Another good season has come to an end and this morning I had my last tour on Sylvia for this year. Minkes and dolphins and nice autumn weather. Overall this summer has been good and thousands of passengers have sailed out on Skjálfandi Bay looking at the Gentle Giants of the ocean.
Unusual for this time of year but true – we are still seeing a humpback whale here in Skjálfandi bay! Warm southerly winds those days, with good conditions for whale watching. Until 30th September we will offer daily whale watching tours from Húsavík harbour.
This morning I had one of my best humpback encounters so far this summer. After spending some time with a minke whale, I spotted a big blow in the distance. The humpback was found. When we approached the animal it appeared to be very calm and not bothered at all with our presence.
One of the humpbacks that we spotted some days ago has still been around the bay, and was again spotted this morning. This time it was feeding calmly and then suddenly it completely breached out of the water.
Yet another season is nearing to an end and preparations for the next one go into full swing. One important annual event is the Vestnorden Travel Mart, which Gentle Giants attended earlier this week. Vestnorden is organised in collaboration of three North Atlantic islands; Iceland, Faroe Islands and Greenland.
„Keep your expectations low until we see something,“ I told my passengers onboard Sylvía when entering the world of Skjálfandi bay this morning. None of us had any idea what would be waiting out there for us.
A blue whale was recently found dead on a beach in Skagafjörður, on the northwest coast of Iceland. Those are big news as it is very rare to find a dead blue whale on shore. Finding stranded whales around the Icelandic coast is not uncommon.
September has brought good weather so far. Southerly winds and temperatures reaching over 20°C – just like on a real summer day.
It was very unreal. We could not believe our eyes. The view was like edited in Photoshop. The sun had sunken down under the surface of the sea. The dusk made it difficult to discern details, but there was no doubt.