Species seen today: White-beaked dolphin, Minke whale, Humpback whale

Birds seen today: Northern gannet, Great cormorant, Arctic tern, Herring gull, Black-headed gull, Atlantic puffin, Great black-backed gull, Eider duck, Black guillemot, Common guillemot, Arctic skua

10:00 - Excited to spend time on the water on this unusually sunny day, we motored out of Reykjavik to make a quick stop at the puffin colony at Engey. As some of the puffins flew further into the bay, so did we in our search for whales and dolphins. We arrived in an area with at least six humpback whales, two of whom were peduncle slapping and rolling at the surface. We were even lucky enough to see two spyhops! We then found some white beaked dolphins who came to inspect our boat and swam around us for a little bit. On the way back we encountered more dolphins and humpback whales and sailed back with the sun in our faces.

Crew: Captain Daniel and Guide Eline

12:00 - What a tour. After a quick stop to Akurey seeing many cute puffins we went out in the bay to find some nice whales. And like this morning they were just everywhere. We saw blows coming from 10-20 humpback whales! It was not easy to decide where to go and we just started seeing whales diving everywhere around us, showing their tail. The animals where feeding, with many Arctic terns around. Then we found a particular humpback whale that decided to go through all the different behaviour that can possibly be done, first peduncle throw, then tail slap from both sides, deep dive, two breaches, pectoral slapping. It stopped with this acrobatic behaviour to start lunge-feeding on fish that we saw jumping a second before the animal taking a mouthful of water. We were even seeing some bubbles that the whale was probably used to gather the fish around. When we thought the tour could not get better, we spotted a minke whale behind us and a pod of 5-7 white-beaked dolphins jumping! A few of them came close to us and even under our boat! It was time for us to get back still under a beautiful sun.

Crew: Captain Reynar and Guide Miquel

14:00 - We start off with a beautiful day with a blazing sun on our faces, it's sunscreen time! Before heading to the middle of the bay, we passed by Engey to check on the puffins! after that, we sailed off into the distance to find some cetaceans. After some 20 minutes, a splash was seen among a big flock of birds. It was 2 minke whales milling from one flock to another. We had many blows close by and so we went to investigate that! We had 9 to 12 humpback whales in the area, they did lots of nice behaviors such as pectoral slapping, tail slapping, and lunge feeding! Joined with them we had 1 pod of 5 to 7 white-beaked dolphins jumping around and mocking the whales! We switched around every whale to get to know them, we found Davy Jones II, Neila and Canva! We stayed in that area all the time, we had very close encounters and everyone was happy! The time was over and we decided to head back to that harbour with a very sunny day out there!

Crew: Captain Daniel & Guide Pedro

16:00 - There were lots of animals in the bay today, and although the wind picked up a bit and there were some white-caps on the water, we could still see animals everywhere. We had some wonderful views of humpback whales - some of whom were individuals we know very well such as Davy Jones II and Neila. A pod of white-beaked dolphins was also in the area, and they came to play around our boat. There was probably a lot of food, because there were many seabirds flying around and also an unusual amount of cetaceans.

Crew: Captain Daniel & Guide Eline

20:00 - There was still a bit of wind this evening when we eft the harbour but the weather was wonderful with a nice blue sky and the low sun that makes it quite easy to spot the blows. We stopped in Akurey to see the Atlantic puffins breeding there, flying around and laying in the water. Very cute. Then we left further out, sometimes splashed by waves. It was a bit choppy but perfectly fine for our boat. We found an area with many birds but also a lot of blows that we spotted from afar. We got there and started observing 10-15 humpback whales! It was incredible to see so many feeding and diving. They were generally in small groupd of 2-3 individuals feeding under flocks of Arctic terns obviously very excited to still some fish from the humpbacks. We spotted whales that we recognized like Neila, Canva and Davy Jones II. At some point, one of them, I believe Canva, opened its mouth and surfaced putting its all head outside of the water! Right in front of us! Incredible tour. At least 2 pods of 5-7 white-beaked dolphins came around the humpback whales, sometimes jumping, sometiems swimming under our boat. We were out of time so we headed back to the harbour with the beautiful evening light. 

Crew: Captain Megan & Guide Miquel

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