On June 18th, 2011 the North Sailing peer looked like a German car factory from the mid last century. Yes, it sounds weird but no less than 27 old Volkswagens gathered there with 54 people in their seats. All 54 then went whale watching and left their cars for other tourists and the locals to…
The first reason North Sailing’s owners bought Knörrinn, the first boat, was the preservation of old Icelandic fishing vessels; many of which lay rotting in harbours all around Iceland. As beautiful as the boats look today most of them were in bad condition when North Sailing bought them and it took a lot of work…
Today North Sailing owns and operates 6 boats. All of them are traditional Icelandic fishing boats, they are all oak boats, built in the 60’s and 70’s. Knörrinn is the oldest one, built in 1963 and is also the first boat North Sailing bought. First years of Whale Watching The Story Two…
Running a business, whether it is a whale watching company or a restaurant is kind of moot if nobody notices and so we have signs to point the way. At North Sailing and the connected companies we have lot’s of interesting signs to point peoples way towards our many establishments. A good sign does more…
These last days our operation has been reaching it´s peak. With 11 departures a day in Húsavík and three departures in Ólafsfjörður, the number of passengers, per day, has never been higher. From Húsavík, the departures are at 8:50, 10:00, 11:00 (an off schedule NS-1 tour), 12:00, 13:00, 13:30, 15:30, 17:00 and 20:15And the popular…
The international youth camp “Ice Climate Education” is taking place for the fourth time here in Húsavík during these days with participants from eight different countries (Germany, South Africa, Turkey, Denmark, Estonia, Uganda, England, France). Various lectures are held, for example on climate change, global warming, preservation and photovoltaic, whaling and whale watching. During the…
The Sail Húsavík came to an end some days ago and during these days, most sailing boats are leaving our harbour. Yesterday, the Dagmar Aaen set sail towards Greenland. The plan is to sail into an area north of Scoresbysund and if possible, the crew and their experienced captain Arved Fuchs might even reach 77°…
While there haven’t been many big whales in Skjálfandaflói lately reports have been pouring in about great sightings in the next fjord over, Eyjafjörður, in which we recently started offering whale watching trips. These last few days humpback whales have been spotted on the tours much to the delight of our passengers. Pictures say more…
As I walked around the Husavik harbour today I wondered if the phrase “harbour culture” actually existed. I checked Wikipedia but got no result. Yet the word “Culture” came often to my mind as I walked the area. There are art exhibits, booths selling all kinds of local products, foreign visitors of all kinds milling…
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…
