Léa's at home, in Guéthary, working as a nurse and enjoying her friends and some good spring sessions. Spring in France is being surprisingly rainy and cold. Some great inside Parlementia hold up though :)
Vincent just left to Martinique to join his friend on his boat and sail it back to France by the Acores Archipelago. You can follow their way on www.cruisingpartner.com .
Léa's sea urchins harvest of the day. © simple-voyage
"It's like eating the ocean", Vincent said with sparkling eyes on his first bite.
As we were having a look around with the boat on a beautiful day, we spotted thousands of sea urchins on the sea bed. Along with mussels and a handful of other species of shells that I have no idea how they are called in English (couteaux, coques, bulots, bigorneaux, palourdes...), they were lying there, waiting for me to pick them up. I jumped in my wetsuit the next day and we made a big feed out of our beloved ocean. Sea urchins taste just like a bite of ocean, they are simply marvelous. I started diving for those everyday after that and became very good in the preparation! The most beautiful I found had the body as big as my palm, bright pink, and was lighting strongly in the water, so unreal. Cut open, it was a perfect flower of white eggs melting on my tong like the best delicacy ever. I wish the ocean was clean enough that It would remain sea urchins, shells and sea weed on our coastlines other than these very isolated places we are now.
© Léa Brassy
Nothing is like catching your own food... It's so much more nutritious. Cods of the day, and winkles for appetizer :)
© Léa Brassy
The quietness and the silence of the Vestfjord is highly resourcing. Manshausen, Borge Ousland's island in front of the Lofoten archipelago offers us momentarily its mothering protection. Only a few places on earth still offer such an idyllic atmosphere for thinking about our lives and dreams. Drifting with tides and winds, our souls are cleaning up from unnecessary torments of thought and slowly come back to their essences to shine again.
Read more about Manshausen on http://www.ousland.no/manshausen/
© Léa Brassy
So what ?
It is a huge disappointment for us, finally ready to start fishing after a long preparation, to be told by our boss that the quota of his boat has been put on hold for an undetermined, rather long, period of time...
When a dream falls apart, it hurts.
The chance to be onboard a fishing vessel here in Northern Norway, Vincent as a captain and me as a deckhand, as foreigners and as a couple was so unique. We believed in fishing as a perfect lifestyle to keep us living the freedom way... and fund our adventures. At least we wanted to try...
But life brings you on a different way sometimes and with experience I know it's usually for the best. So let's hope the best and smile to tomorrow :-)
© Léa Brassy
Some great inspiration to be taken from the fishermen workshop... For when a fashion week in Northern Norway?
© Léa Brassy
What's rare is precious, I enjoyed a beautiful sun ray between two snow falls... This is the typical scenery you can find here, in Northern Norway. So the weather is playing tricks with us, but we are patient, well...
© Vincent Colliard
First cod caught is being filleted for dinner. I cook it my own way, called "ida i vuelta": fried on the skin for a few minutes and then quickly on the meet. The flesh slices naturally and it tastes like coquille St Jacques (scallops). It's even better when the cod as stayed in the fridge (or outside) a couple of days after being fished. It's perfect with some green beans in garlic butter and a split peas purée with bacon.
© Léa Brassy
For the week-end, we stopped over in Seiland Island, close to Hammerfest, where our friends Mimmi and Anton live. We ate great food, Mimmi is a chef, and started organizing the boat with mister "Mc Giver" Anton. Eventually we went for a snow scooter trip to the mountains to spot some amazing northern lights. Filled up with goodness and energy, we headed up northward.
In Havoysund, a small fishing community close to the North Cape, we make the last installations to have the boat ready. We will use jigging machines: a couple of electronic ones and a hand one for the warm up! Those machines jig with fishing lines of five to eight hooks. This technic is about as common as using nets in artisanal coastline fishing in Northern Norway. It causes very little arm since we catch only cod and we can relaease the smaller ones. Also, there is a quota restriction set every year to make the resource last. The cod comes breading every year in this area in the months of February, March and April.
We currently experience some strong winds and have to stay at the port for a another few days. February is not over yet! We are glad to have a great team spirit and to meet unexpectedly friendly people.
Here is Vincent drilling the boat's structure to bolt an arm to allow the line to take distance with the deck.
© Léa Brassy
Launching of fishing vessel Dunerdonna in Tromso after wintering ashore. The trio Thomas, Vincent and Léa will row her to the North Cape for the cod fishing season.
Are you guys bringing all those bags onboard? We promise it's the minimum, we claim we already travel alpine style. But we need at least that: a few clothes and our surfboards, skis, climbing gear and photo equipment. Lucky the 29 years old captain is as passionate as us in all those activities.
Anyway, we hope to be to busy to use all these toys... Skitt fiske !!!