Species seen today: Humpback whale, minke whale, white-beaked dolphin

Birds seen today: Arctic tern, Atlantic puffin, black-backed gull, herring gull, glaucus gull, black guillemot, common guillemot, razorbill, manx shearwater, northern gannet, Arctic skua, great cormorant, purple sandpiper

Today our whale watching at 1000, 1200, 1400 & 1600 and our puffin watching at 0900, 1030, 1300 & 1600 is on! Our whale watching tour at 1600 is cancelled, whilst our tour in the evening at 2000 is going ahead as scheduled!

10:00 - It was a beautiful and sunny day with a little bit of wind making the sea good but a bit choppy. We left the harbour to Engey to see some Atlantic puffins close to their burrows on the island and chilling on the water around. Then we went further out looking for the whales. We first spotted 2 minke whales in an area and try to see them surfacing for a few minutes. We left and saw a blow in another area. There was probably 2 or 3 different humpback whales feeding, sometimes under flocks of hungry terns. We saw those beautiful humpback going for dives but they were a bit difficult to follow so we switched a bit of humpbacks. We also crossed the path of a pod of 4-6 white-beaked dolphins, that did not seem very interested in us. They quickly came around the boat and left probably more interested by the fish. We left after a last fluke dive of a humpback whales.  

Crew: Captain Daniel & Guide Miquel, Captain Megan & Guide Rodrigo

12:00 - What a lovely day this is, very warm under the sun, and also a nice view of the most recent eruption in Iceland in Flagradalsfjal in the Reykjanes peninsula! The sea was a bit choppy and with a few splashes. We went straight to the middle of Faxaflói, where we found another volcano of birds diving to a huge school of fish on the surface. A few minutes late a blow was seen popping up!! We had with us 2 humpback whales eating together with at least 5 minke whales milling in the middle of all those birds. They did very close approaches to us, gave us very cool fluke dives, and also some jump scares! The minkes were also cool, doing lunge feeding events! Among the birds, we had some baby common guillemots and lots of arctic terns! The wind was peeking up and our time was upon us, we had to turn back to the harbour. An amazing day to tan while watching some really nice whales!

Crew: Captain Gunni & Guide Pedro

14:00 - After a stop at Engey to say hello to our puffin friends, we went out. This time we first spotted two humpback whales, seemingly a mother and her calf that looked small compared to the very large mom. They were swimming quite fast but they were easy to follow. After they left on a beautiful deep dive, showing their tail we left the area. We spotted splashes and approached to observe an amazing group of 8-10 white-beaked dolphins jumping and coming under the boat and beaing super playful around us. After that we looked for another humpback whale and found it non far, there was actually 2 in the area. One seemed very relaxed and swimming close to the surface. We observed it until it showed its fluke. We waited for one sequence more and went back home under a beautiful blue sky, the smoke coming up the volcano on our right side.

Crew: Captain Daniel & Guide Miquel

16:00 - CANCELLED

Crew: Captain Gunni & Guide Pedro

20:00 - We had a great sunset on the horizon and the puffins on Akurey put everything on the perfect scene. The sea was quite choppy and with some splash but with courage we faced the waves of Faxaflói. We drove carefully between the waves in order for our passengers to feel safe and also be on the lookout for signals of life! And was one of our passengers that pointed out something in the distance! It was a blow of something big, and so we went there to investigate. After about 10 minutes in the middle of a tornado of birds feeding on fish on the surface, a blow was seen and then another one but much smaller just on the side of this one. They were from 2 humpback whales a mother and a calf probably in their first year together on the feeding grounds! Amazing and really rare sighting!! Not too far, a minke whale popped up twice and disappeared without leaving a trace behind. We spotted another blow of another humpback that we followed for a bit until it gave a really nice fluke dive. We were a bit wet but our hearts were full of joy! The time was up and we started to head back to the harbour of Reykjavik with the volcano on the right-hand side and the beautiful sunset on our backs.

Crew: Captain Gunni & Guide Pedro, Captain Eggert & Guide Rodrigo

For more information come see us at Ægisgarður 5D, call us on +354 497 0000

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