TUESDAY, 20 AUGUST 2019

 TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 19:00

Report from Hafsúlan: It was a cloudy evening and winds were still coming from the south east, making it rather smooth in the bay. The visibility was great and so everything looked very promising for tonight. We sailed along Reykjanes, seeing Keilir and even Keflavík on the horizon. As we did not see anything, we crossed towards the east, along Akraness and Esja. As still we remained without a sighting, we handed out complimentary tickets to everyone to return with us within the next two years and come on another whale watching adventure.

- Sabrina Voswinkel

 TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 17:00

Report from Eldey: Regardless of the crew greatest efforts, there were no proper sightings during the course of this tour. The crew spotted a couple of minke whales, but the animals were going for very long deep dives, making it impossible for us to keep track of them. However, since is the goal of our company to provide our guests an opportunity to see the whales, all our passengers got complementary tickets, so that they can come on another whale watching tour with us. Hope to see them all again soon.

- Inês Cunha

 TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 14:00

Report from Hafsulan: The sea was finally calm so our sailing was mild and nice. The wind was from the east so, in the way back to the harbour we could feel it on our faces. Luckily, we have an indoor saloon where our passengers can rest from the icelandic colds. It had passed roughly one hour when we saw a black shape in the horizon. We got to the area to get a deeper look of a, quite likely, juvenile minke whale. Unluckily, there were too many boats around the animal so our captain, following the "whale watching code of conduct", decided to leave this animal and try luck somewhere else, in order to don´t disturb and stress this animal. After a few minutes searching, a treally nice pod of 5-7 harbour porpoises started to surfsce the waves really close to us. It´s always a pleasure to be able to enjoy these little cute cetaceans. We had two sightings but both were really quick so we decided to give our passengers the opportunity to come back with us, free of charge, to try to spot them and enjoy them again. 

-Elena Gutiérrez Ruiz

 TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 13:00

Report from Eldey: This afternoon we went out into Faxafloi Bay with winds still blowing from behind, which made it a very smooth ride throughout the whole tour. And with the sky being covered in clouds but holding up, we had the perfect conditions for whale spotting. It took us about an hour to get into the area where we had sightings earlier today. And when we got there we spotted our first 2 minke whales. One of the animals looked like a juvenile, being very small. But it also gave us the most pleasure by going for a dive underneath our boat and coming up, surfacing three times on the other side, which made it very easy for all our passengers to get a good look at it. We decided then to look for more wildlife in the bay and continued our search. After circeling around, we actually ended up returning to the same area as before, following northern gannets and manx shearwaters. And there we saw once more 2 minke whales around our boat and 5 other whale watching boats, which could possibly have been the same individuals as we saw earlier. After that second encounter we sailed back to the harbour, enjoying the ride and even spotting one last, lonely puffin before we entered the harbour again.

 TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 10:00

Report from Elding II: For this morning tour the sky was cloudy but dry. Some wind coming was blowing from south east but nothing that could stop our passengers from being outside, well covered by our overalls. It was not cold at all during the way out with the wind on our back. We headed south first, searching for cetaceans surfacing in Faxaflói. We finally went in an area where a lot of minke whales were seen this last week. After a while searching we saw a minke whale fastly surfacing 3 times in front of the boat. Unfortunately we could not see it again. We also saw 3-5 harbour porpoises swimming fast really close of the boat. But those small cetaceans can be hard to see. The animals being really hard to spot during this tour, we offered to our passenger a complementary ticket, allowing them to come back  for a free new tour in the next two years. 

-Miquel Pons

 TOUR ON SCHEDULE | 09:00

Report from Eldey: We sailed under grumpy skies but kind winds. The light mist did not mask our beautiful setting, allowing our passengers to enjoy our extraordinary landscape. Though our summer is slowly coming to an end, all our guests were enthusiastic and spent most of the ride at our outside deck, wrapped up in our warm overalls. During this tour we were able to observe a pod of 4 or 5 white-beaked dolphins and 2 minke whales! Our white-beaked dolphins were being a bit dodgy as they were most likely foraging, following their prey and consequently switching direction quite quickly. Nevertheless, we got to enjoy them for a while, as they even approached our vessel, as inquisitive as they usually are. Our minke whales were also feeding but easy to keep track of, allowing enough time for everybody to make their recordings and store good memories. Another ride to remember!

- Inês Cunha

Bird species identified today: atlantic puffin, common guillemot, northern fulmar, northern gannet, manx shearwater, black-backed gull.

We are sailing from the Old Harbour in Reykjavík today. If you are prone to getting sea sick, we do have sea sickness tablets available free of charge at the office and on board. Make sure to dress warmly and make use of our warm overalls as it is always colder on sea than on land. For more information contact us by email elding@elding.is or by phone +354 519 5000.