Whale Diary

09:00 - We had a little bit of sun this morning, but the clouds rolled in quite fast and left us with an overcast windy day. We sailed out into the bay with high hopes nevertheless. Fairly soon in the tour one of our boats spotted some blows, we convened on their position and after a few minutes wait we were greeted by two humpback whales! They were side by side, laying effortless on the surface of a choppy sea. We stayed with these two individuals for a while, until other boats started to arrive, then we decided to move and give these whales more space. We headed further into the bay, in search of other creatures. Soon enough we spotted various blows, and were met with an incredible sight. This time, three humpback whales! Side by side, diving and surfacing together, truly incredible. We could have stayed with them for hours, unfortunately the wind was picking up and we had a ways to go. We returned home with full smiles and a better understanding for these incredible creatures.  

Crew: Captain Pedro & Guide Matteo, Captain Emily & Guide Orsi

12:00 - The afternoon maintained the conditions from the previous tour, overcast and windy with wavy conditions. Fifteen minutes after we left the harbour we spotted a minke whale, a very tricky and elusive whale, difficult to spot. We decided to keep going and soon spotted blows off in the distance. We eventually reached an area teeming with life. We could see blows all around us in the distance. We first met a pair of humpback whales, then a trio of humpbacks and eventually another pair! In total we saw 7 different humpback whale individuals! Each encounter was special and we even got to see a breach in the distance followed by a peduncle throw. Our last encounter was extra magical, as the whales got super close to us before fluke diving into the abyss. We said our goodbyes and zoomed on home, through a wavy and windy sea. Everyone was incredibly grateful of what we had witnessed, and went home more aware of the wonders of the ocean. 

Crew: Captain Pedro & Guide Matteo, Captain Emily & Guide Orsi

15:00 - In the afternoon, the wind had picked up a bit, and we had a light drizzle throughout, but we were optimistic and eager to spot whales. We first arrived in an area with a lot of bird activity, and spotted the dorsal fins of 3 very elusive white-beaked dolphins. We only got to see a couple of glimpses of them, and as they were clearly not open to seeing visitors today, we continued on. We soon had some large blows ahead, and as we got closer, we realized it was a pair of humpback whales. We admired them for a long while, watching them rest at the surface and go for majestic fluke dives. One of them even rolled onto its side, showing off a massive pec slap! We then headed further out, hoping to see something else, and were yet again surrounded by birds, mainly Manx shearwaters, sooty shearwaters, Northern fulmars and a couple Northern gannets as well. We waited in this area for a couple of minutes, but no cetaceans wanted to make themselves known, so we decided to head back to the humpbacks. We saw the pair, still moving together, and got to spend the rest of our time with them before it was time for us to head back to the harbour. What a lovely afternoon!

Crew: Captain Pedro & Guide Orsi