Whale Diary

10:00 - Today we went out with flat seas and little to no wind. The conditions were fantastic to spot anything and we were excited to be out in the sea with our favorite animals! We passed by Akurey, one of the islands where some puffins nest. After seeing a bunch of them all around the boat, we headed into Faxaflói bay and it didn't take long util we first saw our first species: a pod of 6-8 harbour porpoises that came so close to the boat and passed right underneath our boat. Later, we saw a fluke and went to check it out, but before getting there we spotted a minke whale on our front! The other animal was a humpback whale and we got to see both of them very well. We decided to continued, until we spotted a blow and it was another humpback!  This one was calm and beautiful on the surface, even logging, while another minke whale popped up in the same area. We then spotted white-beaked dolphins, about 8 of them spread around in different distances. They came very close to us and we got amazed by their size! We then decided to move to another area and we saw 3 more dolphins travelling in our direction, but we saw something bigger in the distance and, getting there, we had 2 more humpbacks, swimming side by side. We ended up seeing all 4 main species. What a tour!

Crew: Captain Gunni & Guide Sigrún, Captain Miquel & Guide Milla

12:00 - After a wet day yesterday, we had best conditions today. Cloudy but dry, with a slight breeze from the west. After a short visit to the puffins on Engey we went further out onto the bay. Soon we spotted the blow of a humpback whale in the distance. As we got closer, the humpback breached and seconds later another humpback breached a few hundred meters away. Then "our" humpback breached a second time and rolled on the surface. It was spectacular to see these giants lifting their masses out of the water at such close range. We went on to get a closer look at another humpback and on our way home, we came across a minke whale. Most of the time this animals tend to take off soon after we spot them, but this one stayed around the boat for a few minutes so we got a good look at him. A wonderful tour on a beautiful day.

Crew: Captain Kylie & Guide Knut

14:00 - This tour started with a nice stop at Engey, one of the puffin islands near Reykjavík! Once we headed out further into the bay, we were quickly greeted by a playful pod of 7-10 white-beaked dolphins who displayed their acrobatic skills with leaps and twists in the air! After enjoying the company of these dolphins for a bit, we moved on in search of something bigger. Soon enough, we found a lone humpback whale who surfaced a few times, and even came quite close to the boat! Then, we got word of another whale further away who was having a bit of fun, so we headed there. We could see the whale pec-slapping as we approached its location, but it had calmed down when we arrived and we enjoyed some nice fluke dives from it. Then, we moved further north and found our third humpback whale, the beloved Davy Jones II! We watched Davy Jones with awe as he, too, gave us an amazing look at his scarred flukes, which told the story of a past orca attack. Then, we ended our tour with a visit to our fourth humpback whale individual of the day! And what a day it had been. We returned to harbour absolutely overjoyed at these amazing encounters!

Crew: Captain Gunni & Guide Sigrún, Captain Miquel & Guide Milla

16:00 - After a visit to the puffins on Engey, we wet out against the wind that had picked up a bit. After a short while we spotted the splashes of fast traveling white-beaked dolphins on the horizon. As we got closer, we could see that it was a pod of about 10-15 individuals. They swam and jumped around the boat and even followed us as we went on to see a humpback whale that surfaced nearby. It was traveling fast and covered quite some distance between some nice fluke dives. Another humpback surfaced near by and so we decided to stay with him for a while until we had to head back to Reykjavik. On the way back we saw some more dolphins on the surface in the distance. What a great tour on a great day. 

Crew: Captain Kylie & Guide Knut

20:00 - Tonight we sailed onto our beautiful bay with great weather conditions. It was just a bit cloudy so we could enjoy the beautiful sunset while we were sailing west. After leaving the harbor, we decided to stop on an area with a lot of arctic terns to check if there was a larger animal feeding under the surface. All of a sudden, we spotted the dorsal fin of a minke whale. It was a little shy but we were able to stay with it for some minutes, so we could take a good look at it every time it surfaced. However, it wasn't very friendly so we decided to let it have dinner and we went to look for something else. Later, we spotted a humpback whale. We saw the blow from the distance, but after coming closer, we saw that it was also having dinner. We could even see it lunge feeding a couple of times. Then, a pod of 5 white beaked dolphins came also to join the feast. They were very friendly and were swimming under the boat and even bow-riding for a little bit. It was very beautiful to see the humpback and the dolphins interact. However, we were quite far so we had to say goodbye and go back to port. 

Crew: Captain Kylie & Guide Guillermo