Fortune was still smiling upon us today ! The day started with some cold wind, but it died down as the day unfolded and we had an overall-free warm afternoon. It took us less time than usual to find our stars of the show, the magnificent humpback whales ! And again we were not surprised to meet again the same 4 individuals that have been swimming together, unless this time they were significantly closer to Akureyri. One of the members of this gang is a humpback we called Arran Stjarna, and the other 3 are individuals we know but that have not been named yet. Thus we decided to ask the passengers to give us some name suggestions and we got pretty interesting ones, my favorite being calling this group of whales The Breach Boys. Anyway, on both of our tour we could enjoy these cetaceans for over an hour, most of the time with our engine turned off, giving us the liberty to enjoy the sound of their blows and inhalations. They were sometime trumpeting slightly, we also had some deep noises close to a growl, our whale watching was fascinating for both the eyes and the ears ! And as usual, everytime one was going for a deep dive, the others followed, so on plenty occasions we could see 4 flukes successively elevating above the water surface before disappearing into the depths. And all of this under a bright sun ! My friends, today we stepped in a humpback whale paradise.

Guillaume Calcagni
Picture by Tess Hudson