Whale Diary

10:00 -  This morning we headed out under great conditions with no wind and a sea surface clear as glass. As we sailed on a pod of about five harbour porpoises showed up next to the boat and as we got further out we came across our first humpback whale of the day. We watched as this individual went for some nice dives. Around us, about 5 minke whales swam by too. We continued further out into the bay and spotted the blow of another humpback whale. We also saw 4 more minke whales pass by! As it was time to head back to the harbour we saw another tail in the distance. It was yet another humpback whale that we went to observe. Close to it, a pod of about 6 white beaked dolphins also decided to join in. What a lovely tour with all of our four main species spotted.  

Crew: Captain Kylie & Guide Anna, Captain Óðinn & Guide Maja

12:00 -  Sailing out this morning in glossy and perfect sea, we started off the bat with a pod of 8 white beaked dolphins with 3 calves,  minutes away from the harbor. We later on went to find further into the bay lot more to see. With one humpback whale breaching several times in front of us, a pair of humpback resting a fluke diving next to us, minkes roaming all around endlessly about 3 pods of 20 dolphins and even small pods of harbor porpoises coming close to our boat, it was a plentiful tour. Altogether, we saw our 4 main species in more than one way, with 5 humpback whales, around 8 minke whales, 30 white beaked dolphins and 10 harbour porpoises, on probably the calmest conditions we could get.

Crew: Captain Miquel & Guide Alex

14:00 -  The brilliant conditions from the morning continued on this afternoon. On our way out into the bay a small pod of about 3 harbour porpoises swiftly swam past us. Afterwards it was a real minke madness with minke whales showing up everywhere. There must have been at least 40 minke whales around us during the whole tour! In the distance, we spotted a fluke appearing through the surface. It was a humpback whale, which we went over to observe. We stayed for a while before we continued on and spotted another small pod of harbour porpoises swimming along on the side of the boat. We came across two more humpback whales and watched them go for a couple of fluke dives together. After, we sailed on  and more minke whales appeared around us. We also stopped by to watch 2 more solitary humpback whales do some loud exhales and fluke dives before it was time to head back to the harbour.  Yet another great and peaceful tour!

The other boat had a slightly different start to the tour, we sailed out and after a quick pit stop at Engey for puffins headed out into the bay. We then found a pod of 10 white beaked dolphins, which were half juveniles or calves. They would come very close and often swim under the boat. It was quite magical to see the difference in size between adult and to watch the different parenting styles. Once this pod decided to head on, we did as well and on the way out spotted multiple minke whales. We did try and get a closer look at one that was coming up regularly, and even showing us why we call them stinky minkes! During the whole tur they continued to pop up and we must have seen about 15. We then spotted a larger blow and headed over but as we got closer saw that two humpback whales were surrounded by boats. This made us feel slightly uncomfortable to we wanted to give them space and continued on. We then found 2 more pods of dolphins or potentially one very wide spread pod. This was made up of 7-12 individuals, some would come very close to the boat, some were jumping completely out of the water. Once we noticed all the boats had left we thought we would try our luck for the humpbacks. They were 3 in one spot, 2 travelling together and one a little bit further away. These seemed very calm and were coming up for air and then going for a deep fluke dive. Just as we were running out of time and had to start thinking of our return journey, one of them surfaced directly next to us! It exhaled and covered all of us in its blow! It was breathtaking. The other one then came up directly next to it as well, and they both went for a fluke dive. What a fantastic end!

Crew: Captain Kylie & Guide Anna, Captain Óðinn & Guide Maja

16:00 -  Sailing out again in the glossy sea, we didn't know we were heading into one the best tours we had in a while. Altogether, we saw all 4 of our main species, with 7 harbor porpoises, 30 white beaked dolphins, around 15 minke whales and over 10 humpback whales spotted. The utmost peak of our tour was seeing a trio of humpback whales lead by ours truly Davy Jones 2nd (a whale we have seen in the last 5 years), lunge feeding and bubble net feeding, surrounded by a heap of Arctic terns and black legged kittiwakes, continuously for over 30 minutes. This kept on going in the most calm and silent sea, where we kept hearing blow after blow, of all the humpback whales, minke whales and dolphins joining the feeding frenzy, as we saw animal after animal non-stop, while these three whales feed. With thousands of birds around us, puffins and gannets diving to eat, dolphins jumping, whales bubbling, this was a one of a kind tour.

Crew: Captain Miquel & Guide Alex

20:00 - The sun was glistening in the water, creating a golden color on the flat sea. It was gorgeous conditions for a midnight tour. We started off the tour with seeing 1 minke whale that came up a few times. However, it did not want to be seen for too long so we continued further out where we had been spotting spouts. This turned out to be 2 humpback whales. We got to see their beautiful tail flukes, but they were quite hard to track since they were traveling fast. In the distance we spotted many dorsal fins which happened to be a pod of around 10 white beaked dolphins! These individuals were so curious and got super close to our boat. Some even started to fully jump out of the water, and it was absolutely stunning with the sunset as a backdrop. Since the water was like a mirror, you could clearly see the whole body under the water when going under the boat. As we had the dolphins we had 2 more minke whales passing by. We noticed a whale breaching a few times in the distance and went there fast. It calmed down once we got there but we managed to get one extremely good breach where the whole body was out of the water. While waiting for this individual to breach again we could see 3 more humpback whales not too far away. The wind was so still that we heard the exhales very clearly around us. The humpback whale that we had been waiting for to breach did so one more time, and this time around it was very close to the boat, and completely unexpected. It had been relaxing for quite some time and then it went off all of a sudden. At this time there are minke whales literally everywhere, and in total of the tour it must have been around 15 of them, minimum. The ones that were close to the breaching individual were extremely nice to view. They were not shy, getting very close to us, and even did some very fast accelerations towards the school of fish a couple of times, often showing their snouts. There were insane amounts of birds here, so the food must have been plenty. Everywhere we looked we saw even more humpback whales. As we headed back in the last sunlight hours, we spotted 3 harbour porpoises next to the boat, although these were just seen by some passengers. This tour was lovely, and we got to see SO many individuals and species!

Crew: Captain Óðinn & Guide Frida