North Sailing News

Húsavík has been especially lively today with lots of visitors at the harbour area. The weather has been great and even quite warm, on the Iceland-thermometer at least:)

During the past weeks North Sailing team has been busy with tailor-made trips for special groups. Those tours have been very different but all organized in cooperation with the customers.
The first one to mention is the midnight sailing to Grímsey Island last weekend. Around 30 passengers sailed with Náttfari, North Sailing’s boat, to celebrate the longest days of the year.

The last days... well in fact the last two months have been fantastic. With almost non-stop humpback sightings and great weather apart from few days have made this the best summer start so far for North Sailing.

Today was no exception and tonight, captain Hrolfur and Hilmar Valur ventured out on Bjössi Sör with 50 passengers and were lucky enough to observe 4 species of whales. 10 dolphins, 1 minke whale, 3 humpbacks and a blue whale!

As reported on the website in May, a 90 year old house is now located in the harbour and will serve as a Café.
The house has been in renovation since early this year and the changes have been enormous.

This morning three of North Sailing boats saw 3 blue whales and 3 humpback whales.

Blue whales are the largest animal to ever live on the earth and it is a real privilege for the passengers on board to view those magnificent creatures.

For the past few years North Sailing has organized a midnight sailing to Grimsey Island where passengers get a chance to cross the Arctic Circle. This even is always around the longest day of the year and now it will be held on the 24th June.

20th of June marked the beginning of the popular NS-2 trip, "Whales, puffins and sails". Schooner Haukur has already sailed out two times this season in good conditions, with wind for the sails, thousands of puffins in Lundey and loads of humback whales.

Up until now there is a 100% success rate in North Sailing´s tours and even in today´s hard conditions with norherly winds blowing, the experienced crews of the North Sailing fleet managed to find several humpback whales and even a minke whale.

Recently Schooner Haukur undertook a three day voyage around the islands and fjords of North Island. Among other places, the herring era town of Siglufjörður and the Island of Grímsey on the arctic circle were visited.

This trip will be on schedule in the spring time and upon request also late August and September but the experience seemed to be well received by the 5 passengers.

Yesterday a sudden drop of temperatures and northerly winds made it impossible for whale watching boats to go out.

The North Sailing boats are however back on track and in today´s trips, Humpback whales and white beaked dolphins played the main roles in the trips.

Last week the Whale Museum invited North Sailing staff to a lecture on whale research and a ‘start of the season’ party.
Arianna Cecchetti, from Italy who is working on her Master thesis, at the University of Wales in Bangor, is going to be in Húsavík for the summer studying the whales of Skjálfandi. She told us about her projects, its aims, techniques used, and results that have been found so far.

…and the show continues! For the past few days humpbacks have been seen just minutes outside the harbour of Húsavík. North Sailing staff has even started to wonder whether the whale watching boats will become unnecessary as people can view whales from the pier.

Never before have so many humpbacks been seen on a North Sailing tour as last night when 10 humpbacks where sighted along with 3-4 minke whales. Two boats, ‘Bjössi Sör’ and Schooner ‘Haukur’, sailed out on the bay last night during this fantastic whale festival in the midnight sun.

Since North Sailing started its operation on 1995, the month of May has never been so prosperous. The wildlife on Skjálfandi Bay has been fantastic, with lots of humpbacks, minke whales and dolphins, as well as abundant of seabirds – much more than in the past few years.