Whale diary

There are unfavorable weather conditions throughout Sunday, so we have made the decision to cancel our premium RIB tours, with the comfort and safety of our passengers in mind. The 0900 Classic Whale Watching was cancelled and also the classic tours at 1300 and 1900.

The highlight of the tour was an atlantic puffin that, for some reason, had not left the breeding stations, and was very nice to see. No signs of whales were spotted so in the end we gave passengers, who were very positive and understanding, complimentary tickets for another tour.

There are unfavourable weather conditions throughout Friday, so we have made the decision to cancel a number of our tours, with the comfort and safety of our passengers in mind. Our classic tour at 1900 is on, but all other tours have been cancelled.

We kept going and managed to locate a pod of 8-10 white beaked dolphins. Especially juveniles´ behaviour was thrilling to watch. Some breaching and them getting closer to our vessel was very exciting. After a while with these dolphins we tried to find other species in the bay. We succeeded at that as we encountered a humpback whale in the area.

We sailed out in about 8m/s winds from the SE which meant it was smooth sailing for the majority of the tour and only a little rocking on the way home. We searched a large area of the bay and found just one solitary humpback whale, however this whale was amazing, obviously busy feeding but surfacing frequently and showing a beautiful high tail many times.

There, a passenger spotted some whale movement. We quickly found out that these were about 6-7 white-beaked dolphins, with at least one baby calf that kept jumping up like a gymnast. The other ones were quite curious and came up to the boat to inspect us and ride in the waves that the boat was making.

We saw many gannets diving beautifully into the ocean, and a little later we found a humpback whale. We stayed with it for around 20-30 minutes, seeing its fluke three times and at least 5 surfacing actions. It was quite close to the boat so every passenger managed to get a very good look at it. Just as we left the humpback whale, we spotted a minke whale in the same spot as the humpback whale.

We got into the bay and kept going until our captain spotted a group of 8-10 white-beaked dolphins. At the distance two juveniles were jumping, leaping and inverted leaping, having lots of fun. There were some mothers with calves and some individuals were actively bow riding our vessel.

We found one minke whale moving calmly towards the north and we were able to watch two full surface sequences before losing sight of the animal. We searched far and wide, eventually heading to the south to watch a pod of 10 white-beaked dolphins that had been made aware to us by a colleague.

We sailed out into the bay and kept going until our captain spotted a minke whale. 5 harbour porpoises could also be seen nearby but showed as usual a pretty elusive behavior. We were also delighted by a pod of 8-10 white-beaked dolphins.

We first had a long circle in the bay looking for whales but only seeing very elusive minke whales two times. We could not follow them so we were continuing with optimism. Then we had information of a humpback whale very close to land, we went there and saw a very active animal that breached probably 10 times! Amazing.

Our next encounter was only 10 minutes later with a humpback whale that appeared to be feeding. The whale was a little difficult to follow as its movements were unpredictable. We saw the whale up close, and it showed its fluke on one occasion. Harbour porpoises were also seen during the tour. A small pod calmly swam on our right hand side, surfacing many times.

While we were enjoying the presence of this spectacular creature a pod of 4 white-beaked dolphins appeared on the scene and approached the boat while surfing with the waves. On the way back we were captivated by the presence of another humpback whale.

There were 2 humpback whales in front of us! While we were going to see them from a closer look it turned out we had 2 more humpback whales further away. Powerful blows and flukes raising above the water surface: Perfect views against the city of Reykjavík in the background. Amazing tour that will stay in the retina of our passengers for a long time for sure!

We found a minke whale that did not want our passenger to leave without a sighting. The baleen whale surfaced three times and disappeared. It is very challenging to spot the minkes in this type of sea condition. Our passengers really enjoyed the experience of a heavy sea but we still gave them complimentary tickets, the sighting of the minke being extremely short.

This one was tough. Apparently no whales nearby in about 2 hours of sailing but thanks to our colleagues at sea finally we managed to find at least 2 humpback whales. Even one of them was breaching, lob tailing and even checking us out on our starboard side close to the bridge. Lovely end of the tour. As we had used up most of our time we had to rush back into town. 

We found a pod of 4-6 white-beaked dolphins, but they were not very interested in us and pretty quickly moved away. We drove a bit around the bay and then had the word of some more dolphins from our sister boat, Þruma IV. These dolphins were more playful, coming a bit closer to the boat to check us out. We then moved to a humpback whale that was close by, but it was very sleepy and relaxed.

Wherever I was looking i was seeing a whale. In total I counted 4 humpbacks, 3-4 minke whales and 2 pods of white beaked dolphins. We first stayed with a humpback for a while, the animal was showing nice fluke dives under the "aww's" of the passengers.

We could stay a while with one of the first that we found but we wanted to see something further away and we found a humpback whale. It was an individual that we have seen many times this summer with a big notch on the left side of the fluke.

Then a minke whale crossed our path, an awesome minke that blew bubbles whilst feeding just 20m from our bow but it wasn’t until later in the tour when we saw a humpback whale flipper slapping and breaching in the distance. The minke whale (a different individual the before) didn’t like loosing the attention so it too started breaching. AMAZING!!