Species seen today: Humpback whale, minke whale, white-beaked dolphin, harbour porpoise

Birds seen today: Atlantic puffin, northern gannet, eider duck, common guillemot, black guillemot, northern fulmar, great black-backed gull, black-legged kittiwake

10:00 - We had a premonition that the tour would be good when we encountered a jumping harbour porpoise within the first mile of the boat ride. Normally, these small animals are shy and don't show themselves too much, but we got to see them a few times from very close and we could even see a calf in the pod! After this very cute sighting, we sailed further in search of larger animals. There were minke whales, white-beaked dolphins and humpback whales in the same area, some of them coming very close to our boats and others staying a bit further away to feed on the abundance of food that is in the bay lately. 

Crew: Captain Daniel & Guide Rodrigo; Captain Steini & Guide Eline

12:00 - We sailed out into the flat sea and with almost no wind, perfect conditions to spot cetaceans! After a quick stop on the puffin island, that's what we did, into Faxaflói. We knew from the previous tours that the whales would be very far away and that we would see something on the way. After a few minutes, we started seeing some fins and backs of 4 or 5 minke whales in a big area but we didn't stop because we wanted to see something bigger! Then, after a while we saw 2 flukes of 2 humpback whales in the area, Davy Jones II and his buddy gently lunge feeding into a bait ball of sandeels! A pod of 5 to 6 white-beaked dolphins joined the party but were very shy to continue with us. We stayed with Davy because he was doing always the same awesome thing: 4 breaths, fluke dive, and lunge feeding! We never got tired of it. After many times doing the same thing he was joined by his buddy and together they did the same thing. In the end, they got really close to us and fluke dived to say goodbye, and Davy did a poo to show his gratitude for us!

Crew: Captain Reynar & Guide Pedro

14:00 - The conditions remained amazing during the afternoon and we could see animals breaking the surface. We first came across a huge flock of seabirds with probably 5 minke whales feeding underneath them. Then we saw the splashes of jumping white-beaked dolphins that also came to inspect our boat. After those wonderful sightings, we wanted to complete the tour by finding a humpback whale. Soon, we found two of them in the same area. Davy Jones II (one of the individuals) was lungefeeding, sometimes right next to us! We could see the sandeels spilling over from their mouths and then the arctic terns going for them. A wonderful tour with the diversity of species being active in Faxaflói. 

Crew: Captain Steini & Guide Rodrigo; Captain Daniel & Guide Eline

16:00 - Out we go, to the middle of the ocean to try to find some cetaceans, whales, dolphins, and porpoises that is! We passed by Akurey to check on the puffins and after that to Faxaflói we went! We had some 4 minke whales, and we stopped to see them and also the sandeels that were on the surface. We had some news of a bigger animal in the area and so we went. We saw the blow and there it was a humpback whale, Davy Jones II to be more precise. He was doing the same behaviour, fluke dive, lunge feed and back at it again! Very close to us we saw another 2 humpbacks but these were just moving around and not doing much. A really nice minke named Humpie showed up and got really close to us!! Then a pod of 7 white-beaked dolphins popped up to say hi! We found Davy once again and we started to head back home. But then, lots of birds showed up and there were at least 10 minkes in that food hall! And a blow too, a 4th humpback showed up, very busy feeding on the sandeels. We were already late and with a flat sea, we went full speed home!

Crew: Captain Steini & Guide Pedro

20:00 - The midnight sun was incredible tonight, and the calm sea reflected the sunlight like a mirror. We arrived to an area with hundreds of seabirds, and soon discovered that there were also probably 15 minke whales feeding on the same fish as the birds. The minke whales came up in all directions we would look, their presence revealed by the sound of their exhales or, in less fortunate cases, the smell of their breath. After some time observing the minke whales, we headed further out and found agroup of 10 white-beaked dolphins. The dolphins brought us to an area with a resting humpback whale. The whale was surfacing in an unusual way: sometimes it slapped its tail just under the surface, sometimes it rolled, but most of the time it stayed completely underwater for a few minutes, so we headed further out to find a different individual. This individual was also resting, but showed us the fluke a bit more often so it was wonderful to get a better look at the gigantic humpback whale. To complete the tour, we found harbour porpoises and watched them swim away in the direction of the sunset before we arrived to the harbour. 

Crew: Captain Steini & Guide Pedro; Captain Daniel & Guide Eline

Today we are running whale watching tours at 1000, 1200, 1400, 1600 & 2000, with puffin watching tours at 1030, 1430 & 1600.

For more information come see us at Ægisgarður 5D, email us at info@whalesafari.is

or call us on +354 497 0000