Happy new year! / Elding's chronicle for 2012

The year 2012 has been an interesting year for us. Early on our contract with the city regarding the Viðey Ferry was renewed for the next five years. We were also really proud when our General Manager and the owner of Elding, Rannveig Grétarsdóttir, received the 2012 FKA Acknowledgement Awards in January. In June we added a new boat to our fleet called Skrúður. We use it mainly for Viðey Island but also on private tours for medium sized groups. We also got new housing in the harbour, Hafnarbúðir on Geirsgata 9. To begin with we opened a café/ bistro, as we didn’t have much time during our high season to make any changes. This autumn we renovated the place completely and opened the new and trendy restaurant MAR in December.

This summer we renewed the overalls on board our boats. We got 200 new and really warm buoyant suits which have kept our guests warm and safe. The overalls are now available in most sizes, from children’s up to large and roomy adult sizes. These overalls are absolutely essential on the cold winter days but many of our guests prefer to wear them in summer too as they are not used to the chilly Icelandic sea breeze.

The sightings pleasantly surprised us early on in the year and we were almost guaranteed to find the whales really close to land. To begin with these were mainly humpback whales and orcas but later on white-beaked dolphins, harbour porpoises and minke whales joined the area as well. The closer it got to summer the more minke whales we got to see as was to be expected given their density in the area in summer time. We have though also seen more species this yeat, for example fin whales a few times, sei and blue whale once and few times hundreds of pilot whales that even needed our rescue. Early this autumn the winds turned on us and we had to cancel way too many whale watching tours because of rough weathers. To add to that the sightings could also have been better and the last few weeks have been particularly hard on us. It was therefore very good for us to look back and take together the overall sightings for the year 2012; which we share with you here in comparison to the years before.

89,15%

We have also some good news from our other adventures at sea. The sea angling tours were for example a big success and we think that it was mainly the culinary experience that did the trick. In addition to offering our guest a taste of their freshly grilled catch on board they could also take their catch to the chefs in Hafnarbúðir who then prepared a delicious meal for a small price. The catches were generally good, most often cod but also mackerel, haddock, pollack and catfish. Since January 2012 all catches of halibut were banned so the dream of catching a giant halibut have to be put on hold until the halibut population recovers.

Luckily the puffin populations in Faxaflói seem to be slowly recovering after few difficult years. Ornithologist found for example around 33% more eggs on the islands this summer than the summer before. Realizing how fragile their status is we have been really careful in order not to disrupt their delicate biosphere at difficult times.

It’s also been lively on Viðey Island this year. The diverse program of events has attracted tourists as well as locals and the new horse rental on the island was a big success. Fascinated by the island’s history, art and nature or simply there to enjoy the quiet and beautiful ambiance, guests always find something suitable. During the winter the light of the IMAGINE PEACE TOWER attracts a whole new group of visitors. There has never been as many guests present during the re-lighting of the tower on 9 October as this year. We ferried 1632 guests to Viðey Island in addition to those on private boats and those who watched it live online or from the city.

Looking back over the year it is always fun and interesting. We are really proud of our achievements and determined to do even better where we can. Our schedule is not changing much as it has become quite tight, especially in the summer time. We are now focusing more on increasing and improving our service on board, e.g. the selection of refreshments sold, developing our guidance and so on.