Sometimes fate seems to play a role in our visitors lives, and last tuesday was a good example. Unexpectedly a storm hit the bay around noon, and boats had to return from their trips earlier due to it, but the passengers on the 13:15 tour insisted on wanting to go out anyway, and were in for a great surprise! The captain Aðalsteinn Ólafsson ordered everyone to stay on top of the captains room, in order not to get as wet as they would have considering the rough sea, and hit the "throttle" and headed towards where humpbacks had last been spotted.
Today has been a very good day for whale watching and four species of whales have been spotted today in beautiful weather! We even spotted sei whales, which are seldom seen in Skjálfandi Bay. Sei whale is a part of the baleen whale family and is in fact the third largest rorqual after the blue whale and fin whales.
After having to cancel our tours for two days due to bad weather, we were finally able to sail out to Skjalfandi Bay today with many whale watchers in the search of whales. Friendly minke whales, many harbour porpoises and finally a breaching humpback greeted our passengers today, who had many been waiting patiently after good weather.
The last couple of days the weather has been making things a little wet and windy for our passenger’s and crew, as we had to cancel few of our trips but then going out with full boats on Thursday when the weather got a little bit better and having the pleasure of following a Humpback trough out the day.
2 humpbacks were spotted yesterday by our crews on our boats SYLVIA and FALDUR among with several playful groups of dolphins. Both the humpbacks and the dolphins were jumping and splashing in front of our boats.
Flatey the paradise island and Flateyjardalur welcomed us with its calm sea yesterday, after sailing through the waves across Skjálfandi bay on Faldur and the company’s Zodiac. It is a known fact that the weather in Flatey is usually much calmer than on the bay, and even than on the mainland, making the island the perfect place to be! Our mission to Flateyjardalur was to pick up a group of Icelandic mountaineers and sail them on Faldur to Flatey, for a guided tour around the island, looking at birdlife and abandoned buildings.
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.