Whale Diary

10:00 - We left the harbour in cloudy overcast weather, with small waves, pretty good conditions for spotting cetaceans. We saw a lot of feeding birds in the bay, and of course, not far, a pair of feeding humpback whales as well as a minke whale joining the feast. After witnessing many gorgeous fluke dives, we moved on to other blows in the distance, more humpbacks. The bay was alive with feeding whales in all directions, overwhelming us with choices. We headed towards a familiar fluke, known here as Mr. Bubbles, always a treat to see! We then spent some time with another pair travelling together, but moved on to a blow in the distance. It turned out to be yet another pair of humpback whales, and we were surprised by some nearby splashes of something much smaller and much quicker: white-beaked dolphins! We were treated to quite a display from these dolphins, as they played with the pair of humpbacks. There were rolls, leaps, head slaps, pec slaps and even a spy hop! A fitting finale to a lovely tour!

Crew: Captain Óðinn & Guide Frida, Captain Emily & Guide Orsolya

12:00 - We set out with a slight drizzle overhead a a bit of a bumpy sea. We first made our stop at a crowded Akurey full of puffins, before we set further out to find the whales. We searched until we found an incredibly lively spot! here we saw 3 Humpback whales around us, 2 of them were interacting with a pods of white-beaked dolphins. Creating an incredibly entertaining spectacle with jumping dolphins and rolling humpbacks. In-betweens all this the dolphins came to say hi close to our boat on several occasions and one time a humpback surfaced less than 2 meters away! A big splash in the distance eventually caught our attention so we went to check it out. This was another humpback whale and while it seemed very calm at first, it then treated us to an incredible peduncle throw! At that moment we got a very excited message, a pod of 6 Orcas had been sighted! Hastily we went over there and got to spend some amazing time with this pod as they were cruising around. What a tour!

Crew: Captain Pedro & Guide Milan

14:00 - We set out for the afternoon tour in drizzling rain and mild winds. We headed deep into the bay, and spotted quite a few blows in one area. We picked the closest one, and headed over to get a better look. It was a feeding humpback whale, chased by the seabirds each time it came to the surface. We saw many gorgeous fluke dives, and headed to another fluke in the area, another humpback. This individual also displayed the same characteristic surfacing sequence and dive pattern, a few quick shallow dives followed by beautiful fluke dives and popping up in rather unexpected places after a few minutes. Clearly, there was a feast in the area, and the whales were busy feeding under the waves. We also caught a quick glimpse of a minke whale sneaking right behind us, quite close! We chose to move on to yet another humpback in the area, and headed to what we thought would be our third humpback of the tour. But it was actually a mother-calf pair! We followed this pair for the remainder of the tour, as it is a very special sight to see such a young humpback! What a wonderful finale to this great tour!

Crew: Captain Emily & Guide Orsolya

16:00 - The weather was still as before and so after bumping around a bit on the way out, we spotted our first whale. This whale was a humpback whale but as we only managed to spot a couple blows, before it vanished, we decided to move onwards towards some big splashes. We quickly realised these splashes were made by an incredibly active humpback whale calf! This calf gave us the show of a lifetime as it was practicing its breaches, roll and pec slaps for over an hour, alongside its mother that was very busy bubble net feeding. At some point, the calf got particularly interested in our boat as it came to check us out for a bit, quickly drawn away by its careful mother. This didn´t stop it in its excitement though so it continued its excited leaps and rolls, even when 2 more humpbacks came around to see what all the fuss was about. This little fella gave us an unforgettable afternoon at sea, and it'll be talk of the town for quite some time!

Crew: Captain Pedro & Guide Milan

20:00 - the sea was still a bit choppy and the clouds overhead were still thick. Nevertheless, we sailed out excited for this evening´s tour. First, we encountered the mother and calf humpback whales we saw earlier today, now swimming peacefully next to each other. After a bit of time, we gave them their well-deserved rest and went onwards. We then found an incredible spot with 6 humpback whales all feeding in the same area. Some of these whales were accompanied by white-beaked dolphins,  delivering us a very interactive display. One of the whales also did a very high spyhop close to our boat, clearly checking us out. Another whale we could identify as the all too familiar Davy Jones II, now very busy feeding as well. We spent most of our time around all these individuals, taking in the sightings. On the way back, we did see another humpback performing breaches and peduncle throws in the distance. As we got closer, we managed to get a fine nice and close peduncle throws until he settled down. We took that as our sign to go and so happy we sailed back to Reykjavik.

Crew: Captain Emily & Guide Milan