Whale Diary

10:00 - We were excited to head out into the choppy sea this morning. We stopped by the island Engey to have a look at some Atlantic puffins and were delighted to observe these pretty, little birds. Then, we went in search of cetaceans. Out in the bay, we found a pod of 5 very interactive and playful white-beaked dolphins! Some of them kept jumping into the air and all of them joined the boat for inspection and bow-riding. This was so cool! We carried on and tried to observe a minke whale. This one was a little shy and difficult to observe, so we moved on from it quickly. Shortly after that, we found more whales! This time humpbacks. There was two of them feeding together and another 2 nearby. We even saw one of them bubble net feeding! After checking out some flukes, we had to start heading back as we were running out of time. However, we did end up stopping for one more humpback whale. It was Davy Jones II and, boat-friendly as he is, he was swimming towards us. He came close and then showed us his beautiful fluke. What a way to end a trip! On our way back to port, we passed some more dolphins and we also ended up catching some rain drops. Given how the forecast predicted heavy rain, we did not mind these few drops at all. 

Crew: Captain Megan & Guide Hannah, Captain Pedro & Guide Orsi

12:00 - The overcast weather did not lower our mood as we went out. After a short ride we spotted the first blows of a pair of humpback whales. They were busy feeding and so we were able to stay with them for some time as they went for one fluke dive after the other. Some time later we traveled a little further where another pair was also busy feeding. We went to see them up close as well before heading back to the harbor after this great tour.

Crew: Captain Miquel & Guide Knut

14:00 - We headed out onto the bay after a brief stop at one of the Atlantic puffin colonies near the harbour. We soon had our first sighting, a blow from a humpback whale! We stayed with this individual, as it was quite calm and going for frequent fluke dives, but only staying under for a couple minutes. This individual gave us quite a surprise, when out of nowhere, it suddenly breached! After this sudden burst, it was again acting rather calm, once showing off the trumpeting vocalization. We then continued on and found another humpback. After a quick stop, we continued on and came across a rather busy area with a lot of seabirds. This area had 3 more humpbacks, as well as some sneaky minke whales making brief appearances. We stayed with this trio for a lovely time and slowly started turning and making our way back toward the harbour. On our way back we ran into yet another humpback, a bit of a local celebrity, Davy Jones II! Always such a pleasure to see this whale! We also got to run into a pod of 6 white-beaked dolphins, what a lovely afternoon on the bay!

Crew: Captain Megan & Guide Hannah, Captain Pedro & Guide Orsi

16:00 - This tour was absolutely amazing. First we started of with a short visit to our feathered friends the puffins on the isle of Engey. After that quick stop, we went out onto the bay. Our first sighting was a large pod of at least 20 white-beaked dolphins that was giving showing their position by jumping out of the water in high leaps. We managed to get close to them and some of them found an interest into our boat. They dove underneath our boat and surfaced mere meters away from us. After they decided to move on, we went on towards some large flocks of birds which we spotted a few hundred meters away. As it turned out, it was not just one but a total of 4 humpback whales feeding together. They used their bubble net technique (spiral, line and spot) to scare the fish and make them swim together in even tighter schools before scooping them up in their large mouth. They also spy hopped and went for fluke dives just five meters away from our boat. It was absolutely awesome to see these giants so close, to hear them fill their massive lungs and even smell them as they surfaced up wind from us. Whales for all senses.

Crew: Captain Miquel & Guide Knut

20:00 - It was a little rainy this evening, but with low wind and good seas we still were very happy to sail into Faxaflói. Despite the fog, we quickly spotted the blow of a humpback whale who was feeding under a flock of kittiwakes. We recognised the individual as Davy Jones II - one of our favourite humpback whales. In the same area, another humpback whale was feeding too. This one seemed a bit more shy of the boat at first, but after a while he came up just a few meters from our bow! It was incredible to be in such close presence to this gigantic animal. When he went for a deep dive, we continued and saw a big splash on the horizon: a whale had jumped all the way out of the water! When we got closer, we saw that the humpback was accompanied by a pod of around 8 white-beaked dolphins. He had breached three times from a distance, and then started slapping his pectoral fin and rolling around a bit (clearly quite annoyed by the dolphins). The dolphins were having a great time, leaping over the whale and swimming closely together. Time was flying and before we knew it we had to return to Reykjavík harbour, happy to get back to a warm office, but even happier about all the memories we had just collected in the bay. 

Crew: Captain Gulli & Guide Hannah, Captain Eggert & Guide Eline