North Sailing’s annual Settlement-sailing to the creeks of Náttfari took place yesterday, but the sailing has become inseparable part of the annual Húsavík Festival (Mærudagar, starting this week) schedule. This year, around 300 people took part in the sailing and along with North Sailing’s boats, Dagmar Aaen and Húni II ferried the settlers across the…
Last Sunday North Sailing’s Souvenir Shop reopened in a new location, in an old baiting shed in the harbour. North Sailing’s new located Souvenir Shop, on middle floor With it’s raw insides, it holds a charm of former times and icelandic coastal culture. Grey door opening up to the (former) frozen cell Inside the…
A few days ago we had an incredible trip where a humpback whale breached for over an hour right next to one of our boats. We had a researcher from one of the research teams in town named Michelle on board and she managed to get some amazing pictures. Here are a few of them.…
Today I went and spoke to Sigurður Eyberg, the project manager of Garðarshólmur, about the project and asked him some questions about his role as a project manager and the old factory were the building is being set up. Garðarshólmur is meant to become a centre for research and discussion about a sustainable future; sustainable use…
This morning we went out on our boat Garðar, with around 50 passengers. As our guide Huld, asked onboard if anyone had been whale watching before, one passenger stepped forward and told that she had. What catched our guide´s interest, was that she had been here before, with North Sailing almost four years ago. We…
The last few days have been completely amazing, lots of whales, (mostly) good weather, and many satisfied customers. Reading over the guides blogs from these last few days and weeks; it seems that they bay is absolutely full of whales. From the tiny harbour porpoises to the gargantuan blue whales, the whales are simply everywhere.…
The first days of July have been going swimmingly and here are a few photos taken by one of our guides, Christian Schmidt, during some trips. Lundey bathed in beautiful light. The puffins of Lundey. Capt. Alli back at work. Two humpbacks and Húsavík. A humpbacks fluke. A…
Recently North Sailing was visited by the famous british zoologist and conservationist Mark Carwardine. Mark is highly respected as a wildlife photographer, TV and radio presenter and author of more than 50 books. Mark achieved widespread recognition for Last Chance to See expeditions with Douglas Adams in 1990 where they went in search for some…
“North Sailing leading the way in terms of organizing really well runned trips”   by Huld Hafliðadóttir Asked about his first visit to Húsavík Mark is not sure when excactly, but his first visit to Iceland was in 1981 and he travelled around Iceland a lot in the 1980´s and did come to Húsavík then.…
Whale-watching in our new location, Ólafsfjörður will start again on Friday the 1st of July. There haven’t been any trips for a few days now due to very bad weather, heavy rain and wind. The setting of Ólafsfjörður, at the mouth of Eyjafjörður fjord, is ideal for whale watching, literally minutes away from known feeding…
Agnés Fournier comes from Montréal in Canada and has worked for North Sailing for the past two summers. I sat down with her to learn a little about her and how she ended up here, in the far North. “I lived here for a few years when I was a kid. My parents were music…
Today our crews spotted a lot of blue whales. Blue whales like most whales are very hard to count as they can dive for a very long time and can move incredibly fast. Our estimates are that the number of blue whales currently in the bay is somewhere between 6 and 9 different animals, although…
On tuesday night, the 14th of June at 20:00, Knörrinn went out on its first whale watching trip from our new location, Ólafsfjörður. Captain Hörður and guide Jóhann went out with some 9 passengers who were about to get very lucky! The pictures below say more than a thousand words… …
Today we haven’t been going out for whale watching since the weather is rough out in the bay. On days like these we like to do safety drills with our crew, it’s important to constantly going over safety measures and exercises to be ready when, and if, something ever happens. Excited…
The summer is here and the sun is shining. The whales seem find this most agreeable, and in the last few days we’ve had great success in our tours. We’ve seen a variety of species such as the Humpback whale, the Minke whale, White-Beaked dolphins as well as the magnificent Blue whale! We’ve also not…
At 13:00 I came down to the pier and waited for our boat, Bjössi Sör, to return from the morning trip. Guide Christian said it was probably one of the best whale watching tour he had ever been on, they saw 4 humpback whales in the same spot and then they found a minke whale…
It seems like the Blue whales are once again on time, but the last few years we have seen them around the same time, around the beginning of June. In fact, the 27th of May was also the first day we spotted them last year, so they are very timely! An hour and a…
Clean-up operations following the eruption in Grímsvötn are well under way. Most of the ejected ash fell in a small area South and Southeast of the volcano, but locals expect to be able to resume life as usual in a matter of days. Minister for Industry, Energy and Tourism, Katrin Juliusdottir, has extended a…
Professor Magnús Tumi Guðmundsson, geophysicist at the University of Iceland, has confirmed that volcanic activity in Grímsvötn has peaked, and while the eruption has not been declared over, it will most likely not reach previous volumes. The eruption continued yesterday, but the volcano has only emitted a fraction of the material it previously spewed. Today,…
Yes, today at 13:30 some 9 lucky passengers left the harbour with us and they sure did not know what they had coming! We found a nice humpback whale after about 40 mins which we followed for a while, or until we spotted another blow a bit further north. The wind had picked up quite…
This morning was one of the best whale watching tours we have had this season so far. We went out in perfect whale watching conditions and it didn’t take us long to spot the blow from a humpback whale. We went closer and while we were waiting for the humpback whale to come up again,…
