The sea was perfectly flat and conditions were dry today as we set sail from Akureyri. A harbour porpoise surfaced directly in front of the boat not long after leaving the harbour, with smaller groups of two to three scattered along the way to Hrisey. A variety of seabirds were also on view that included great skuas, arctic skuas and the first sighting of an arctic tern this year. As we went past the island the blow of a humpback whale was seen a few hundred metres away. We made our way to the area and waited for the whale to resurface. It then appeared fifty metres from the boat and performed a series of surfaces before lifting its fluke and going for a deeper dive. We stopped the boat and allowed the animal to move around us, letting the whale to dictate how close we could get. The next time we saw the humpback it surfaced twenty metres away and swam in front of the boat, slowly coming up to breathe. It then lifted its fluke and went down deep and we had to move on home.