Monday, 20 November 2023

Weather: We had strong southern wind with increasing waves as we traveled further North.

Today we had to sail quite far to have our first encounter, a Humpback Whale around the East middle of Hrisey. This whale approached and dived next to us, however, was diving for around 15 minutes. We kept seeing blows farther north but these seemed to get further and further away as we moved north. There had been several blows to the East of us, with whales staying at the surface for long periods of time but long gaps between breaths. Once we investigated we found 3 Humpbacks being mobbed by a large group of White Beaked Dolphins. The whales were trumpeting very loud and slapping their pectoral fins all over. One whale in particular stayed at the surfaces for around 15 minutes just swiping at the whales. It was great to see as we saw the whale rolling and turning, snaking its body in order to swat the dolphins. At one point we could see the dolphin get completely smashed by the whales flipper under the water. Our first picture here even shows the eye and whole head of the whale as it tried to evade the dolphins.

Text & Pictures: Mac

Departures: 1300 Classic