Whale Diary

10:00 -  The sea state these past few days has been incredible, with the sea being flat as glass.  We did have some fog in our tour, which made finding the whales a bit more challenging, but also provided a fantastically beautiful scenery. The fog didn´t stop us from finding cetaceans though, as short after departure we came across a group of 15 white-beaked dolphins. These showed some curiosity, investigating our boat and even doing a couple breaches, before getting back to their hunt. We continued our trip, and soon enough, came across a juvenile humpback whale. We didn´t spent much time with it, as soon we got the news of a second humpback (this one was lunge-feeding) and went to spend some time with it. In that same area, 4 minke whales were also feeding, and surfaced multiple times close to our boat. We used our speedboats to move around the different cetaceans in the bay and had a few more sightings of the white-beaked dolphins and the humpback whales, before heading back to Reykjavík.

Crew: Captain Óðinn & Guide Ricardo, Captain Megan & Guide Anna

12:00 -  As we headed out to sea today the weather was pretty good, just a little bit of rain but nothing too bad. We sailed for about 20 minutes before spotting our first minke whale, which was really exciting! Not long after that, we saw two more minkes nearby, popping up here and there. A bit further out, we came across a pair of harbour porpoises, darting around quickly and then disappearing again. The best part came when we got even further offshore — there were two humpback whales just resting and moving really slowly. They’d come up, hang at the surface for a bit, and then fluke their big tails before sinking back down. We stayed with them for a while, just watching, until it was time to head back to the harbour.

Crew: Captain Pedro & Guide Maria

14:00 -  This afternoon we sailed out once more into our magical bay, it was extremely calm and the sky melted into the ocean. After a quick pit stop for puffins, we cruised through these cuties before going further out. We sailed and searched and then stumbled onto a pod of white beaked dolphins. These were swimming under and around us and then starting showing off their acrobatic skills and jumping and flipping out of the water. We then eventually onwards and quickly found a humpback whale! This whale was very friendly, coming up multiple times and then it started lunge feeding. Not only was there this humpback lunge feeding but also 7 minke whales were in this area doing the same! Its quite rare to see minkes and humpback lunge-feeding so this was truly special. Eventually time ran out and we returned to harbour floating along the sky/ocean as we did. 

Crew: Captain Óðinn & Guide Ricardo, Captain Megan & Guide Anna

16:00 -  This afternoon the sea was calm and still — perfect for heading out. We stopped by Engey first to see some puffins, then sailed a bit further to look for whales. After about 20 minutes, we came across a small pod of three white-beaked dolphins. They were a bit shy though, so we kept going, scanning the horizon for blows. In the distance, we spotted a humpback whale moving slowly. A little further out we heard about two more humpbacks, so we went to check them out — and just as we got closer, one of them breached! Such an incredible sight. We stayed with them for a while, watching as they surfaced and fluked, and even noticed about four minke whales moving around nearby. Just as we were about to head back, the humpback breached again — an amazing way to end the afternoon.

Crew: Captain Pedro & Guide Maria

20:00 -  The seas were as good as flat with hazy skies above. First we encountered a humpback whale, who was clearly feeding as it was going back and forth on very short dives, lifting its fluke nice and high. Then we spotted 2 minke whales feeding as well, with one performing an impressive lungefeed! Our third stop was with a very active pod of around 10 white-beaked dolphins going all around us, with some spyhops, headslaps and even some jumps! At that point it was time to start turning back again and after a quick stop by the same humpback, we sailed back with the sunset behind us.

Crew: Captain Eggert & Milan, Captain Öddi & Guide Orsolya