Humpback and Porpoises in the Sunset

13:00

We had an amazing Whale Watching tour this afternoon! Today began like any other winter day in Iceland – cold, but beautiful. We sailed out on the Andrea in very smooth conditions, with not a single wave anywhere in sight. After leaving the Old Harbor in Reykjavík, we made our way out into Faxaflói Bay, where the snowy landscape was waiting for us. Our visibility was fantastic, and we could even see as far as the volcano Snæfellsjökull, 100 km away. We sailed west for a while without encountering anything, until we entered an area where great black-backed gulls and northern gannets were feeding at the surface. We checked the area carefully, and we found a pod of harbor porpoises feeding there as well! These tiny toothed whales are very cute, but very shy – we got glimpses of them when we were lucky. We stayed with them a little while before moving on, heading towards the south. Suddenly, we spotted some very large blows to the south, and when we went to investigate, we could see a humpback whale lifting its fluke and going for a dive! It was quite far away, but the smooth conditions meant we could follow the whale easily, and approached carefully. Eventually we were rewarded with some fantastic looks at this massive baleen whale – certainly fully-grown, and it was an individual that we had spotted on one of last week’s tours. This one was very recognizable, due to the all-black underside of its fluke. We stayed with the humpback for a while as it calmly came to the surface many times, at times less than 50 meters from us, and lifting that huge tail for us to see! What a sight. Eventually we said our goodbyes and watched the whale in the distance as we sailed back towards the harbor in the sunset. It was a beautiful day with great sailing!

– Jonathan Rempel

Tour Status: ON

Sightings: YES – Humpback whale & Harbor porpoises