Whale Diary

10:00 - Today the bay woke up in a cloudy sky, but even through calm sea conditions for our whale watching tours. So we put our layers of clothes and the overalls on and we went out for another adventure at the sea. Before heading further into the bay we stopped in Akurey, one of the three Puffin colonies we have close to Reykjavik. Hundreds of Puffins were flying around above the island and others were resting at the surface of the water. After this fantastic stop, we continued sailing north. At a distance we could spot an area with other boats, probably they were observing a cetacean at the surface. But we decided to wait a little bit to enter in this observation area. We wanted to avoid too much noise pollution around the animals. One of our boats was lucky enough to see a active pod of 7/8 white beaked dolphins, jumping and bow-riding close to them. It was a very special moment. Later just our three zodiacs were alone with a humpback whale, one single individual that showed at the beginning its beautiful tail and spent other surfacing moments resting very calm at the surface of the water. Several times we had the whale very closed and we could see this gentle giant breathing next to us. What a privilege!. A great start of the day! 

Crew: Captain Emily & Guide Hannah, Captain Helgi & Guide Ricardo, Captain Leó & Guide María

14:00 - Our tour ventured into Faxa bay with a group of excited and well-humored passengers. We stopped by Engey island to see some puffins, which sometime in the next few weeks, will likely leave Iceland after finishing their breeding season. We saw hundreds of birds on Engey, before heading out to search for whales. It didn't take long for our search to pay off, since soon we found a humpback whale. The humpback seemed to be foraging for food, surfacing for very quick periods, before going for a deep dive, repeating this pattern throughout the encounter. We were lucky to have the whale surface close to us quite a few times and allowing us the chance to see it's beautifull tail from up close, before it went for a dive. On the way back, we set coarse towards Reykjavík and had to navigate against the waves, providing a bumpy but fun experience for our adventurous guests.

Crew: Captain Emily & Guide Hannah, Captain Helgi & Guide Ricardo

16:00 - The sun appeared between the clouds here and there as we sailed out into choppy seas. We had to go out quite far into the bay for this one but our search payed off as we found a humpback whale! This was a fast travelling individual so we had to put in quite some effort to stick with it. Regardless of that we had a great encounter, with the whale going on many short dives, each being announced by a nice and high fluke! Eventually, we had to return home, enjoying a genuine ocean joyride on the way back!

Crew: Captain Helgi & Guide Milan

20:00 - Clouds had rolled in and the sea was still quite choppy, but top our great surprise we managed to find a humpback whale much closer than any other today! It was a very active whale, clearly very busy getting its evening dinner. It moved around from area to area, each time feeding on the fish around. We even saw a perfect lungefeed, allowing us to spot the baleen plates right inside its mouth! I On a few occasions, we also managed to see the whale quite close, allowing us to fully take in its size! After an amazing long time with the whale, we had to head back, now facing the rain. A wet ending to an otherwise perfect evening!

Crew: Captain Emily & Guide Milan