Engine haul !

A hole was cut on the starboard side to extract the broken Cummins engine out of the engine room. A powerful crane from a local company was used and handled professionally without any mishap – a successful operation.   We let the pictures speak for themselves.                  

Autumn plan

Two boats, Bjössi Sör and Náttfari have now been moved to the shipyard for restauration and makeover. Schooner Haukur and Knörrinn are ready by the buoys on the outer harbour, waiting their turn.                    

Náttfari doomed to the Shipyard

On June 19, the engine of Náttfari, one of North Sailing‘s most important boats broke down.   This was very unfortunate for the summer operation and due to the seriousnes of the engine failure, the decision was taken to postpone it‘s repair until autumn.   Immense manpower was therefore put into finishing restauration of oak…

Season 2010 – a successful ending

Our whale watching season has come to an end our last day of operation was October 17th, but we have been very fortunate with the weather and whale sightings in September and beginning of October – we are confident that our visitors return to their home countries with good memories and fantastic pictures.   We invite…

Great whale watching in the end of the season!

The past days have been really good; good weather and good whales. On Saturday three humback whales were seen along with two minkes and yesterday our guide, Christian, describes the trip so:   The weather was really great when I went out with captain Hrólfur onboard “Bjössi Sör” this morning. When leaving the harbour, we…

The Schooner Hildur sails to Greenland

On the 18th of August 2010 the schooner Hildur set sail from Húsavík, Iceland on it’s journey to the east coast of Greenland.  Captain and expedition leader was Heimir Harðarson and most of the crew were employees of North-Sailing.  The destination of the journey was Scoresby Sound which extends about 350 km into the coastline…

Word from more members of Hildur’s crew

We‘ve now got more word on the Greenland expedition of Hildur. Crew member Gísli just sent us some pictures and told us a little bit about how the expedition has been going. Since we last heard from them they have reached Ittoqqortoormiit where, after getting instructions from the inhabitants, they dropped anchor. Remy one of…

Hildur‘s Greenland expedition going well

We just got word from Captain Heimir on the Greenland expedition of Hildur. They have after less than 48 hours sailing reached Scoresbysund on the east coast of Greenland. Scoresbysund is called Kangertittivaq in Greenlandic and is the longest fjord in the world stretching some 350 km from the Greenland Sea. On the way and…

North Sailings annual celebration

North Sailings annual celebration was thrown the night of the 17th of August. As usual the destination was a surprise so the employees were herded onto a bus and this time the bus went east. After a short drive we arrived at Sultir in Kelduhverfi where the celebration would be thrown in an old barn.…

A rainy tour to beautiful Flatey

As is stated on our website, www.whalewatchinghusavik.is, special tours are available upon request.  One such special tour that we suggest is a trip to an island here in the bay, Flatey.  The name literally means flat island, and its highest point is indeed only 22 meters above sea level.  Yesterday, me, deckhand Teresa and Captain…

Hildur starts sailing

Last Saturday, July the 31st, at 16:00 hours our new schooner Hildur sailed its first whale watching tour. A four hour voyage of NS-2, Whales, Puffins and Sails, and the tour was successful! Hildur is a two masted schooner, takes up to 50 passengers and is thus the third largest vessel in our fleet. We…

Mærudagar in Húsavík

There is currently a festival going on in Húsavík called Mærudagar. It translates to something like Candydays. Because of Mærudagar there is a lot going on in Húsavík these days and especially in the harbour area including, but not limited to, beach volleyball, a horse show, a motorcycle show, a market, a ram show and…

Garðar ready for passengers

At midnight yesterday Garðar sailed for the first time into Skjálfandi bay with passengers. It was the annual Mærudagar midnight sailing trip and today was Garðar‘s first whale watching tour. It was a great success with minke whales, white beaked dolphins and fantastic weather.   Guide Þórdís in an extremely good mood.   The first…

High season and incredible weather

It‘s now high season and we are managing quite well despite Náttfari being out of action. The weather today is incredible and the harbour is bustling with life. Tourists waiting in lines to go whale watching, sitting outside both Gamli Baukur and Skuld enjoying the weather. North Sailing‘s employees are doing there best to find…

New website launched

The North Sailing website has undergone major renewal in the past couple of weeks. Through the main site (www.northsailing.is) you can now easily navigate to its sister pages, including the whale watching and schooner sites. The new design makes everything easier, from finding out basic information about our services to quickly checking out the daily…

Training and safety drill

A few days ago, some of our staff, namely the guides and the hard-working people in ticket sales, got the opportunity to better themselves even further.  A course in speech, presence and service was held in cooperation with Margrét, an actor, and Oddur Bjarni, a director. Most of us know both of them from Let’s…

July schedule taking effect soon

July is around the corner and from the 1st of July our new departure schedule will come into action. That includes 11 departures per day; 9 NS1-Whale Watching tours and 2 NS2-Whales, Puffins and Sails tours, the first leaving at 8:30 am and the last at 20:15 pm. July is our busiest month and we…

Hildur taken out sailing

There’s not a lot of work left to get Hildur ready. It was taken out for a tour with a few guests, some with notable sailing experience.  The tour went nicely and Hildur sailed well, experiencing both a nice and calm wind and a somewhat stronger breeze as well.  In the next few days, Hildur…

Still making progress on Garðar!

Garðar is at the pier and work has been ongoing to get him passenger ready.  There is still plenty of work to be done, for example painting in various places, placing benches as well as security equipment and many other smaller (or bigger!) tasks.  Quite a lot of work took place yesterday, and here you…