TUESDAY, 30 JULY 2019

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  20:30

Report from Eldey: We have been so spoiled all summer by incredibly weather. We can hardly remember another summer with so many warm and smooth tours. Soon after we reaching the areas where most of the sightings were today, two harbour porpoises swam fast by our boat. We were soon distracted from the porpoises by two minke whales. Even though the minke whales were rather elusive and unpredictable we managed to get some nice views of them. The best sightings of the tour was definitely 3-4 pods of white beaked dolphins. There must have been at least 25-30 dolphins seen on the tour in total. They gave us a good show, surfacing close to us, bow riding and soon after we left the area they started actively jumping high out of the water! The tour was topped with a colorful sunset above the mountains of Snæfellsnes peninsula.

-Sigurlaug Sigurðardóttir

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  17:00

Report from Eldey: It was an amazing tour this afternoon. We had to head out a little bit further to find the cetaceans, but when we did it was incredible. A flock of feeding seabirds was the first sign of any activity and once we got a little bit closer 2 minke whales surfaced in between the birds. They were lunge feeding repeatedly and we even got to see the belly and the tail of the minke whale! After at least 20 minutes the feeding frenzy was mostly over, but we still got to see our whales again, surfacing just next to the boat. After this extremely entertaining show, we left the minke whales to look for other wildlife in the bay. Just a few moments later we saw a couple more fins popping up at the surface. A pod of 5-7 white-beaked dolphins surfaced in the distance. We also got to see these gorgeous animals close up, when they were coming in for some bow riding and the calves they had with them jumped out of the water a couple of times as well. Another very special encounter with these beautiful animals today. Definitely a tour to remember. 

- Diana Besel

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  14:00

Report from Hafsulan: The cloudy weather situation continued and so did the calm sea conditions. We sailed out of the harbour and struggled a lot to find a minke whale that had the same "zest" like the ones on the previous tour. We were beginning to feel uneasy after we saw 2-3 minke whales that seemed to elude us. But our trouble was no more when we stumbled upon a huge flock of gannets plunge diving with ferociously. And then...a welcome surprise indeed... Under the flock of feeding birds we saw Humpie! This familiar "face" was just one of 5-6 minke whales in the area that were feeding on the surface of the water... We were again surrounded by whales. We managed to have an amazing sighting and started to move away from the area when we got a call from the coast guard that said that our vessel will be ground for a helicopter exercise. So we all did our beat to practice for this extreme scenario when 2 men from the sky landed on our deck and successfully deployed and redeployed stretchers. What an exciting day!

- Lucas Heinrich

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  13:00

Report from Eldey: The weather was calm, overcast and foggy but the sea was all flat, and it was quite warm. After sailing for about 30 minutes we found 2 pods of white-beaked dolphins, about 12-14 animals in total, and some of them swam straight towards us and underneath our boat, showing us their whole bodies underneath the surface of the water. We then headed to an area where we found about 5-7 minke whales near and far, feeding all around us! We stayed with them until we ran out of time and headed back to the harbour with smiles on our faces!

-Kristin Viðja

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  10:00

Report from Hafsulan: My best tour of the summer! The water was calm and the wind was not blowing so we were very optimistic. Just five minutes after left the harbour we saw a small pod of 4 harbour porpoises travelling. We headed towards our usual spotting area and long in the distance many northern gunnet plunge diving so when we got there BOOM! 10 minke whales with extraordinay behavior like feeding, coming up to the surface many time. We heared a lot of blows next to the boat and our passenger did not know where to looked at. We could felt the power of the whales when they came up chasing the fish. We stayed one hour with them with the engines off,it was a magical moment. When we headed back to the harbour the party did not stop and 1 humpback whale showed up in fron of us. Definetly my best tour of the summer

-Jose Manuel Marco

✔ TOUR ON SCHEDULE|  9:00

Report from Eldey: Another day with smooth seas and even though the sky was full of clouds, it did not rain. After searching for about 45 minutes we came across a pod of 6-8 white-beaked dolphins. First they were approaching our boat and diving underneath it, so we were able to get a good long look at them, however, they started moving away from us, so we also resumed our search for cetaceans. It didn't take us too long until we spotted a flock of birds forming nearby and sure enough, 2 minke whales came up in between those birds. They were going down for longer dives, but we had plenty of plunge diving northern gannets around us, to keep us entertained, while the whales were gone. It was an incredible sight. We found 4 more minke whales in this area and could enjoy more time with these gorgeous animals, before starting our return journey to the harbour. On the way back 2 harbour porpoises were also paying us a quick visit.

- Diana Besel

Birds seen today: northern gannet, Atlantic puffin, common guillemot, northern fulmar, kittiwake, lesser black-backed gull, great black backed gull, herring gull, eider duck, manx sheerwater, arctic tern.

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.