Tour at 20:30 is unfortunately cancelled due to unfavourable weather. If your require further information please email us at elding@elding.is, call us at 519 5000 or drop down to us at the ticket office.
Tour at 17:00 is unfortunately cancelled due to unfavourable weather. If your require further information please email us at elding@elding.is, call us at 519 5000 or drop down to us at the ticket office.
Tour at 14:00
Report from Elding: the main attraction on this tour was the birds rather than the whales; it's been a while since I've seen so many Northern Gannets about, at times we had around a dozen around us, absolutely stunning seabirds. We also had some Manx' Shearwaters very close to us, normally you only see them in some distance. As to Minkes, the result was poor. We had a total of at least three Minke Whales around us at different times but none was seen more than once or twice and the wind did not permit easy manuvring of the boat to follow them. As a result of the bad sightings and because of the discomfort that the passengers experienced due to the great swell, we decided to give complimentary tickets in the hope that they will join us on another tour within the next two years, hopefully under better conditions then than were today.
- Baldur Thorvaldsson
Tour at 13:00
Report from Hafsúlan: The weather was marginally better than this morning but still with windy, some would even say stormy condition. Early in the tour we spotted a Minke Whale near the Whale Fjord and were able to follow this fast surfacing whale for about 20 minutes until it took off. Presumably this individual was more concerned with traveling and possibly looking for food, as it changed its direction several times. Fortunately, we were able to have the whale as close as 50 meters from the vessel at two times during the encounter. Later on, we observed a bunch of various birds feeding and hoped for a cetacean to appear. The Arctic Turns and Northern Gannets presented themselves nicely, but the hope for whale sighting was disappointed. Long we had to search until we finally saw a second Minke Whale, just before we reached the harbour again. The individual surfaced again fast and only 2-3 times before it dove down. However, it was a nice ending for a wild tour.
- Dominik Schmid
Tour at 10:00
Report from Elding: we sailed around for a while become coming across something very promising, a flock of feeding seabirds that included at least 5 different species, as well as a visitor that I'm sure the birds would have liked to be without but whose presence was most welcomed by us; the tour's only Minke Whale. We had some good look at this animal several times as it went about getting its share of the food with the resulting blows and splashes before searching a different area and then heading home amidst the growing wind.
- Baldur Thorvaldsson
Tour at 09:00
Report from Hafsúlan: There was quite a lot of wind and a little bit of rain as we left the harbour for our first trip of the day. Even though the conditions to sight whales were not great we managed to find our first Minke Whale not even half an hour into the trip! We stayed with that individual for a while and were surprised to see that there seemed to be more than one individual in the area. One of the two was fairly elusive so we stayed with the other one until we left in search of some more life further out in the bay. We managed to find another individual a bit further out and watched it until we discovered some splashes in the distance. At first we thought it was the minke whale, but then we discovered it was in fact at least one White-Beaked Dolphin leaping into the air. It did it a few times in a row, but unfortunately we did not get close enough to see it properly. Soon after that it was unfortunately time to head back, but considering the weather conditions we were very happy with the trip!
- Linda
Birds seen on todays tour include: Kittiwake, Northern Fulmar, Northern Gannet, Common Guillemot, Atlantic Puffin, Arctic Tern, Black-Backed Gull, Arctic Skua, Eider Duck, Razorbill, Manx Shearwater.