Minkes and Dolphins

03.Sep 2017

9:00

This morning we found better conditions than yesterday. It was cloudy but the wind was almost gone and the visibility was very good. We sailed out of the Old Harbour of Reykjavik heading west-northwest. When we arrived to the feeding grounds we found plenty of seabird activity. Many Northern gannets were feeding in the area and we could also see many puffins flying around. The gannets were specially impressive doing their plunge diving, getting into the water and making big splashes. Soon, we had our first sighting, a Minke Whale! That animal was swimming a bit fast and changing directions. We could see it taking a few breaths in a row before going for a deeper and longer dive. But then we saw a Minke whale again and we were very happy seeing that there was more than one animal in the area, great! In fact, we counted at least three different minke whales not very far from each other.It was specially nice when we saw two of them breathing almost at the same time and swimming towards each other very close to our boat. After enjoying these Minke Whales for a while, we started to move on and keep on looking for something different. But we didn’t go very far before we found another Minke Whale. We were not sure if it was one of the previous ones, or a different one, but we loved to see it anyway.

After those beautiful sightings we headed back to the harbour spotting more puffins and enjoying the magnificent landscapes around.

Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES – Minke whales

10:00

Luckily for us today was a beautifully calm day, especially compared to yesterdays stormy windy weather. We sailed out to our normal whale watching area and instantly got great views of not one but two minke whales. These two surfaced very very close numerous times, close enough for us to hear them breathe. Hearing a whale breathe is always a magical experience even for the crew who watch these animals every day. Our minke whale friends amused us throughout the entire tour, staying very close and surfacing regularly. During this tour we spotted at least 5 individual minke whales and one of them was a regular seasonal visitor, a minke whale with a broken dorsal fin called Humpy. Although we didn’t get to witness the spectacular feeding of our minke whales, just seeing them so relaxed and close was more than enough to give a great insight into the lives of the worlds second smallest baleen whale. After a long time viewing our minke whales and being surrounded by impressive feeding gannets we decided it was time to head back to Reykjavik. Just as we turned the boat to go home we had a late surprise….jumping white beaked dolphins. One individual jumped repeatedly over and over again. We sailed a little closer to the pod and they decided it was time to stop fishing and instead time to socialize with the boat. The swam beside us, under us and rode the waves behind the boat. A great end to a great whale watching tour from Reykjavik.

Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES – Minke whales, White beaked dolphins

13:00

Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES – Minke whales, White beaked dolphins

14:00

Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES – Minke whale

17:00

We sailed out to Faxaflói with a small group of passengers for our last tour of the day. The sea conditions were much better than earlier in the day, but the rain stayed with us so most of our passengers chose to stay inside for the beginning of the tour. We saw our first minke whale surfacing a couple of times before it disappeared, and despite our best efforts we were not able to locate it again. The second minke was spotted from a distance and were were unfortunately not able to get closer to it. We waited as long as we could before heading back but unfortunately it did not surface again. As we did not have very good sightings on this tour we invited all of our lovely passengers to join us again for another try!

Tour Status: ON
Sightings: YES – Minke whales (but passengers invited to come again!)