Whale Diary

10:00 - This morning started as beautiful sunshine but as we left the harbour, a thick fog descended over the bay. Although it reduced our visibility, the sea was still calm. We made a quick stop to see the first puffins of the season arriving around Akurey and then continued our journey out into the bay. After a little search, we found a pod of 4 white-beaked dolphins. They were not very interested in staying around the boats however, so after watching them a little, we decided to leave them in peace and continue our tour. We then spotted a minke whale that was equally as shy as the dolphins but as we moved to a different area, we started seeing minke after minke! All together it was another 5 minke whales after the first elusive one. One of these whales came right up to our boat so we could see the whole body of the individual. Amazing! Then all of a sudden a tiny pod of 3 harbour porpoises popped up but very quickly disappeared again. We didn't mind because in the distance we could see some more activity. We approached the area and it was full of dolphins! There was a large pod of around 50 individuals spread out all around us. Some of them were jumping, some were very curious and came right under our boats. Then we saw and heard the huge blow of a humpback whale in amongst all the dolphins. It was incredible to have so much life all around us. As we were very far from the harbour we could only see the humpback a few times before we had to turn back but it was the perfect finish. A Faxafloi Bay Bingo! 

Crew: Captain Pedro & Guide Knut, Captain Miquel & Guide Emily

14:00 - Again we went out onto the bay to find the whales. The fog had lifted from the hours before and so we had much better visibility. After a quick stop for the puffins on Akurey, we went further out onto the bay. After some time we spotted some dorsal fins at the surface and as we went closer we found ourselves surrounded by around 30 white-beaked dolphins. These were searching for food and spread over a wide area around our boat. But a few came close to investigate what we might be up to and surfaced just a mere meter away from us. Also a total of 4 minke whales were in the same area but these stayed under water for long times as they were most likely feeding deep below. A big blow in the distance indicated that also a humpback whale was near by and so we went along and took a good look at this big animal as well. On our wy back to Reykjavik we spotted a small pod of around 6 harbour porpoises resting near the surface. A quite rare behavior to observe from these shy little guys. Again, with our four main species seen, we can call this another great tour!

Crew: Captain Pedro & Guide Knut, Captain Miquel & Guide Emily