Status: RUNNING
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: With the winds picking up from the north we decided to take a more sheltered route towards our most successful whale watching areas. It was a long time sailing but we enjoyed the beautiful scenery and seabirds on our journey. After an hour our awesome captain Gvendur spotted a small blow and with a little patience a minke whale popped up to to breath just 20 meters from our boat. We had many close surfaces from this individual and after 20 minutes of being able to follow this whale we noticed another minke whale also close by. As we made our way back to port, we could see big splashes in the distance - a minke whale breaching (jumping out of the water and body slamming on the sea surface) it looked relatively close maybe 2 miles away but as we got closer the breaching minke seemed to be getting further away, making us wonder if it was more than one minke breaching as they do this sometimes to communicate with others around. It did at least lead us to a humpback whale and another minke whale. The humpback was feeding and traveling far with each deep dive and as we were far out and in rougher conditions we decided to leave after 5-7 surfaces, but plenty of time to get a few photographs in. 2 harbour porpoises were seen very quickly as we made our way back to port.
- Megan Whittaker
Tour at 14:00
Report from Hafsúlan: Black sky, rain, wind and us - the brave whale watchers of good old Hafsúlan. It took us some dancing on the waves until we reached the area of interest, but when we did it was an interesting sight to be seen indeed. A humpback whale was laying on it's back and flapping it's flippers on the water surface like crazy. We managed to get a few more glimpses at the majestic animal before we had to leave it alone and get the boat out of harms way by repositioning. We had to slowly turn back to harbour, but we took a long way back to avoid having the waves at the side. Despite the good forecast the wind really picked up and made the return trip quite a marry experience. Despite people seeing the humpback for a few times in these rough conditions, we decided to give the passengers complimentary tickets to come with us on one more adventure and get a better look at the whales.
-Lucas Heinrich
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: The weather improved slightly after the previous tour, though we still got the full Icelandic whalewatching experience with strong blowing winds and a bit of a light sharp rain. The weather was of no consequence though, as we were about to witness a one life time event. Not to long after we left the harbour, we were held by surprise when we saw a minke whale breaching. Just to emphasis it, any kind of whale jumping is awesome, but a minke whale jumping, is just amazing! It was mind blowing to observe such a rare behaviour from this species, and it happened repeatedly, so everybody could see it! And as if this was not good enough to make our day, shortly after we spotted a humpback whale. We were able to stay with it for while, and at some point we got it quite close to our vessel! As we were running out of time, we had to head back to the harbour while still sinking in this incredible journey.
- Ines Cunha
Tour at 10:00
Report from Hafsúlan: We sailed out from Reykjavik Harbor in overcast and some wind. It was challenging to spot the cetaceans, but on the tour we managed to find 5 minke whales. After about 30 minutes of sailing a small minke whale appeared just in front of us. We decided to stay in the area as we hoped to see it one more time. But this young minke whale was apparently not in the mood to do so, and after waiting for some time, we moved on and hoped to find another whale. We where right to do so, as we found several other minke whales in the area. One minke whale was particularly great to see, as it appeared close to the boat while we where enjoying the sun for a brief moment!
- Mia Rasmussen
Tour at 09:00
Report from Eldey: We were looking forward to sunny conditions today but unfortunately we had to wait a little longer as we had overcast skies and fine rain. Everyone dressed up warm and was ready for rainy conditions. It was actually great and the rain held off for the majority of the tour. After almost an hours sailing we started to see flocks of seabirds. Under a flock of arctic terns we suddenly spotted a pod of 5-7 white beaked dolphins, they were easy to follow under the terns and we got a great look. They disappeared after 20 minutes once another vessel arrived so we continued and found an elusive minke whale, saw it surface 4 times but unfortunately more than 200m away. Luckily the dolphins were spotted again and got another great encounter, even saw some body slams on the surface. Minke whales were difficult today but near the end of the tour we had one very nice sighting of an individual minke whales that came up just 10 meters from our boat. Left the area on a high note.
- Megan Whittaker
Bird species seen on today's tour include: manx shearwater, arctic skua, northern gannet, arctic tern, atlantic puffin, northern fulmar, eider duck, black-legged kittiwake, lesser black-backed gull, common guillemot and razorbill.
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. There is some wind and could be 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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