Whale Diary

10:00 - With a cool breeze and clouds we bundled up and set sail. First we admired our Atlantic puffins before setting our sights for the bay. Further out into the bay we spotted the dorsal of 15 white-beaked dolphins. Some were very curious and came to give us a bit of a boat inspection! It is always so thrilling when our cetaceans become curious about us as we do about them! They kept swimming under the boat and circling all around us.  After a wonderful encounter our dolphins swam away and so we continued. While we were watching the pod of dolphins the other boat encountered 2 solitary minke whales! Not too far away from our dolphins were some blows and so we went to check them out. As we got closer we realized we had spotted a pair of humpback whales! There was even a third humpback surfacing farther away in the distance. Our pair of humpbacks were really relaxed and showed us some double fluke dives! Conditions were calm and so we could track our humpbacks swimming by watching their white pectoral fins underneath the surface. It is always so nice when they are calm as we had very prolonged surface intervals. After a great encounter it was time to wave the bay goodbye and head back to port. What a nice way to start the day!

Crew: Captain Emily & Guide Sam, Captain Megan & Guide María Ana

12:00 - This afternoon we had quite the adventure! After stopping at Engey for some puffins we headed further out. Very quickly we spotted 1 minke whale, and then another and another! We were in a stinky minke cloud and this smell followed us for a while! Two of the minkes were also lunge feeding which was always quite exciting! We then headed further out and spotted another minke but continued on. We then saw a large black back and headed towards it. This was the back of a humpback whale. It was quite an elusive one so we headed ion, only to spot another blow so we headed that way! While we were waiting for our humpback again a pod of 7 white beaked dolphins zoomed past us! They were quite quick so we let them do their thing and continued waiting for the humpback whale. Then at long last - thar she blows! The humpback was very close to us and came up multiple times and always showed the fluke. When it was under water, we could still watch the dolphins as well. This humpback also did a line of bubbles to help trap the food. Very exciting! Eventually we did have to say good bye though and sail back home.  

Crew: Captain Pedro & Guide Anna

14:00 - This afternoon we sailed into the bay with a quick stop in Engey to check out some puffins! as we left the island we found a small pod of about 10 white beaked dolphins swimming around us and the pod had a baby! We left the dolphins and sailed farther just to find a minke whale resurfacing multiple times, then we saw a blow! A humpback whale was close by! As we got closer we could see the humpback whale feeding! A lot of birds around the area and the whale creating some bubble clouds just under the boat and then resurfacing super close to us! We saw a different blow and we went to check it out and saw it´s fluke going into the water. We stayed a bit longer and went went around for a sail and spotted another minke whale!  We eventually decided to return back to Reykjavik after a great afternoon!

Crew: Captain Emily & Guide Sam, Captain Megan & Guide María Ana

16:00 - This afternoon we got into the cosy overalls and headed out to the open ocean. It was  not a long sail until we spotted a huge flock of birds - this is always very promising! As we got closer to the flock we saw it was actually two flocks, one on our left with two humpback whales feeding under it, and one on our right with a pod of 10 white beaked dolphins underneath it! We tried to start with the dolphins as there was a few boats already on the humpback whales. However they had something else in mind and came quite close to us. So we stopped for a moment to enjoy! We then headed to the dolphins that were feeding all over the place and swimming all around - including underneath us! The dolphins ended up swimming towards the humpback whales, so we ended up with them as well. Then we just enjoyed the two humpback feeding, eventually they started lunge feeding as well as bubble-net feeding! It was very special and we all felt in awe. There was a moment where the one of them came up directly next to us and we could truly see the size of it! We did eventually have to sail home and stopped at one of the puffin islands on the way home!

Crew: Captain Pedro & Guide Anna  

20:00 - We sailed under cloudy skies to our first stop, Engey, our puffin island where we watched these silly birds waddle along the cliff. Then, we made our way out into the bay and it wasn't long until we spotted a lone humpback whale! This whale was bubble net feeding, and around it we could see rings of turquoise when it surfaced. After spending some time with this whale, we made our way further out where we spotted yet another humpback whale! This one was also feeding, but moving around quite alot. Then, we spotted a small pod of 4-5 white-beaked dolphins who were jumping about but soon disappeared beneath the waves. As we continued on our search, we spotted three more blows in the distance and low and behold there were more humpbacks! These three were also feeding together and we watched them for some time. At this point, we were running late and had to make our way back to the harbour, but with a smile on our faces after this amazing tour!

Crew: Captain Emily & Guide Sigrún