Whale Diary

10:00 - This morning we set off into the wall of rain that covered our beloved bay. But the rain didn't stop us, and it definitely didn't stop the whales! It wasn't long until we spotted a relaxed pair of humpback whales calmly moving through the bay. We watched them in awe as we suddenly noticed a big splash further north, a breach! We made our way there to find another humpback whale, but its shenanigans had stopped, and we were graced with beautiful fluke dives instead. Then, we continued on our journey through the bay and found a playful pod of 4-5 white-beaked dolphins who quickly started riding the bow of our boat! While this was happening, we could see 2-3 minke whales around us, presumably feeding. As the dolphins led us their way, we were surprised to find our fourth species of the day: a few curious harbour porpoises! There must have been at least 4 in this pod, and they circled around us as if they were checking us out! After this amazing encounter the wind began picking up and we headed back to land smiling ear to ear!

Crew: Captain Óðinn & Guide Sigrún

12:00 - This afternoon we sailed out onto the bay with just a little drizzle in the beginning which cleared out as soon as we left the harbour. As we were sailing, we passed a group of harbour porpoises. However, we decided to not stop the boat for them since the wanted to take a better look at what was out there. We stopped in an area with 4 minke whales surfacing every now and then around us. Even though this species is normally a bit shy, they were quite friendly and let us take a good look at their beautiful pointy snout. We decided to leave them after some time and we headed towards another place with a lot of bird activity. Here there were at least 6 minke whales lunge feeding next to us, definitely something we don't see every day. When we thought it couldn't get any better, we spotted a few blows in the distance, that turned out to be a trio of humpback whales. They were as friendly as these gentle giants tend to be so we could stay with them for quite some time and they even did some pec slapping. Sadly, we were running out of time so we had to go to back to port. 

Crew: Captain Pedro & Guide Guillermo

14:00 - The sun was peeking through the clouds and our journey was once again set into Faxaflói! After about 40 minutes of searching, we were met with a pair of humpback whales! These two humpbacks were presumably feeding, as they were taking both shallow and deeper dives, and one of them even breached right behind us! We got to watch as they lifted their flukes out of the water, showing off their beautiful and unique patterns underneath. After this, we searched for more wildlife to see, but instead of cetaceans, we found a group of diving Northern gannets! At this point, we sadly had to leave the bay behind and head back to the harbour, but what a fantastic encounter with two humpback whales!

Crew: Captain Óðinn & Guide Sigrún

15:00 - This afternoon the sky was more cloudy than in the morning, but still, we were very excited about what we could find. We left the harbour and enjoyed the bumpy ride out onto the bay. It didn't take us very long to find our first pair of humpback whales. When we arrived, they greeted us with a very beautiful fluke dive. Luckily for us, they didn't stay underwater for a very long time and when they were back in the surface, they were swimming right next to the boat for a long time so we could take a look at their huge bodies right next to us. We could even see the beautiful white pectoral fins through the surface! However, since we don't want to bother the same individuals for a long time, we decided to leave them alone and look for something else. We saw a few minke whales while we were sailing and also another humpback whale. This whale wasn't as social as the first two so we decided to move on and look for another one. Not very far away from there, we spotted another blow with dorsal fins right next to it. When we got closer, we realised that it was another humpback playing with a pod of 5 white beaked dolphins. These dolphins were playing with the humpback and as always, the humpback didn't seem very happy about. However, we enjoyed the way the whale played with the dolphins, it was rolling in the surfacing and slapping the tail against the water. It is always beautiful to see how 2 different species interact together. Even though we all wanted to stay longer, we had to go back to port.  

Crew: Captain Pedro & Guide Guillermo