Species seen today: Humpback whale, Minke whale, 30+ White beaked dolphins!

Birds seen today: Atlantic puffin, black guillemot, common guillemot, razorbill, great black-backed gull, lesser black-backed gull, herring gull, great cormorant, greylag geese, common eider duck, Arctic tern, Arctic skua

10:00 - We set our course on this very calm day, with no waves in sight and no wind! Perfect conditions for a good day of sightings. After our quick stop at Akurey to check on the puffins we started to head even further to the bay. Not even 5 minutes have passed and we have our first sighting of the day, a lonely humpback whale that was in very shallow waters just passing by, a great surprise! After a very shy fluke dive, we set out to look for other species. We smelled something fishy and 5 seconds later, a minke whale appeared in front of us, a very nice minke that wanted to be photographed! We kept going towards a huge flock of birds that were resting on the surface when a pod of 7 white-beaked dolphins joined the party, they were very relaxed and we could stay for a while. Not too far another humpback whale showed it's beautiful fluke and after that jumping dolphins!! They were doing all kinds of jumps, all rated 10/10!! But then, out of nowhere, a humpback whale appeared under the boat!! We weren't expecting this whale to show up right under us but the captain managed the situation smoothly. And so our tour was over after saying goodbye to this very nosy whale.

Crew: Gunni & Pedro

12:00 -  Today we sailed with very good sea conditions, there was no waves and no wind, just perfect. After seeing some puffins at the island of Engey our whale watching tour started. Due to the weather conditions was quite easy to see the fins at the surface of the water so didn't took too long before we spot the first cetaceans of the tour. Some white beaked dolphins appeared close to thea boat, jumping everywhere and passing really close to the boat, we could even seem them under the water. While seeing the dolphins 1 humpback whale appeared in the middle of them, very easy to distinguish due to the massive noise made by the blow. After spending some time with this animal we went further in the bay to spot something else. 2 Minke whales were following our boat from the side, and 1 of them passed less than 1 meter from the boat! The perfect way to finish an amazing tour.

Crew: Daniel & Rodrigo

14:00 - We had our hopes very high but expectations low, the morning was very eventful! We just headed straight to try to see the whales. After a bit of searching around, we spotted a big flock of birds hanging on the surface, sunbathing. Among them, we spotted a pod of  5-6 white-beaked dolphins that was joined by another 2 pods. A bit far away we could spot harbour porpoises just traveling. We continued going to the middle of the bay just to find more sightings, a minke whale being very nice to us! After that, we saw 2 humpback whales giving nice fluke dives all together with the dolphins! A very nice day out there and to top it all up, we stopped at Akurey to check our beloved puffins.

Crew: Gunni & Pedro 

16:00 - The seas were flatter than I have ever seen since living in Iceland. With these beautiful conditions, we could see even the slightest movement on the water and therefore the sightings were non-stop. We probably saw 20-30 minke whales in total, some in the distance and others very close to the boat. We also had an incredible sighting with white-beaked dolphins who were curious and started playing around the boat. Towards the end of the tour we spotted a humpback whale and saw a beautiful fluke dive, but then the whale stayed under for a long time. The last sighting was of another individual, but when that humpback whale also went for a dive we headed to Reykjavík, with on the way back still lots and lots of animals showing themselves on the surface.

Crew: Daniel & Eline

20:00 - This tour was one like no other we have ever experienced. We started seeing a few minke whales surfacing around us, and when they went for a deep dive we continued further into the bay. Quickly, we came across a pod of white-beaked dolphins, and in the same area we heard and saw the blow of a humpback whale. Little did we know, the area was packed with these animals: probably almost 100 individuals of white-beaked dolphins and 10 humpback whales. We stayed with these animals for around an hour, mostly with our engine turned off as the animals were all around us. It's hard to describe the feeling of being surrounded by so many marine mammals, and especially when we noticed that they were interested in the boat and sometimes came extremely close to us. It was hard to know where to look, because there were animals all around us. Some humpback whales were lunge feeding under an enormous flock of birds, others were swimming side by side, many dolphins were jumping around us, and probably all the individuals were very focused on the incredible abundance of fish that must have been present in the area. We feel very lucky to have been in the middle of this experience, and it's something that passengers and crew will remember for a long time. 

Crew: Daniel & Eline

Today we are running a full schedule of whale watching with tours at 1000, 1200, 1400, 1600 and 2000, and puffin watching at 1030, 1300 & 1600. 

For more information come see us at Ægisgarður 5D, call us on +354 497 0000

or email us at info@whalesafari.is