Ten years ago – in 1997 – the Húsavík Whale Museum was established by Ásbjörn Björgvinsson along with many other individuals and companies in Húsavík, as well as by owners of Gentle Giants. The museum is a nonprofit educational information centre dedicated to the promotion of whales and whale watching and provides visitors with information about whales’ lives and their habitat around Iceland.
Today we received with a warm welcome the latest addition to our fleet, a beautiful streamlined oak boat built 1976 in Akureyri. The boat was named Sylvia, after the manager’s daughter, Sylvía Dís Stefánsdóttir, who was present receiving the ship in Húsavík and the first one to secure the ropes to it’s new harbour, next to our boat Faldur.
On one of tours yesterday our passengers onboard Faldur were entertained by a curious minke whale. When we were close to the animal our captain killed the engine and the animal seemed to feel very comfortable with our presence and started swimming around the boat, rolling, going upside down and being curious about the people.
Weather in Iceland is unpredictable as we all know, and after a few days of extreme cold, wet and windy days and cancelled trips, we are back on the water and today temperatures reach as high as 20°C.
Temperature ca. 19°C, calm, good sea conditions and many whales. A perfect day for whale watching! After cancelling our trips yesterday due to bad weather, we were able to go out today in beautiful weather conditions, with a lot of whales in the bay - blue whales, humpbacks and a large pod of white beaked dolphins! A busy day today in the good weather and many people joined our tours.
Yesterday we had a nice visit from Wade and Robyn Hughes, who are experienced divers. We took them out on both our boats at 16:45, where Wade did several attempts to dive with the humpbacks. The humpbacks were feeding and swimming and diving for a long time.
This morning our crew and passengers onboard Faldur had special encounters with a humpback whale. The humpback was sleeping next to the boat ... First of all, crew and passengers thought they were seeing driftwood, but after a closer look it was clear that this was a humpback sleeping and logging on the surface.
