Slysavarnarfélagið Landsbjörg is responsable of giving courses for everyone working on boats by the icelandic coasts, and has trained all our captains and guides to be capable to handle accidents of every kind at sea.
Thanks to Garðar Svavarsson, the “Swedish days” festival is held this week in Husavik, and today free sea-angling tours were offered by Gentle Giants on our boat Aþena.
After a few days of stormy and wet weather here in Skjálfandi area, our captain Arnar Sigurðsson, founder of the first whale watching company in Húsavík, and guide Jesse Flores, finally spotted Humpback whales again after two days of absence! Weather conditions have not been completely favourable these past few days but that has not stopped our crew from bringing passenger within arms length of the humpbacks! Despite the weather, our brave passengers were fully satisfied with their whale watching journey into Skjalfandi bay.
Today the new tradition of “Swedish days festival” (Sænskir dagar) began in Husavik. They are held in the honorary memory of the first real settler of Iceland, Garðar Svavarsson. In the year 870 Garðar Svavarsson sailed to Iceland, around it, and finally decided to step ashore in Húsavík and built his house there.
Humpback whales have been spotted in all our tours the last days, but according to our captain Arnar and guide Linda, yesterday's evening tour was one of the best they’ve had with the humpbacks.
This morning captain Arnar and guide Omar and ALL our 23 passengers onboard FALDUR found a Humpback whale!! It was lively and even breached for our passengers....and approached at least 5 times by our captain.
Mr. Einar Magnússon, captain for Gentle Giants, was doing his 1200th whale watching trip today and was thanked and greeted by the manager of the company.Einar went to sea at the age of 15, and has worked in that area more or less ever since, among with other various jobs.
In our last tours we have had the pleasure of viewing large groups of white-beaked dolphins. They can often be very playful, swimming and jumping around the boat, giving our passengers a great show-off ! Minke whales have also been sighted in some trips, and numbers of harbour porpoises.
Latest addition to our fleet is the 7,7 ton “Athena”. This vessel, built in the year 2000 in Hafnarfjordur, and rebuilt in 2005 especially for Gentle Giants, makes the ideal Whale Watching - and sea-angling boat, with all the comfort of a passenger boat.
