Whale Diary

10:00 - The sun was shining and the sea was laying flat on today's tour. We got spoilt very early on in the tour when a pod of about 7 white beaked-dolphins appeared with one of them fully leaping out of the water. They were traveling quite fast so after a little while we continued the journey. A humpback whale appeared not too far out from the shore. It was picking up speed and it seemed like it had a clear goal. A few hundred meters in front of it was a big flock of birds feeding together with another humpback whale and roughly 15 white-beaked dolphins. Sure enough, the first humpback whale joined the feeding frenzy and it became a spectacular show. They moved fast and did loud trumpeting and powerful fluke dives and the dolphins came right under the boat and went in all different directions. We carried on the tour and found another humpback whale. However this one was a bit hard to follow since it did quite long dives so we moved on. At this point we found 2 minke whales close to each other. We got a few glimpses but then it was time to head back to the harbour. A successful tour with three out of four of our most commonly seen species.

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

12:00 - Clouds rolled in as we left the harbour but we enjoyed some puffins in the sun before setting of into the bay. We spotted something on the horizon but as we were concentrating to see what is was, a minke whale showed up close to us! This one was very chill, coming up often before taking a deep dive. We left the minke whale to its business and decided to investigate what we saw before. It was two pods of white-beaked dolphins! There were two separate pods of about 7 individuals and suddenly, a humpback whale appeared in the midst! Very cool to see these species together, feeding and interacting. More blows of humpback whales showed up and we kept seeing flukes in every distance. We also saw lots of minke whales all around us, many birds diving, it truly was a feeding frenzy. A few humpbacks were diving in pairs, one of them even lifted its pectoral fin out of the water! On the way back, we ran into more dolphins and saw them bust out some acrobatic skills; jumping out of our wake. It was truly an amazing time at sea!

Crew: Captain Megan & Guide Janiek

13:00 - With some cloudy skies and the sun shining, we bundled up and set sail, excited to see who we would encounter this tour. First we stopped by our puffin island Engey, to admire our feathered friends. There were many puffins basking in the sun both on the island and on the water as well. We then set our sights for the bay! We first spotted one harbor porpoise! As we were watching this individual about 3 more individuals surfaced at varying distances around us. After a few surface sequences, we continued on our way into the bay. After a bit of a sail we saw a dark back in the distance and went to check out who we had found. As we approached we saw it was one humpback whale as well as a pod of 8 white-beaked dolphins. The dolphins seemed to be a bit playful with the humpback, but after a few surfaces the humpback was keeping their distance from the pod. It was wonderful to see the two species interacting and feeding together. As this cluster was feeding another solitary humpback joined in as well! Thus we had two humpbacks feeding together and the pod of dolphins feeding all around us. After a while the humpbacks went their separate ways and so did the dolphins, and so we went off as well. That was when we spotted the blow of another solitary humpback whale! As we approached this individual gave us a wonderful fluke dive! While we waited for the humpback to resurface, two solitary minke whales were feeding on either side of the boat in the distance! After multiple surface intervals and another fluke dive from our humpback, we waved this individual goodbye and started sailing back to port. On the way we saw the same pod of dolphins heading further out into the bay and so we stopped to admire them again before going back to port. What a great tour!

Crew: Captain Anna & Guide Sam

14:00 - This tour was offering A LOT of magnificent things! The sightings started off with 3 minke whales feeding in an area. A big blow caught our eye in the far distance and we ended up with a beautiful humpback whale. However, it was not alone, but accompanied by a pod of around 6 white-beaked dolphins. The dolphins were leaping out of the water and they all seemed to feed on fish below with the humpback whale. The whale started to roll and was at some points completely on its back and you could see the entire body through the water, the ruffled belly and the tail fluke coming up sideways through the surface. The eye even came out of the water and looked at us. During this encounters the dolphins were going left and right, feeding right next to our boat and we could clearly see them through the water. We headed on and we had 2 more humpback whales. They were doing some beautiful fluke dives. During the wait for the humpbacks to resurface, we had approximately 6 more minke whales at different parts of the tour. We ended the tour strongly with yet 2 more humpback whales, and just like the previous ones they showed off their beautiful flukes and we got to share this peaceful moment alone with no other boats. An absolutely fantastic day out at sea!

Crew:  Captain Pedro & Guide Frida

16:00 - With overcast skies it was chilly but the sea was amazing, calm and clear. It turned out to be a busy tour. We stopped by Engey to look at the adorable puffins before heading out in the bay. After 30min of sailing, a minke whale made its appearance, feeding on some lovely things below the surface. On the radio, we heard rumors about some big whales in the area so we started heading in that direction, when two blows showed up on our left. These turned out to be two humpback whales! They showed their fluke, giving us time to move over. Close to us, two more humpback whales appeared, then another in the distance heading towards us! So five in total around us. These whales were all busy feeding, going for dives, doing impressive loud trumpeting! We were having a lovely time with these animal, when in the background a whale breached! It started tail slapping, jumping over and over again. It stopped when we came a bit closer, but there turned out to be three more humpback whales together! These one even surfaced very close to the boat, giving us a jump scare. They were rolling around, feeding, lodging, doing all kind of cool behavior, even showing some annoyance when a minke whale came a bit too close. Sadly, we ran out of time and had to go back. It didn´t stop the nature from surprising us though, because we saw a glimpse of minke whale and even an pod of 5 harbour porpoises! 

Crew: Captain Megan  & Guide Janiek

20:00 - We headed out onto calm, flat seas reflecting the clouds overhead painting the scene silver. After a brief stop at Engey to admire the Atlantic puffins, we continued out, deep into the bay to spot some cetaceans. Our first sighting was a pod of 10-11 white-beaked dolphins! We got to see this lovely pod swimming around for a bit before deciding to continue on towards an area with huge flocks of seabirds. It was clear we had stumbled upon a feeding frenzy, the prime dinner spot in the bay this evening marked by the excited feeding birds and the hungry whales gathering around. All around us, we had 10-12 humpback whales, 5 of which we got closer to, the rest making their presence known with their large blows and majestic fluke dives. The five we decided to focus on consisted of a pair feeding together and 3 individuals initially scattered over a large area, one of which was local celebrity Davy Jones II! Living up to his reputation, Davy put on quite the show for us pec slapping and spy hopping. We also got to see bubble net feeding around and at one point under our boat (curtesy of Davy)! We got to see many magnificent lunges and even had 4-5 minke whales make quick appearances and performing their own impressive lunges in the distance. We got to witness this epic scene for a good while absolutely surrounded by activity, and satisfied with these sightings began making our way back towards the harbour. On our way, we got a lovely little surprise in the form of 2 small pods of 3 harbour porpoises. What a beautiful evening out on the bay!

Crew: Captain Megan & Guide Orsi, Captain Miquel & Guide Sam