Whale Diary

09:00 - Snow dusted the top of the mountain Esja this morning, so we layered up and set sail on this beautiful Autumn morning. As we sailed out we had clear skies and amazing visibility of the horizon around us. We spotted a blow and went to check it out. We had found a trio of humpback whales! As we were watching these individuals we noticed that there was another solitary individual in the same area. With four humpbacks we had very short durations between sightings which allowed for mostly continuous viewing. We recognized one individual as Banana! Both RIBs also had humpbacks surface very close, which was amazing! It was great to be able to see their white pectorals glide just under the waters surface, and hear them as they took a breath. After a wonderful viewing we decided to see who else was around. One boat spotted a surface interval of 3 individual minke whales and both boats saw 2 harbor porpoises for a surface interval. After a bit of a sail we stopped by our humpbacks again before heading back to port. What a great start to the day on the bay!

Crew: Captain Miquel & Guide Emily, Captain Pedro & Guide Sam

12:00 - This afternoon was still beautiful and sunny! We sailed out on lovely calm seas under completely blue skies. Just after passing the island of Akurey, we spotted a minke whale feeding between the island and Grotta lighthouse. One time, we even saw it lunge feed so hard almost half of its body came out of the water! An incredible start to the tour. We continued our sail out into the bay and passed a small pod of around 3 harbour porpoises and saw two more big minke whales! We then found 2 separate but equally curious juvenile minke whales! Both of them came very close to the boat to inspect us. We could follow them under the water, watching their bodies through the surface and seeing their bright white pectoral fins! Absolutely amazing! While we were with one of these minkes, we spotted a humpback whale nearby so said goodbye to our new friends and went to check out this larger individual. We managed to see a couple of surface sequences of this humpback and while we were waiting for it to reappear after a deep dive, one of our friendly minke whales even followed us to do some people watching! After this we unfortunately had to head back to the harbour but it was definitely hard to leave all this wildlife behind.

Crew: Captain Miquel & Guide Emily

15:00 - The conditions for the last tour of the day were amazing! Blue skies, calm seas and visibility all the way to Snæfellsjökull! Between Akurey and Grotta, we found the same feeding minke whale from the previous tour. The minke was still feeding and even lunge feeding! When we saw it lunge, it rolled to its side and even saw the white and pink of its belly. After this wonderful first sighting, we continued out and spotted a couple of pods of harbour porpoises. There was the first small pod of 4 individuals and later on a larger pod of around 10 individuals. In between the porpoises, we also spotted a humpback whale! This individual was very relaxed at the surface, it was taking slightly longer dives than normal so maybe it was feeding close to the sea floor. However, the wait was worth it when it came to the surface as it stayed for a while and then showed off with a fluke dive each time. After all this excitement, we had to go back to the harbour but it was a great end to a fantastic day!

Crew: Captain Miquel & Guide Emily