The last 'Whales, puffins and sails' tour
The last tours going out with our schooner Haukur, to observe the amazing puffins in the Puffin island and going whale watching, had great luck and great fun today!
Always on the last tour of the season the experienced guide and boatsman of Haukur, Nils Bjartur, has a tradition of making the tour a little extra special with balloons and a toast of sparkling wine to celebrate a successful sail-summer!
On the 9:30 tour, several minkie whales were feeding around the boat and a humpback whale was also playing with the boat, diving under the hull and lifting the fluke gracefully! On the 16:30 tour, the puffins in the island were definitely preparing for take-off, the guide even thought he saw a puffin flying off with a suitcase under his wing!!
So we said farewell to the puffins and headed out for whale watching. On the way we put up all six sails and sailed across the bay with the company of a group of dolphins. On the other side a humpback was waiting for us. Very close to the boat the humpback whale was lifting the fluke, lob-tailing (slapping the fluke against the surface, making big splash) and it even jumped out of the water!
After this amazing show we sailed home under full sails and sparkling wine.
/guide Hildur
The humpback diving under the hull of the boat
The gracefull flukelift
The guide, Nils Bjartur
The whole group raising their glasses, cheers!
Deckhand Felix
Nils and Sigga, she’s one of the owners of the company
Deckhand Felix, looking back at the seasons sweet memories
Árni, one of the owner as well, joined the last tour
The whale researchers, Zoe and Michelle
Hringur, an experienced seadog
Happy passengers
Whale watching guide Agnes and her guest
Captain Gísli at the wheel
of
Sparkling wine, Icelandic brown bread, butter and dried fish
Decorated with balloons, Haukur sailed back to harbour
The puffins ceremoni
Earlier in the summer a puffin was placed in the bowsprit of schooner Haukur. The puffin had one week to prove itself worthy of a name and a placement in the crew of Haukur. He survived and was named Hörður, after the Managing Director of North Sailing. So now at the end of the puffin season it was appropriate to have a ceremony were Hörður the puffin, was released from it’s duty and put down below deck where he’ll dwell the coming winter months. It was a sad ceremony, but still a proud one! The crew thanks him for an excellent look-out during the past months and weeks.
