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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Days of whales and chocolate

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.…

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Pictures from the first days of July

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…

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Interview with Mark Carwardine, Zooligist and Conservationist

“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.…

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Sunny Mountainside

Today was foggy out on Skjálfandi Bay, but luckily we ran into two humpback whales in the middle of the bay. Both were busy feeding close to the surface and diving very rapidly, lifting the fluke almost everytime, but only diving for a minute or so – just the perfect humpbacks to watch. After having…

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Incredible whales in good weather

Ok, so maybe generally speaking todays weather isn’t that great, but compared to the weather we’ve had through most of June it was great. I managed two trips without putting on the windbreaker, hat and gloves. The trips themselves were pretty amazing as well. The first trip I went on Náttfari with cpt. Hrólfur, engineer…

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A little rain, but many whales

Whale watching today has been good, cloudy and grey, sun bursting through from time to time, but mostly grey and even a little rain. Three species have been spotted today, humpbacks, minkes and white beaked dolpins. The dolphins were quite playful, jumping and splashing around and even playing with the humpback. The humpback was very…

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