Whale Diary

10:00 - This morning we sailed out in fairly calm seas with bright sunshine, finally summer! We headed to an area where we could see lots of birds all feeding at the surface. We were surrounded by gannets diving into the water. A little in the distance we spotted a Minke Whale, however after waiting for it to come up again, we didn't see it so we decided to move on. Soon after we came across a pod of 10 white-beaked dolphins! They were spread out but a few of them became really curious of us and came right up next to the boat. They were bow riding and even jumping right in front of us! It was amazing!

Crew: Captain Gunni & Guide Emily

11:00 - The sun was shining and the sea conditions were good as we sailed out into the bay. We inspeced some flocks of feeding birds without much luck until we noticed the splashes from breachin dolphins in the distance. It turned out to be a pod of white-beaked dolphins and we spent some time with them as they surfaced all around the boat! We decided to look further out and found a large flock of feeding birds. It was mainly lesser black-backed gulls, manx shearwaters and alcids. The activity was frantic and under the birds there were three minke whales lunge feeding sometimes surfacing all at the same time, amazing! After spending a long while there we continued and found another feeding flock of birds where there were many gannets diving for fish but we did not encounter any other cetaceans.

Crew: Captain Pedro & Guide Trausti

14:00 - We sailed out ito the bay in the afternoon after a brief stop for puffins in Akurey. We went back to the area where we ad sucess in the morning and there were active flocks of birds feeding but we did not detect any cetaceans. We joined other boats where there were some white-beaked dolphins but they looked rather evasive so we moved on. A little further out we saw some gannets diving for fish. There turned out to be three minke whales there that surfaced many times close to the boat so we all got great views! Time was now running short so we headed back for harbour after a great tour.

Crew: Captain Pedro & Guide Trausti

15:00 - The waves had increased a little on our last tour today, but it was still good weather out in the bay. As in the morning, there were plenty of gannets diving all over the place. However, we were unlucky this tour and apart from seeing a glimpse of a minke, we didn't see anything else. All our passengers were offered complimentary tickets to come back in the future to try again.

Crew: Captain Gunni & Guide Emily