We travelled towards the south to begin with where we came across the pair of humpback whales who entertained our passengers from the earlier tour. Again, they decided to show their acrobatic abilities with the smaller individual breaching on two occasions.
After some time our patience proved fruitful, as white beaked dolphins begun to approach the vessel and investigate. On our journey we stopped for a minke whale that gently cruised across our path, surfacing neatly on a handful of occasions, before lifting and rolling its back for a dive.
Just off the coastline of the Grótta lighthouse in Reykjavik, you may even have seen the blows from there on a clear day. We saw the blows of 3 humpback whales but only followed and spent most of our time with 2. It was quite difficult conditions but Captain Leo kept the boat as steady as he could.
Challenging conditions this morning as the rain begun to fall and wind developed to create a small swell that grew from the south. As we journeyed west through Faxafloi, a range of birds were gathering, showing interest in a small area. Beneath the birds, appeared the blow of a humpback whale that surfaced a few times on our approach.
We were going back when we saw had an amazing sighting of a humpback whale interacting with 3-4 white beaked dolphin. The animal rolled and we saw it on its back with dolphins jumping around. Another humpback whale joined us while we were looking at the dolphins. Amazing tour !
We approached and could see a beautiful humpback whale fluke diving. It was challenging to follow so we moved a bit in the area until we found a nice feeding humpback whale that was very easy to observe. We could follow it for a while even seeing its white pectoral fin through the water. We went back to Reykjavik happy, observing the beautiful birds in the sun.
We first went to visit the wee cute little puffins on the island of Engey, the closest island to the harbour and then went very far out (30min ride) to have a great time with a solitary humpback whale and saw the blow/spout of two others.
Like this morning we were looking for the whale when a group of 4-6 white beaked dolphins surfaced near the boat, porpoising and playing a bit with the boat before they disappeared. We decided to go further to see if we could find something else. After 10 minutes we saw a second humpback whale.
Rough seas this morning, but we braved out with a small number of passengers in search of wildlife. We headed out into the bay where we saw birds feeding, but had no luck finding whales today. Passengers were offered complimentary tickets as a result.
The wind picked up a lot and we used the shelter of Akrafjall to protect us. We offered our passengers a complimentary ticket that allow them to come back for free in the next two years for a new whale watching adventure, in Reykjavik or in Akureyri.
We first went near Akranes enjoying a nice view on the moutain Akrafjall. We could not find anything in the beginning so we went more south. We finally met a friendly humpback whale that surfaced so close from our boat, provoking the exclamation of our passengers.
The afternoon tour was a smooth sailing after a windy morning. We saw a humpback whale that surfaced incredibly close to the boat many times. We got a great look at the individual which seemed incredibly curious. Great tour!
We continue quite far in the bay but nothing was happening. We came a bit closer from the coast in the south of the bay and it is after 2 hours of our tour than we finally saw the blow made by a humpback whale. We approach to see the animal really relaxed, surfacing many times.
Many enjoyed seeing the cute puffins around also. Unfortunately at this time the wind and waves were getting stronger so we made the decision to head home early. This is definitely Icelands weather at its best, changing its mind in the last minute. We offered our passengers complimentary tickets
We counted at least 5 humpback whales seen from faraway. We could clearly approach one that we saw nicely fluke diving a few times and even rolling on its back to have both pectoral fins in the air. A minke whale was also in the area, a bit more discret than the humpbacks.
We saw many whales during this tour but they where hard to approach and to show to our passengers. In total we have seen 5-6 humpback whales and 1 minke whale. We could approach and show to our passengers 3 of these humpback whales.
The seabird life was so abundant , this usually means there is a lot of food in the bay but the whales were very few, however we did see all 4 of our usually species; 1 humpback whale, 1 minke whale, 3 small pods of 2-5 white-beaked dolphins and 2 harbour porpoises.
Very rare conditions for us here in Iceland. We encountered a super easy going humpback whale, we could even just turn off the engines and have them off for about 20minutes whilst the chilled humpback surfaced around us. As it was just mainly travelling at the surface it didn't really show its fluke well. We had one nice high fluke that many got to capture on their phones/cameras.
Finally we had flat calm seas on today's tour, we could go fast and for miles in these conditions. It was only on the way back that the wind picked up and the rain started. We got to see at least 4 different minke whales and 4 white-beaked dolphins; two mothers and two calves. All were very easy to spot in these flat sea conditions and the seabirds were a lot of fun too.
We were lucky with the whales today and we were able to see 3 species, about 5-8 scattered harbour porpoises, 2 minke whales and 1 humpback whale. However it was mainly the crew that saw the porpoises and minkes. We even smelt the fishy breath of the minke that sometimes is brought over the boat with the wind.
