09:00, 10:00, 13:00, 14:00, 17:00, 20:30: RUNNING
Tour at 20:30
Report from Elding: What a tour! I have never seen anything like this before, seriously. We didn't sail out that far at all when we saw a small minke whale heading away from us. A moment passed and it turned 180 degrees and was now heading our way. What happened next is hard to explain with words. We were not sure anymore who was watching whom. The minke whale going around the boat, looking at us, putting it's head out of the surface, circling the boat, grazing against it (at this point the boat was in neutral and even with the motors switched off). This behaviour continued for a long time before the animal got bored and moved away. At some points there were only centimeters from the whale and our hands reaching towards the friendly whale (yes, our hands, because at one point it was too tempting to not join the passengers :)). When the young animal moved away from us we continued our trip and had a few nice looks at Charlie the humpback whale before we went back to the harbour and were entertained by live music on board. Mind blowing.
Lucas Heinrich
Tour at 17:00
Report from Elding: The good weather held throughout the day, so this tour was also a smooth ride. The first sighted species were a group of 4 harbor porpoises. Soon after we spotted a group of 5 white-beaked dolphins that were traveling and we were able to stay with them for a while. Afterwards, not to long after we left the dolphins, we spotted a minke whale under a big flock of birds, but this one turned out to be really shy and after it went for a deeper dive we lost track of it. But shortly after we spotted another one, and this time we could stick with it. Soon enough we realized that there were actually at least 2 more minke whales around us and we could enjoy their presence for quite a bit. We also kepted sighting harbor porpoises in betwen sightings throught the tour. We stayed with the animals until it was time to head back towards Reykjavik. Another wonderful tour with Elding!
- Ines Cunha
Tour 14:00
Report from Hafsúlan: Compared to earlier tours the wind had picked up a bit, but we still had smooth sailing and it was great weather to go whale watching. Sailing out from the harbor we spotted a pod of 2-3 harbor porpoises, and this was a good beginning to our tour. After only 30 minutes of further sailing we were in a area with 2 minke whales and a lot of bird activity. While we were enjoying this, we heard about a humpback whale. We went to check it out, and sure enough we found the humpback. It was traveling, but we got a good few looks of the big whale, until we had to head home towards Reykjavík. When we were literally five minutes from the harbor, a pod of 5 white beaked dolphins shoved up. It took us all by surprise, and it was fun way of ending the tour!
- Mia Rasmussen
Tour at 13:00
Report from Elding: What a beautiful weather out at sea, this could just become a great tour! We met a lot of different birds on our way out and then we just kept seeing one minke whale after the other! In total something between 12 and 15 individuals, some closer, some in the farer distance and one being really small, probably 4-5m. Somewhere in between we spotted a big blow we went to check out. As we approach we could see that it was again our friend, Charlie the humpback whale. Two times it showed us his fluke before we run out of time and had to head back but still on our way to the harbour we encountered minke whales. Just amazing!
- Sarah Kompatscher
Tour at 10:00
Report from Hafsúlan: I would just like to state that we were all very happy (especially the guide) that this was a tour with no rain at all during the 3 hours, which seems to be a luxury this June. We sailed out the more less usual distance of 7 nm to make our first sighting. I didn't take us a long time to be surrounded by a 4-5 minke whales that were hungrily surfacing below and around huge flocks of birds. Yet another busy day in the wild marine kingdom left us all with a smile on our faces.
Lucas Heinrich
Tour at 9:00
Report from Elding: It was a pleasent morning to be out at sea guaranteeing a comfortable tour around the Faxafloi bay. Not to long after Elding left the harbour, a minke whale was spotted in the distant. As we were approaching it we also passed by a group of very unusually active harbor porpoises (around 5 or 6 individuals). At some point the minke whale surfaced quite close to our vessel and right after we realized there at least 2 more minke whales around us. So we could enjoy the presence of these animals for a long while as they were surrounding us. Not to long afterwards we found a breaching humpback whale and we also got to observe it quite closely while it was performing different behaviors like tail lobbing and tail slapping. Eventually we had to live it as we were running out of time and we had to get back to the harbour. On our way back we still passed by a few harbor porpoises and at least to minke whales. A great way to start the day!
- Ines Cunha
Bird species seen on today's tours include: atlantic puffin, black-legged kittiwake, common guillemot, black guillemot, arctic skua, lesser black-backed gull, arctic tern, northern gannet, eider duck, northern fulmar, razorbill
We are sailing from the Old Harbour in Reykjavík today, conditons at sea are favorable but there could always be some movement on the boat, and we do have sea sickness tablets at the ticket office free of charge. For more information you can contact us by email elding@elding.is or by phone +354 519 5000
