Whale Diary

10:00 - This morning, the weather and sea conditions were truly in our favor, as we had calm, flat seas ahead, and the sun peaking through some clouds. Our first stop was at Engey to see the Atlantic puffins, before continuing out into the bay. We had to travel quite far, but our eagle-eyed passengers soon spotted some dark fins slicing through the water ahead, a pod of 4 white-beaked dolphins! They gave us a bit of a challenge in the beginning, as we were having trouble keeping them in sight, but as we were about to continue on, they suddenly became very playful, bow-riding and surfing in our wake! Seems like they were waiting for us to start our engines, so we got to see them giving our boat a thorough inspection from below and leaping around us, splashing about. Once we had had our fill, we headed to another area, where a blow had been spotted, and waited for this humpback whale to show itself. This whale was quite busy beneath the waves, as it took 10 minute dives, marked by showing off its massive fluke. We got to see it a few times, as the dives had started becoming shorter and shorter. With a final fluke dive, we bid this whale farewell and headed back to port. What a lovely morning!

Crew: Captain Emily & Guide Guillermo, Captain Miquel & Guide Orsi

12:00 - We quickly got dressed and hopped on our boat. We started our tour with our first sighting a pot of four harbour porpoises a bit further out of our port. We manage to see them two times and then they disappeared under the water so we continued our way further out to find something bigger. It didn't took a long until we spotted a blow and we went to investigate. It was not one but two humpback whales in a distance  of five hundred meters. We past from both off these beautiful creatures that were feeding in the same area. The show became even better with many northern gannets  that were plunge diving close to our boat. On our way towards the puffin island we came across a minke whale. Another elusive species that we didn't mange to see again so we continued our way towards Akurey island that is home of twenty thousand couples of puffins. We enjoyed these amazing birds for the rest of our tour and we came back with with big smiles and nice memories.

Crew: Captain Pedro  & Guide Lefteris

14:00 - In the afternoon, the bay calmed down, and we got gorgeous flat seas ahead of us, with the sun beginning to peak through the clouds, excellent spotting conditions. We stopped by Engey on our way out, to admire the Atlantic puffins, which we were sure to see further out as well. On our way, we had some quick splashes ahead, a tiny harbour porpoise that preferred to remain hidden, so we continued on and soon spotted some splashes ahead, a pod of about 12 white-beaked dolphins! They were creating quite the commotion, when all of a sudden, between them, the blow of a humpback whale! Now it all made sense, it was an exciting species interaction, as these dolphins are known to hang round these whales, often annoying them a little with their acrobatic behaviours and antics. As we were heading over, we were momentarily interrupted by a minke whale, so we stopped to see this elusive species, and then continued on towards the action. We got to see the dolphins leaping, breaching, splashing, and we got to hear the humpback trumpeting, and got to see the rainblow (rainbow in the blow of the whale)! This whale had even begun blowing circles of bubbles, surfacing very sneakily afterwards. As this whale seemed quite busy, we decided to head over to another area, where we spotted another far away blow, so we got to see another humpback whale perform a fluke dive to bid us farewell as we made our way back towards the harbour. What a busy afternoon out on the bay!

Crew: Captain Emily & Guide Guillermo, Captain Miquel & Guide Orsi ,Captain Helgi & Guide María

16:00 - We sailed out under clear skies and calm seas, heading towards the open waters. Our first sighting came close to the port — a pod of four harbour porpoises, which surfaced twice near us before disappearing back into the water. Further into the tour, we spotted blows in the distance and found two humpback whales close together, feeding as a pair and surfacing every couple of minutes. It was an amazing sighting — as they wrapped up their feeding, one of the whales even rolled at the surface, giving us a wonderful view.
Continuing further out, we came across a minke whale that turned out to be exceptionally curious. It came remarkably close to our boat, circling around us — it genuinely felt like it was inspecting us. We stayed with this individual for quite a while, all of us amazed by how inquisitive it was.
After this incredible encounter, we made our way to Akurey Island, one of the three main puffin breeding islands, home to around 20,000 breeding pairs. We spent time enjoying the puffins, including watching the young pufflings that have just begun leaving their burrows.
With these unforgettable sightings, we returned to port with wonderful memories.

Crew: Captain Pedro & Guide Lefteris

20:00 - This evening, we headed out onto a very calm bay under dense cloud cover with the sun slowly sinking towards the horizon ahead. Our first stop was at Akurey, to get a nice close look at the adorable little Atlantic puffins, which we were sure to see foraging further out as well. We then continued on, and soon spotted two blows in the distance, a pair of humpback whales, which put on quite the show. One started peduncle throwing, followed by some tail slaps and lob-tailing, while the other caught us off-guard with a huge breach! They then went for fluke dives before reappearing with a huge lunge at the surface, mouth agape! Essentially we got to see all of the acrobatic and feeding behaviours at the surface in a sequence! We then followed these two whales as they continued fluke diving and lunging, and we soon spotted another blow further away underneath a flock of feeding seabirds. So, we headed over to see this third humpback, but along the way, as we were trying to get closer, we saw a smaller cetacean creating some splashes in the same direction. We soon found the culprit was a white-beaked dolphin, and we soon found ourselves in the middle of a spread-out group of 15-20 individuals! Not only were they all around us, preforming some impressive leaps, breaches, head slaps and tail slaps, we got to see 3-4 mother-calf pairs! These little calves really stole the show, as they were leaping, splashing, breaching all around us, swimming right up beneath our boats, positively showing off! A small group of these dolphins naturally also went over to check out one of the humpbacks, always very special to see species interacting. As the sun was slowly setting behind Snæfellsjökull, our time was slowly running out, but the show was clearly far from over. The dolphin calves were splashing around, even surfing on the waves of our wake, not wanting us to leave. With one final fluke dive from the humpback, and some final jumps from the baby dolphins, we began heading back towards the harbour, with a rainbow spread out across the sky in front of us. Truly a magical evening unlike any other we can remember!

Crew: Captain Emily & Guide Orsi, Captain Pedro & Guide Milla