Garðar, the Mighty

Garðar, the biggest boat of our fleet has finally gotten the permits to use the capacity for as many passenger as she should carry. Therefore, the 10:00 trip today was an historical one, never before has North Sailing sailed with so many passengers in one vessel. Well over 130 people, and a crew counting six,…

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The Sail Húsavík Regatta

The high point of Sail Húsavík took place today. “The Regatta”, or the battle of the Sail Boats, started at 11:30. Beforehand, all the boats had prepared and when the shot was fired, close to 20 ships raced for the Buoy about 4 miles out in Skjálfandi Bay, and back. The wind was quite decent…

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Húsavík Harbour today

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…

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An elusive humpback

Today I went out on an extra trip at eleven o’clock on Haukur with capt. Hjörleifur. When we left the harbour we heard from the other boats that a humpback whale had been spotted quite far north so we immediately started heading north. By the time we got to where the the whale had been…

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Amazing humpbacks.

Today I had a first. It’s amazing  that even I, having worked as a whale watching guide for almost three years now, am still having firsts on our trips. Today was the first time I saw a humpback whale spy-hopping. I went out at 10:00 with captain Hreiðar, deckhand Kormákur and a boatful of passengers.…

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Annual Sailing to The Creeks of Náttfari

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…

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Breaching minke whale

Today started a little problematically because of the Sail Húsavík festival that is going on these days. There are so many boats in the harbour that the boat I was going out on had to go to another place in the harbour than usually and there was some problem getting people off and on board.…

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Activ arrives in Húsavík

The beautiful three masted schooner, Activ arrived at the Húsavík harbour today, monday. It is here for the festival Sail Húsavík, that extends from Saturday 16th to Saturday the 23rd. A part of the attending boats went on a short cruise to bid Activ and her crew welcome and sail with them the last few…

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NS Souvenir Shop gets a new home

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…

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Sail Húsavík starting

Sail Húsavík begins today and the boats have been arriving a few days now. Tonight some more arrived including some sailboats from the Faroe Islands. I went to check on some of the crewmembers of the ketch Dragin and the sloop Johanna. They told me that the passing from Faroe Islands to Iceland had taken…

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Humpback breaching! Amazing pictures!

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.…

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Breaking the duck

Today I spent more time at sea than on dry land (which is how I like it) and I had two marvelous trips, first on Hildur this morning and then on Haukur in the afternoon, on our “Whales, Puffins and Sails” tours. Both trips were great! A blue whale, a humpback whale and dolphins are…

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The big blue

When we headed out, on our boat Garðar, for the ten o’clock trip the conditions were quite good. After about half an hour we found a humpback whale, this one lifted the fluke really high. It came up several of times pretty close to us but we decided to leave it to take a look at…

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Garðarshólmur

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…

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Sail Húsavík just around the corner!

Sail Húsavík, a Nordic coastal culture festival, is now just around the corner and we at North Sailing are looking very much forward.     Some of the more remarkable and beautiful gaff riggers of the North Atlantic are now on the way among them the Dagmar Aaen, Activ and Pirola.  Tha faroese ketches, Johanna and…

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The right place at the right time.

This headline is a phrase I use every time at the beginning of every trip. I also like to use the phrase: “It’s like a throwing a dice, you never know which side will turn up.”  This is so true about whale watching.  You might start off in excellent weather hoping the best and return…

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Again with North Sailing – four years later!

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…

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