Whale Diary

10:00 - It was a truly beautiful morning in the bay - the sun shone brightly above us in clear skies, and the winds had eased since yesterday. We made a quick stop by Akurey to admire the Atlantic puffins before heading further out into the bay in search of cetaceans. It didn’t take long before we spotted the blows of two humpback whales travelling together. As we got closer, we watched them surface for air and fluke-dive several times. The sunlight shone on their backs, and when they exhaled, a rainbow shimmered in their spouts! We continued on and soon spotted more blows in the distance - another pair of humpbacks, which we also observed diving a few times. The bay was full of life today, with more blows appearing all around us. We made our way over and discovered four solitary humpbacks bubble-net feeding in the area! We watched the streams of bubbles rise from beneath the surface before the whales emerged. A minke whale even made a brief appearance!. We stayed for quite some time, soaking it all in. As we carried on, yet more blows appeared ahead - this time another pair of humpbacks travelling together, accompanied by a passing minke whale. These whales were diving deep and staying under for quite a while, so we decided to leave them undisturbed. Before turning back, we came across two more humpbacks bubble-net feeding! We stopped to watch one last time before beginning our journey back to the harbour. What a glorious morning!

Crew: Captain Pedro & Guide Maja, Captain Gunni & Guide Milan

12:00 - Sailing out this beautiful morning, we had the chance to see a great feeding frenzy ! With over 10 minke whales roaming all around us throughout the tour, we went form feeding whale to feeding whale. 9 humpback whales were bubble netting, tail slapping, clearly doing their best to eat a good breakfast. We even managed to have a breach in the distance, right when we where close to 3 whales that dove up and down altogether. It was really one great morning tour, with all these feeding behaviours to be seen.

Crew: Captain Kylie & Guide Alex

14:00 - The sun shone warmly this afternoon when we sailed into short, low waves. On this tour we managed to spot 5 humpback whales close by, while more blows were visible on the horizon. Our first whale we stayed with rather shortly because after it went for a dive, a second whale was pec slapping in the distance, as if it waving at us to come over, and so we did! It then proceeded to swam closely under the surface towards us, and so we could almost see the whole body shine through! Humpback whale 3 and 4 were swimming in pair, side by side. While they were at the surface they were moving very slowly, resting and taking their breaths, before going on dives, with a nice and high fluke. As we stayed with them, a minke whale swam by as well! After some time we moved on towards another blow, but that whale ended up disappearing as we got close. No matter though, as then we turned back towards the previous pair until time ran out. Shortly before that, the 5th and last humpback join the area as well, and as they took their last dive, we turned back towards Reykjavik, ending our day.

Crew: Captain Pedro & Guide Maja, Captain Gunni & Guide Milan

16:00 - Sailing out this afternoon again, the great weather continued on and so did the whales. Seeing over 2 minke whales and 8 humpback whales in the tour, we went form fluke dive to fluke dive, seeing them all in the same small zone. We got to have whales resting meters away from us, whilst others seemingly were feeding at the bottom of the sea. With all these dives, we could really identify each individual and see their own physical characteristics and their behaviours. We sailed back with wind and waves in our back, finishing a great sunny day in Faxafloi bay.

Crew: Captain Kylie & Guide Alex

20:00 - This evening was absolutely spectacular!! The sky was clear and we just knew that the sunset would put on a show tonight, and we were so right - whales and orange hues everywhere! We started off the tour with seeing a blow in the distance and it turned out to be one humpback whale. We only saw this individual once and then it was down for quite some time, so we carried on. Shortly after this a pair of humpback whales came. One of them truly scared us by coming straight behind the boat and exhaled SO loudly. They showed their flukes beautifully in the sunset colours. At the same time we had about three more humpbacks fluke diving around us. We saw some fun splashy activity in the horizon and quickly headed in this direction. It was two more individuals who did repetitive tail slapping and peduncle throws. As we got closer they continued on, and one even breached! These two humpback whales joined many more and in the end there were flukes and dorsal fins EVERYWHERE. They were showing off so beautifully in the sunset! This night could not have gotten more magical and it left both crew and passengers speechless. It was really difficult to keep track of all the whales that we saw, but an estimated number would be around 15 humpback whales! During the tour we had around 2 minke whales. However, these were shy and just half the crew saw it and maybe some passengers. But the true stars of the show were the humpbacks whales. Absolutely incredible tour!!

Crew: Captain Kylie & Guide Frida