Whale Diary

10:00 - The first whale-watching tour of the day started great, with the sun blasting through the skies and a glass-like water surface, excellent conditions for being out at sea. Not only were the sea conditions great, but our passengers didnd´t have to wait long until we saw our first whale, a humpback whale. This individual behaved very calmly, only moving up and down the surface to breath. We soon realized that this whale was sleeping, and we quietly observed this peacefull giant from a safe distance. We then left it and, soon after, were surprised by two new humpback whales. These, however, were much more active, fluke diving and peduncle slapping, possibly in a show of force to each other. We finished our tour with a visit to Akurey, one of the puffin islands near Reykjavík, which served as the cherry at the top of our (Safari) cake!

Crew: Captain Kylie & Guide Ricardo, Captain Gunni & Guide Eleftherious

12:00 - We sailed out into the great waters of Faxaflói with a refreshing stop at Engey, where we watched puffins soar through the sky. Then, we headed into deeper waters to search for wildlife. As we darted around the bay, we were met with some choppy waves, which gave us a good bounce! Then, after some time searching, we encountered a pod of 5-7 white-beaked dolphins who playfully surfed the waves. But suddenly, the dolphins disappeared, and we were forced to move on. At this point, it was getting quite late, and we began making our way back to harbour when suddenly, two humpback whales breached simultaneously close by! Of course, we had to stop and admire them, and we watched one individual as he breached 30+ times, pec slapped, and tail lobbed, giving us the show of a lifetime! The other individual had moved away from us, but we could still see it breaching every now and then far away in the distance, possibly communicating with the whale closer to us. We then had to say goodbye to this whale and return to land as we were already running late, and we watched the whale breach more as we moved away. What a grand finale to an amazing tour!

Crew: Captain Miquel & Guide Sigrún

14:00 -  In our 2 pm tour, we ventured to sea with a different weather than in the morning. We no longer had a flat sea, but found instead a wavy ocean, which provided us a more adventurous experience, as our boat surfed through the waves. We soon came across what we were looking for, a whale. Or more specifically, a humpback whale. This was a large adult whale, which was calmy resting on the surface. It was possibly one of the humpback whales we saw in the morning. However, we didn't stay as long as usual with it, as we feared the sea could soon become too choppy. Instead, we move our position to more coastal waters, where we could contemplate the bird colonies (full of puffins, eider duck and other marine bird species), as well as the wonderful coastal monuments of Reykjavík, before returning to the harbour.

Crew: Captain Kylie & Guide Ricardo