Whale Diary

10:00 - Today is seaman's day in Iceland and out to sea we went! The weather was wonderful, the sun was out, the clouds were fluffy and the mountains are finally turning green. We stopped by Akurey and saw many Atlantic puffins on the water and on the rocks. After a bit, we started our journey into the bay. It turned out to be a fantastic trip for humpback whales! There were so many around, all boats were very spread out. We stopped to take a closer look at three of them. They were all very calm. Two of them came a bit closer to the boat and we saw a few flukes as well! As we were observing a humpback, one passenger noticed another whale very close by. It turned out to be a very young minke whale that inspected the boat. It circled us once and then disappeared. We could even see its white flipper bands through the surface. While we were with another humpback we discovered some tiny birds sitting on the surface. We identified them after the trip as red-necked phalaropes which belong to the sandpiper family and can only be observed in Iceland for a short time every year. After observing the highest fluke lift of the trip, we started heading back to Reykjavik. On our way in, we even passed by four more humpback whales that we didn't stop for. The trip was truly amazing!

Crew: Captain Gunni & Guide Ricardo, Captain Miquel & Guide Hannah

12:00 - We set sail from Reykjaik port to the sounds of seamans day festival under sunny skies. Our first stop was Akurey island, where we got to enjoy the company of Atlantic puffins, there were large numbers of them, resting and lounging on the rocky shore. From there we headed further out to sea in search for something bigger. It didn't take long before we had our fist encounter. They were 4 Harbour porpoises thought the y were elusive and soon we decided to press on. Soon after. We were rewarded with a spectacular sighting. Five white-beaked dolphins and two humpback whales. We spent a good while enjoying the scene. Eventually the dolphins moved off, and we followed them until they led us to another humpback whale. The highlight of the whole trip came when this individual grew curious and approached our boat, surfacing just a few meters away. It was absolutely breathtaking. After this we made our way back to port with huge smiles after a truly beautiful day on the water   

Crew: Captain Reynar & Guide Lefteris

14:00 - We left the harbour and headed immediately into Faxalói Bay to search for whales. We first sighted two humpback whales, swimming a hundred meters away from each other, more or less. We remained close to one of them, seeing the whale surfacing and diving a few times, showing us it´s  beautiful fluke. We then left the whale be and continued our search. Our next sighting was also of a humpback whale. This one was smaller, likely a juvenile. But, it definitely was the best sighting, as the whale was waving it´s tail and pectoral fins towards us and, eventually breached some 50 meters from us! We then headed back to Reykjavík, quickly stopping by Akurey island to finish with some nice puffins.

Crew: Captain Gunni & Guide Ricardo, Captain Miquel & Guide Hannah

16:00 - We set sail under cloudy skies, though we managed to stay dry throughout ,even as rain fell in ather parts of the Faxafloy bay. Our first destination was Akurey island, home to a spectacular colony of Atlantic puffins. More than twenty thousand of them nest and breed on this island.

From there, we continued further out to sea. Our first wildlife encounter was a pot of four harbour porpoises a delightful surprise, as this species tends to quite shy and elusive. This time , however they were curious and lingered with us for a good while, making for a really special interaction.

We continued our journey further unlit we found a humpback whale, which we spent a generous amount of time with. It proved to be a wonderful encounter and just before we turned to head back, the whale gave us a parting gift  by breaching. We returned to port with big smiles all around after a truly memorable day on the water.

Crew: Captain Reynar & Guide Lefteris