“Kúti” and friends

We went out at 10:00 this morning with a big group of british tourists from a cruiseship that has been in Akureyri today and the tour started off really well! I had just finished my introduction speech, when captain Hrólfur told me that he had seen a blow, just a few minutes after we had left Húsavík harbour. Even though this humpback whale was diving quite long, we got some nice looks at it and after a while, we decided to sail a bit further west. Just a few minutes later, we spotted a second humpback whale. It was a well-known individual called “Kúti”, which has already been here in the bay during the summer 2010 and 2011 and is now back in Skjálfandi Bay for the third year in a row. We know that, because it is possible to identify individual humpback whales by the pattern on the underside of their fluke.

We had a nice time watching “Kúti” and sailed even further west, where we found a third humpback whale, before we enjoyed a nice cup of hot chocolate and some cinnamon rolls on the way back. Just a few minutes before entering Húsavík harbour again, we finished the tour with another close-up encounter with “Kúti”, the humpback whale.

Christian, guide