Tour at 19:00
Report from Skruður: The wind we had experienced earlier today was practically gone by the time we left the harbour for this evening's tour. The sky was cloudy but the visibility was excellent, making it ideal conditions for spotting cetaceans. Barely 20 minutes out of the harbour, we found a pod of at least 3 harbour porpoises that briefly surfaced a few times about 200 meters away from the boat. They were elusive however, and we did not see them again after the initial brief surfacings. We continued our search a little further out into the bay and eventually spotted a minke whale that surfaced twice, right next to the boat. We waited for it a little while but it was not seen again. We eventually had to head back to the harbour after having searched the bay a bit more, and had the chance to enjoy a beautiful sunset on the way. As the animals were quite elusive on this evening's tour, we offered all of our guests complimentary tickets, thus giving them a chance to try their luck again on another day!
-Anne Moullier
Tour at 17:00
Report from Eldey: The wind picked down during our evening tour and the visibility was huge as we could contemplate the beautiful volcano of Snæfellsjökull, more than 100 NM away. Our sightings were scattered along the tour. First a minke whale popped up near Grotta catching us by surprise. Later on, after a long search a pod of 3-4 harbour porpoises showed up next to us in a very fancy way. Once we reached a productive area, we saw 2-3 minke whales more and another pod of 3-4 harbour porpoises while a lot of northern gannets were plunge diving. The way back was highlighted by a beautiful sunset which looked like fire in the sky.
-Rodrigo A. Martinez Catalan
Tour at 14:00 CANCELLED
Tour at 13:00
Report from Eldey: It is one of our crew member's last day, so there was melancholy in the air but also everybody was dedicated to have some really worthy encounters. These 3 hours were meant to be a graceful farewell to our beloved college and friend! What a great part of our company parting after contributing a lot to a very successful summer. Three to four minke whales passed by along our way and a small pod of three white beaked dolphins came close to the boat for a moment. The most dignifying committee was formed by a big pod of harbour porpoises, most certainly more than ten individuals that would stick around, jumping and feeding near the surface, close to the boat for around 20 minutes. Good bye, and all the best!
- Valentin Witek
Tour at 10:00
Report from Hafsulan: We experienced sunny weather as we headed out this morning, but the wind was definitely present throughout the tour, and we experienced a bit of swell. We searched throughout the bay unsuccessfully for most of the tour until we finally spotted 2 different minke whales! The whales were elusive however, and we mainly saw the blows of the animals in the distance rather than the whales themselves. Right before we reached the harbour however, we saw a third minke whale! This one was much smaller than the other 2, and most likely a juvenile. It surfaced twice, close to the boat, before we lost track of it. As we felt the sightings were lacking today, we offered complimentary tickets to all our passengers, thus giving them a chance to come back again for hopefully a tour during which they will have a better opportunity to spot some more cetaceans!
-Anne Moullier
Tour at 9.00
Report from Eldey: We were facing some strong winds for our tour this morning, but sea conditions were not too rough and we even got some sunshine. However, we also had some white caps on the waves, making the spotting a little more difficult. It took us a while to find our first cetaceans for the tour. It were 2 pods of white-beaked dolphins, in total about 10-15 individuals. They were swimming around the boat, jumping and doing bow riding! An incredible encounter with these lovely animals. In addition we had a total of 6 minke whales during our tour. However, most of these were difficult to see for the passengers as they only came up once or twice. In the end most of our passengers managed to see at least one of them anyway, making this a great experience for everyone.
-Diana Besel
Birds seen on today's tours include: northern fulmar, northern gannet, atlantic puffin, black-legged kittiwake, common guillemot
As the wind is picking up in the afternoon we need to cancel our departure at 14:00. Our 13:00 tour is still running.
We are running from the Old Harbour in Reykjavík today. We still have some wind, and the sea is still a bit rough from the harsh winds yesterday. We have complimentary seasickness tablets for those who may want it, and make sure to use our warm overalls on the boat. Further information for the afternoon tours will be announced around noon. Please don't hesitate to contact our ticket office for further information via email, elding@elding.is or phone, +354 519 5000.
