Whale diary

This didn’t affect the wildlife though as the bay was just full of life. We saw at least 4 different humpback whales, one that stole the show breaching, flipper slapping and rolling many times it was just wonderful to watch. Everyone onboard was loving the show.

Many cetaceans were in the bay today and it did not take long for our first encounter with one of three humpback whales. The first whale we saw was easily visible from a long distance due to the tall blow which hung in the still air.

We saw a large flock of feeding birds ahead and decided to check out that area, and soon enough, a humpback whale showed itself. It was quite active, slapping its tail against the surface of the ocean and swimming around rather quickly, but never really leaving the sight of our boat, always stayed very close by.

About 3 miles further up north, we found another pod of about 5 harbour porpoises, behaving in a similar way to the other ones. At the same time, we spotted a blow from a humpback whale, that we approached and observed for about half an hour.

After a brief sighting of a minke whale we encounter a pod of about 12 white beaked dolphins scattered around the boat. They were a bit reluctant at first to get closer to our vessel but after a while they found courage to even come with their calves. Lovely encounter. 

A humpback whale showing us its fluke a few times made clear to us it was also very relaxed and up to its own thing which I suspect basically was some bottom feeding. People got a great view on this one.

After observing the puffins in an island near Reykjavik we first found a humpback whale pretty close to the harbour that was very sleepy, not moving that much. We could stay a while with it observing how it was surfacing.

We found a minke whale and a humpback whale quite close to the harbour. If the we quickly lost the minke, we could stay with the humpback during a long time with many fluke dives. The animal was probably feeding. We went further out and found a third specie, a pod of white beaked dolphins.

We heard that a boat spotted a humpback so we headed there. In the way we saw a minke whale surfacing three times on our right. We arrived to the humpback whale that fluke dived maybe 2 times but then took a nap.

On our journey, large splashes were visible through the fog and it soon became clear that a humpback whale lobtailing was responsible. The whale was lifting its large fluke and slapping it to the ocean surface repeatedly and all of a sudden, had vanished.

We went out on the bay looking for the whales, we saw a minke from far away quite close to Hvalfjörður, the whale fjord, but we decided to first head further away to see if we could find a bigger whale. We did not so we headed back to the fjord and we found a humpback whale.

We decided to keep going and let this animal that showed us a few fluke dives. We found another humpback whale further away with a very strong a long blow. The animal dived and went closer to Reykjavik.

The wind from the north was quite cold but not very strong. We found a nice area with many birds so we slowed down. It was a good decision, a minke whale appeared, and a second one a few minutes later. We could see the minke whales surfacing a few times, probably feeding.

We had a very nice stop to see the puffins in the beginning. Then the captain manouvered to bring us in some good areas and after a long search we could find a humpback whale. We saw the blow of the animal many times but due to the sea it was complicated to approach it.

The wind persisted through the morning with intermittent rain showers. We tried our best to find wildlife and had a short encounter with a pod of 4-5 white-beaked dolphins. The dolphins came towards the boat and surfed between the swell and the wake for a few minutes but quickly became lost in the conditions.

All tours except for the 09:00 tour today have been cancelled due to unfavourable sea conditions. Please contact our office for more information.

We were able to spot a group of 3 harbor porpoises, but we did not stop due to its extremely elusive nature and because in the distance we sighted a giant blow. Davy Jones, a well-known humpback whale.

We quickly found a humpback whale, which was very calm and allowed us to observe itself for a long time. When we finally saw its fluke, we could identify it as Davy Jones, a humpback that had been seen quite often over the past week in the area.

In the end, we found a humpback whale, which surfaced many times and kept close to the boat. Alongside it, there was a pod of about 5 white-beaked dolphins. That made for a good show, as the humpback clearly wanted no business with the dolphins and swayed around and slapped its tail a bit to try to shake them off.

We went quite far on the bay and we found a humpback whale hanging with a pod of white beaked dolphins. The dolphins were feeding but still came to greet us very politely swimming under the boat, bow riding and doing a bit the show.