Status 7pm tour: CANCELLED
Due to unfavorable weather conditions, we have to cancel our Whale Watching tour today at 7 pm (19:00). For more information, please contact us at +354 519 5000 or elding@elding.is.
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: The weather conditions remained the same as during the day: choppy sea with strong wind and medium swell. Although this conditions made spotting harder, we found a pod of lovely 6-10 white-beaked dolphins. They seemed relaxed; just resting and after feeding and miling around. We also saw harbour porpoises, on three different occasions: first one we saw in the distance, then we encountered a pod of 3 individuals, which surfaced all together riding our boat waves (very cool scene to see!) and then, on our way back, one individual passed us by, about a meter-two from our boat, just under the surface, so we easily saw its full body.
-Tena Šarčević
Tour at 14:00
Report from Elding: The wind had increased a little in comparison with the conditions we had in the previous tour at 10.00. We sailed out in the bay, facing also some rocky waves. The conditions were not perfect to spot the wildlife. Still we counted with the bravery of our passengers who decided to stand in the outside part of the upper deck, challenging a sea that, unfortunately, kept going worse. Unfortunately we didn't saw any animals in this tour, so we offered our passengers some complimentary tickets that they'd be able to use to try to have a little bit more of luck next time.
- Alberto Alejandro
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: It was a warm but windy day as we made our way out into Faxafloi bay. After sailing for some time a pod of 2-3 harbour porpoises were spotted. These animals surfaced a few times before disappearing under the ocean. When these animals surfaced they did so in a leaping manor to allow them to breathe clearly, due to the high surf. Further out into the bay a minke whale was spotted just 120 meters in front of us. It surfaced a few times but as it was heading away from us it was fairly hard to see, so after this animal went for a rather long dive and did not surface again we decided to leave this animal and search for something else. After only 10 minutes another minke whale was spotted and surfaced a few times quite nicely but again this animal was also being hard to follow and as time was running out it was decided to head for home. But as we did so a large pod of 9-12 white-beaked dolphins were spotted 200 meters in front of us. These animals surfaced beautifully and swam all the way around the boat coming up only a meter away at times. It was a beautiful encounter with the dolphins. However, as time is ever our enemy we had to headed back to harbour, with the wind and a smile on our faces.
- Tess Hudson
Tour at 10:00
Report from Elding: We set out in overcast conditions with strong winds but this didn´t seem to put our passengers off. They all took advantage of our warm overalls and stayed with me on top-deck throughout the tour and were even first to spot the white-beaked dolphins in the distance! Our first marine mammal sighting began with the harbour porpoise with at least 3 of these individuals surfacing within 50 m of the boat - they seemed to fly through the waves! Passengers then spotted a pod of at least 7 white-beaked dolphins who slowly milled about all around the boat. We stayed with these animals for at least 15 minutes - with their flashes of white stripes clearly visible amongst the sea swells! As we continued out further into Faxa bay we saw a glimpse of a minke whale who surfaced twice within 100 m of the boat. Unfortunately this animal remained fairly elusive but a few of our passengers on top deck got to catch a glimpse of this solitary animal! On our return back to Reykjavik we chanced upon the same pod of white-beaked dolphins continuing to mill about amongst the swell. Despite the rain most of our passengers stayed up on top deck for some great sightings of our resident white-beaked dolphins!
- Darcy Philpott
Tour at 9:00
Report from Eldey: The spotting conditions were pretty hard; we had choppy sea with lots of white caps, swell and strong wind, therefore, it's no wonder the first cetacean species we saw, a harbour porpoise, has been seen just my few crew members. However, we found a pod of 10-12 white-beaked dolphins, with juveniles, with which we stayed for a while. They were not easy to observe as they were fishing, miling and resting, changing the direction and speed very often; but we managed to be at the respectful distance and at the right time at the right place, so we were rewarded be few very close-up encounters. Few dolphins came right next to our boat and surfaced in front of the bow! They were even surfing on waves made by our boat, which was particularly amusing to see. On our way back we encountered 2-3 harbour porpoises, which surfaced with almost full body above sea surface while heading straight toward us, so we had a really nice view of this, usually hard to spot, smallest cetacean species in Iceland.
-Tena Šarčević
Bird species seen on todays tours include: northern gannet, northern fulmar, manx shearwater, arctic skua, lesser black-backed gull, greater black-backed gull, kittiwake, arctic tern, common guillemot, puffin.
Status: RUNNING
We are sailing out from the Old Harbour in Reykjavik today. The wind is blowing from the south at about 7 m/s so there could be some movement on the boat
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