May has been a very good month, both regarding whales and weather. Many humpbacks have come and gone, as well as minkes, blue whales, white-beaked dolphins and harbour porpoises.We are now ready to speed up a bit, and welcome June through introducing eight daily departures: Whale Watching: The traditional tour on our oak boats.
This morning I visited Kalli and Björgvin at the shipyard in Akureyri. They have been working on our oak boat Sylvía, giving her the annual beauty treatment. Now everything is tip-top and she is ready to start sailing on 1st June.
Our tour today at 9:45 was a dream for any whale watcher! When leaving harbour we reminded our passengers - as always - of that we are dealing with wild nature; "maybe we will be lucky, maybe not.
On the 13:15 tour today, crew and passengers on board Faldur got the privilege to witness the largest animal on earth, the blue whale! This is great news and hope that this animal will stay in the bay for some time.
"It was great at sea! My strongest memory from today was the feeding humpback coming up regularly around our drifting boat. It is days like those that I think back at during the winter" said Daniel, second guide on the departures 9:45 and 13:15.- Lia Humpback coming up right next to our boat.
Gentle Giants has received the TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence - again! This time for year 2013.To be able to get TripAdvisor's certificate of excellence, the business must maintain an overall rating of four or higher, out of a possible five, as reviewed by travellers on TripAdvisor.
A hard storm is rumbling over Húsavík today and makes it impossible for us to go whale watching (though the forecast for the coming days is better). We used the time and hard weather this morning to practise safety on board Faldur in the outer harbour.
As the season gets busier, the number of staff members increases as well. Last week a new guide arrived to Gentle Giants; Veronika from Slovakia. She has been training with Daniel and me for some time, and yesterday she guided her first whole tour alone - with style!Veronika's training period has been short.
Yesterday we got our dock extended in Húsavík harbour. The new part is 20 metres and 35 tonnes - about the size and weight of a humpback whale. Finally we will have space for our whole fleet in one place!Gunnar Jóhannesson and Kristján Óli at Króli were in charge of getting the extension in place, though we were several people from Gentle Giants who helped them.
Yesterday afternoon at 13:15 we decided to go out whale watching even though the bay was full of thick fog, waves and rain. We had told all the passengers several times how the conditions were and that our chances to find whales were smaller than usual, but they were really in and wanted to try their luck.
