No Sign of the August Trouble

This is now my fourth season as a whale watching guide at North Sailing‘s. Of course all of the summers have been great, plenty of whales and the success rate probably among the highest one can find worldwide. The seasons have been somewhat different from each others, for example, last year was truly the year…

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Volkswagen Oldtimers

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…

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Sydkap and Bear islands

August 21st: News from Schooner Hildur at N71°16’  W25°12′ “We arrived at Sydkap this morning and have been slightly delayed due to ice on the fjord. We have already caught some fish which will end up on tonight´s BBQ at Jytteshavn, Bear islands. We´ve already spotted a Muskox, Seals and a few Snow hares. The…

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The last 'Whales, puffins and sails' tour

The last tours going out with our schooner Haukur, to observe the amazing puffins in the Puffin island and going whale watching, had great luck and great fun today! Always on the last tour of the season the experienced guide and boatsman of Haukur, Nils Bjartur, has a tradition of making the tour a little…

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Hildur arrived to Greenland

Schooner Hildur arrived in Scoresby Sund last night. The sailing was smooth until they reached Cape Brewster and ice was blocking their way. They sailed further north and managed to work their way through the ice and enter the fjord close to cape Tobin.         When navigating through the ice, the crew…

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A beautiful day in the bay

This morning was a little foggy, but during the day it lightened up and the sun started shining. I went on two tours today and both tours were very successful. We spotted white beaked dolpins, a minke whale and some incredably calm humpback whales that swam around us and were kind of curious about our…

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Hildur gone to Greenland

Last night Hildur departed for Greenland after a long preperation.  The boat was on schedule and the crew was enthusiastic to get going. It was already getting dark when the boat left the harbour after the final goodbyes. One of our schooner deckhands was there with a camera and snapped some pictures.   The boat…

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Rebuilding the old fishing boats

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…

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Knörrinn: The First Boat of North Sailing

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…

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Better weather outlook for Monday

The weather forecast for Monday, August 15th is relatively good so hopefully we´ll be able to sail out at 08:50 and 10:00 o´clock, and according to schedule after that.   For information and booking, please contact us via e-mail; info@northsailing.is or phone: +354 464 7272.   NSO-1 Ólafsfjörður Whale Watching, will however, be closed for…

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Special guests

In passing weeks we had two special guests going out whale watching on our boats.   Anna Floistrup (Denmark) was a really enthusiastic whale watcher and wanted to try all of our different boats so she went for SEVEN trips in just a few days! Here is Anna happy onboard Schooner Haukur:     A…

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The easy life of the guide

I just came in to work again yesterday, I had been abroad doing some other personal stuff. I had two trips yesterday and two today. And what a joy it was. The weather is just perfect, whales everywhere and the North Sailing crew has never been more qualified over all, since I started working here…

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Humpbacks and Minkes

This morning was cold and the waves were high, but there were a lot of whales in the bay. We found three or four humpback whales and around five minke whales. One of the humpbacks was incredibly calm and relaxed around us and came up really close to our boat, only 2-3 meters from the…

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The signs of North Sailing

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…

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Preperations for Greenland Voyage underway

Preperations for Hildur’s trip to Greenland have begun and everything is on schedule according to the crew. This will be the first time North Sailing will be doing this trip with passengers but last year a crew from North Sailing did a similar trip to check on conditions and prepare for the trip they are…

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Whales everywhere

Today I went on two tours on our biggest boat, Garðar, at 10:00 and 13:30. Both tours were a great success with several humpback and minke whales as well as white-beaked dolphins being spotted on both tours. But the second tour was really unique. I went out together with Þorbjörg and we took turns with…

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