North Sailing News

On schooner Haukur´s voyage around Iceland this fall a brief stop was made in Ólafsvík on the Snæfellsnes peninsular. Haukur moored along the side of a spectacular oak boat, Sveinbjörn Jakobsson. The crews got to know each other quite well and it turned out that North-Sailing then later purchased the ship.

In light of Iceland’s minister of fisheries decision to resume commercial whaling, North-Sailing would like to put forward its own point of view:

Last Monday morning, schooner Haukur sailed gracefully under full sails into Husavik harbour after having circumnavigated Iceland for the first time.

The trip took altogether 24 days but that includes shorter and longer stops such as a week in Siglufjörður and 8 days in Reykjavík. The schooner stopped in 6 harbours around the island and those were, Siglufjörður, Ísafjörður, Bolungarvík, Ólafsvík, Reykjavík and Vestmannayjar.

Today, schooner Haukur was sailing just outside Breiðdalsvík in the East Fjords on her way to Húsavík. We expect Haukur to dock in Húsavík around noon tomorrow (mon Oct. 2nd) and thereby closing the voyage around Iceland.

Haukur left Húsavík harbour on september 8th and has stopped in several ports around Iceland including Siglufjörður, Íslafjörður, Bolungarvík, Ólafsvík, Reykjavík and the Westman islands.

We´ll post some further details about the voyage shortly.

ÞH

After an adventurous sailing from Húsavík to Reykjavík, the schooner Haukur has arrived in Reykajvík harbour.

As the summer is now about to end, preperation for season 2007, North Sailing´s 13th season has long since started. A big part of this preperation has been attending the Vestnorden Travelmart which was now held in Reykjavík.

North Sailing has been participating since 1995 and has been sending representatives to Greenland, Farao Islands, Denmark, Reykjavík and Akureyri for the purpose.

Today we got the great news from captain Hrólfur that a Northern bottlenosed whales, had been seen together with 6 pilot whales and 3 minke whales.

This Friday, Sept. 8th, Haukur will depart to Reykjavík where she will be on display in connection with the Travel Exhibition Vestnorden. Right now, we are working on preparing the boat, make some adjustments and check out the rigging.

The wildlife in the bay has been amazing all summer and now there are almost 4 months since the humpbacks came in to the bay making this 12th whale watching summer by North Sailing the best humpback season ever.

Sometimes the humpback whales breach or jump out of the water but never before have we seen anything like it when a huge humpback breached for approximately 300 times.

The adventure in "Whale paradise" continues and for the last days humpback whales as well as minke whales have been in the spotlight.

Last week North Sailing invited it´s staff and the staff from The Whale Museum to a BBQ.

When the whales start playing around it´s often difficult to see who´s watching whom. This was the case when Himmi, North Sailing guide, had his camera and shot these amazing pictures!

It has been very busy for North Sailing people lately as the company is very involved in organizing the Húsavík festival this year so therefore the website has not been updated as it should have.

The whales are not forgotten however and humpbacks, minke whales and dolphins have been pleasing up to 550 passengers pr day the last days.

During the last few days the humpbacks have been the superstars on North Sailing tours, demanding all the attention from the passengers and crew.
The humpbacks have breached unusually often and even splashed passengers by slamming their flippers on the surface of the sea.

In the last few days the humpback whales have been playing the leading roles on our tours although blue whales, minke whales, dolphins and porpoises have also been spotted.
br> Some of the humpbacks have been swimming around the boats just taking a look at the enthralled passengers.