Authorized by the Icelandic Tourist Board
Iceland tourism's official quality label
SPECIAL TOURS SUPPORTS THE LOCAL CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL
It was an overcast morning when we set sail on Rósin for our whale watching adventure. We headed out from the Old Harbor in Reykjavík and into the bay of Faxaflói, keeping our eyes peeled in all directions. Soon we entered an area where a minke whale and some white-beaked dolphins were swimming around, possibly in search of their next meal. Suddenly a blow appeared far in the distance – and another! We approached the area and saw that the blows came from two humpback whales which were behaving in an incredible way – they were slowly swimming around each other, rolling on their backs and sides, slapping their flippers, raising their tails, nearly every trick in the book! And what’s more, there was a pod of white-beaked dolphins swimming around the humpbacks and leaping over them, almost as if the two species were dancing together! It was like a dream.
After watching them for quite some time, we moved on and spotted several more minke whales and several more pods of dolphins, so it was an incredible tour full of wildlife before we headed back to the harbor!
– Jonathan Rempel
Instagram: @jon.rempel
Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES – Humpback whales, minke whales and white-beaked dolphins.
After this morning’s excellent sightings, the crew of Rósin was eager to sail out again and see what Faxaflói Bay had in store for us. It was a rainy afternoon, but fortunately whales don’t care about the weather – they’re already wet! We set out into the heavy rain until we came upon some white-beaked dolphins, and they were definitely in a curious mood, as they swam up to us and all around us for some time, allowing us to see their beautiful gray and white patterns very well. We left them and continued our search when all of a sudden, a humpback whale appeared close to our boat! This humpback whale seemed to be in a very good mood, as it lifted its fluke high out of the water several times and spent only a short time underwater during its deeper dives. What an amazing spectacle!
And we were fortunate enough that this wasn’t even the only humpback whale in the bay, as we saw at least 3 others, one of which came up EXTREMELY close to us, shocking our crew and passengers alike! It was a fantastic experience. Just when time was starting to run short and we were ready to say goodbye to our last humpback of the day, another one appeared next to it out of nowhere, and we were following a pair of these massive whales as they came up for air and went down for dives again and again. What a truly great end to a fantastic day out on the water!
– Jonathan Rempel
Instagram: @jon.rempel
Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES – Humpback whales and white-beaked dolphins
Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES – Humpback whale, minke whale, harbour porpoises and white-beaked dolphins.
Authorized by the Icelandic Tourist Board
Iceland tourism's official quality label
SPECIAL TOURS SUPPORTS THE LOCAL CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL