík for the 09:00, 13:00 and 17:00. These tours also include a bus journey of about 45 mins free of charge to where our boat it located. Please call +354 519 5000 or send us an email via elding@elding.is for more information.

Tour at 13:00Report from Elding: we decided to search to the west this time whereas this morning we searched to the east. After the morning's non-sighting tour, we went out with some anxiety as to whether this tour would be the same. However, this time we hit jackpot almost before the safety talk was over; my co-guide Linda spotted a large blow some distance away. We sailed there but it vanished, then other two blows appeared on the surface close to shore. Wondering whether it might be Fin, Sei, or Humpback Whales, or possibly the holy grail, Blue Whale, the culprit disclosed its idendity by showing a tail stock with a dorsal fin that could only belong to a Humpback Whale! There seemed to be three; two travelling together and one individual. As we waited for the duo to resurface, some dark spots on the surface some distance away caught our attention. This turned out to be Orcas! These were 7-10 in total and were feeding, presumably close to the bottom as they would spend a lot of time underwater and the onboard fishfinder told us that there was a lot of fish towards the sea floor. However, busy as they were feeding, Orcas being Orcas, they were not too busy for antics for their human fans, which included backwards leaping, tail-slapping, close approaches and so on. Once we found we had spent enough time with them, we decided to leave them in peace and focus on the Humpbacks but it was almost as if they did not want to leave us for they kept reappearing close to the Humpbacks! This was one of those tours that will live in the memory of those of us who were on the crew, even if we watch whales for a living.- Baldur Thorvaldsson

Unfortunately due to unfavourable weather conditions in Faxaflóí Bay we have cancelled the 10:00 tour today, instead we are going to another area called Grindavík for the 09:00, 13:00 and 17:00. These tours also include a bus journey of about 45 mins free of charge to where our boat it located. Please call +354 519 5000 or send us an email via elding@elding.is for more information.

Tour at 09:00

Report from Elding: Sailing from Grindavík - The sea conditions were not favourable we thought for our passengers so we moved one of our boats yesterday to the other side of the Reykjanes peninsula to a place called Grindavík, near to the Blue Lagoon. This mornings sailing was quite good weather wise, the occasional light shower but mostly it stayed dry and even though the wind was strong the sea conditions were very good. We travelled a couple of miles from the coast heading East to start off and then on our way back we got closer to the coast. A blow was spotted near the end of the tour but unfortunately the body of the whale did not want to show itself. We were unsuccessful with the whales for this tour and we offered our passengers complimentary tickets to come again for free, some enjoyed the numerous bird species observed and the beautiful landscape and colours of the cliffs and other geological features. It was a nice sail bt of course there is always disappointment for not seeing the whales, this is nature, however.

- Baldur Thorvaldsson

Seabirds seen on today's tour include: Razorbills, Puffins, Common Guillemots, Fulmars, Kittiwakes, Eider Ducks, Storm Petrels, Gannets, Seagulls, Cormorants.