Season 2011 has come to an end

Ahoy!

 

A very successful 2011 season has come to an end. In general, this was probably one of the most exciting seasons of the company´s 17 seasons so far! We had all of our 6 beautiful oak boats in full operation going on very diverse tours; from the 3 hour Original Whale Watching, to a 4 hour Whales, Puffins & Sails, to a 2 day adventure sailing on a Schooner to Grímsey island, to a 4 day “Ski to the sea” adventure in the remote Glacier fjords, to a 7 day unforgettable adventure in Scoresby Sound, Greenland.

 

Polar bear seen on NS Greenland tour 2011                                            Photo: Heimir Harðarson

 

Greeland is a place of stunning sceneries and one can definitely enjoy some peace and quite on board schooner Hildur whilst admiring the exotic landscapes.

 

Meditating on board schooner Hildur in Greenland                                    Photo: Heimir Harðarson

 

For the first time, we had scheduled tours from Ólafsfjörður and it proved to be a very successful location for whale watching.

 

Ólafsfjörður: 2 Humpback whales and a flock of Kittiwakes                       Photo: Heimir Harðarson

 

We operated from April 1^st until October 20^th, a total of 203 days. There were of course some cancellations due to bad weather, especially in May and June but very few during our high season and throughout October 20^th.

 

The whales did their part perfectly, making this season one of the best ever. 

In total, there were 8 species spotted, whale sightings were 98,3% with Humpbacks and the Blue whales as the main numbers, having 72,4% and 16,5% sightings respectively. “Big whale sightings” were as much as 80,5% which means that in more that 80% of our tours 2011, we saw a Humpback whale, Blue whale, Fin whale or a Sei whale.

You can find our 2011 logbook online, as well as all of our logbooks since 1995.

 

In beginning of June, we got a visit from a good friend, Mark Carwardine. He spent one week with us, going out whale watching and giving our staff feedback and guidance as well as going on several whale watching flights with the purpose of photographing Blue whales form the air. The result can be seen below, a photo of a feeding Blue whale taken by NS photographer Heimir Harðarson.

Mark was so kind to give us an interview while he was here, telling about his first encounters with Húsavík and North Sailing and his life as a wildlife enthusiast.

 

Blue whale feeding – picture taken from Air                                            Photo: Heimir Harðarson

 

We, The North Sailing team, wish to thank all of our visitors for a brilliant season and hopefully we´ll see you one day again in Húsavík.

If you wish to share your experience, feel free to send us an e-mail, write on our wall on Facebook or post a comment on Trip Advisor. We truly appreciate your feedback.

 

All the best from Húsavík,

Thorunn

 

Schooner Haukur in the midnight sun                                                        Photo: Heimir Harðarson