Tales of sea monsters date far back in Iceland's folk culture. Many stories exist and are told of elusive creatures showing themselves to seafarers far out at sea or even to villagers close to shore. Sightings have been recorded all over the country - over the last centuries and up to date.
We're sailing again! After days of extremely stormy (and nearly winterly) weather, we are finally able to leave Húsavík harbour again and head out onto Skjálfandi Bay in search for whales and other marine wildlife - right on time for WORLD OCEANS DAY.
Since the beginning of the week, our boats have been tied up in the harbour, unable to head out onto Skjálfandi Bay in search for whales. Stormy weather conditions and a thus wavy sea stop us from heading out to admire the gentle giants of the ocean.
Today, we celebrate "Sjómannadagurinn" - or the seaman's day - here in Iceland. This day honours the role fishermen as well as other seaman and their families have played in Icelandic history. It was first celebrated in 1938, but in 1987 "Sjómannadagurinn" became a public holiday.
As June is about to start, we adapt our sailing schedule to the current demand and are adding extra departures for both our "GG1 Whale Watching" on our traditional oak boats as well as the "GG2 Big Whale Safari & Puffins" on the RIB speed boats from tomorrow, 1st of June.
After months of waiting for this day to come, our beloved oak boat Sylvía returned to her home port in Húsavík shortly after noon today. While all our boats undergo thorough maintenance during the winter months, Sylvía was in for a special treat this time.
At Gentle Giants, we are proud of our big blue family, an enthusiastic international team coming together annually striving to give our guests the best experience possible while visiting us here in Húsavík.
As May proceeds, days are getting longer and longer - already now, evenings are bright and colourful. Finally, it won't be long anymore until we get to enjoy the midnight sun again! And while the sunlight hours are increasing daily, it is only two weeks from now until we will start to operate our late afternoon and evening tours again.
Humpback whales migrate large distances between their high latitude feeding grounds and their mating or calving areas in tropical waters. Some humpback whales might travel up to 5000 miles between these two regions! At the moment, plenty of humpback whales appear in our beautiful Skjálfandi Bay for their feeding season.
Since the beginning of May the bay has been getting livelier by the day. Several humpback whales – the stars of the bay - have arrived, but also other species such as minkes and white-beaked dolphins were sighted.
