Changes in Latitudes

This tokt has been quite an experience this year. We were given an amazing feeding show from the humpback whales near Jan Mayen and the next morning we were expecting a trip on the island in the middle of nowhere. A screenshot from a video I took of humpback whales at the bow. Jan Mayen is a Norwegian volcanic island in the Arctic, northeast of Iceland, that we tend to see from the ship during this tokt every year. This year I was privileged to go on land! At one end of the island there is a military base and meteorological station with up to 35 non-permanent residents. The other end is a 2277m (7470 ft) volcano called Beerenberg. Last year we saw the volcano perfectly from the boat, but this year there was too much fog to see. We had to wait for the fog to clear and ask for permission to take the lifeboat to land. We finally got on land around 5AM after climbing a rope ladder down the side of the boat and into the lifeboat. There is no dock so we had to wade through the wat...

We docked in the north Icelandic town of Akureyri yesterday to swap out some crew, and I got to enjoy two days in Iceland to recalibrate for round two of the mackerel tokt. Akureyri is the second largest city in Iceland with a population of 18000. To kick off my layover in Iceland, my co-worker Adam and I decided to take advantage of the great weather and headed up the local mountain called Súlur. It towers 1200m above sea level and the hike was approximately 6 miles round trip. We decided to take a taxi to a parking lot at the start of the hike to save a little time. The terrain transitioned from grass to large rocks and finally to basalt gavel at the top. We held a good pace and got to the top in less than 90 minutes. At the top we slammed down a Snickers bar before running back down. It was a fantastic hike and we were proud of completing the trip in 2 hrs and 18 minutes when we were advised it would take 4 hours. The next morning my other coworker (Merete) and I ...

On July 2nd I headed out on the fishing vessel "Kings Bay" for my usual mackerel tokt. This survey is my favorite because of the very calm seas and nice pace in terms of work on board. We have enough work to not get too bored and enough free time to work out and relax. The first two days were for calibrating the echosounder, so we were back in Bergen the first two nights. On the 4th we headed west toward Shetland. We have had beautiful views and nice sunsets most of the way. We have not seen any whales yet, but we have gotten some nice hauls of mackerel, herring and blue whiting. In a week we will be in Iceland for a crew change, and I am looking forward to a road trip day with my coworker. Should be some great pictures from that day trip! Hammock lounging in good weather on day 1 of 35. First catch of the tokt Belona belona, "horngjel" Shetland isles Trawl on it's way back in Just call me "Gumby" Weighi...

Friday night Pancho and I took a little backpacking trip up the hill from where we live. We only walked about 30 minutes and we set up the tent, made a little bonfire and just relaxed. But when we got all set up, a group of people were blasting Frank Sinatra music from the picnic tables by the lake. Luckily, they were only there for about an hour and then we could hear the birds better. It got a bit cold that night, so I don't think Pancho slept so well. I woke up around 4:30AM with him staring down at me and shivering. I managed to wrap him up in my coat and we slept til around 9AM before heading back down again for breakfast and a lazy day at home. Sunday we were on a hike with my friend Carey when we got the news that his first litter of puppies were on their way! He is a proud pappa to four little girls, all of them black, three with short tails like his and one with a long tail. All the girls are healthy and happy. I felt oddly proud and very excited. We will go visit the...

Last weekend Pancho and I went camping with my friend Idar. Friday night we just went up to the mountains behind my place and found a nice spot for the tent by a lake that Pancho and I walk around often. We tested some camp food that I got from Garage Grown Gear, and took some pictures for the review. Probably the best dehydrated meal I have ever tried camping.  On Saturday morning we packed up and drove south towards Hardangerfjord. We hiked into a valley that led to a lake that is fed with melting water from the Folgefonna glacier called Bondhusvatnet. There were large stone tables and in the middle of the lake were some posts where I could hang my hammock. This place was by far the most picturesque camping spot I think I have ever been to with 360 degrees of amazing mountain views. It stayed light in the sky til after midnight!  We woke up pretty warm in the tent from the sun beating down. Forgetting it was a public holiday, we had forgotten to buy breakfast food ...

I had a nice week of beach and sun with Mom and Dad in Key West. We stayed on a small trawler that was converted into a houseboat docked at a marina right outside a nice hotel. The Key West Songwriter's Festival was also happening that week so we enjoyed plenty of live music and beer. We woke up three mornings in a row with torrential rain, but luckily the skies tended to open up after lunch time. Mom booked us on a Sebago snorkel trip, which was originally booked for a morning trip but the storm pushed us out til after lunch. And good thing we did, beacuse the sky opened up and we had clear blue sky (the wind was just a bit cold). It was a very fun and relaxing week with Mom and Dad. Thank you for a great week!! Some pretty beautiful mornings in the marina. Awesome truck at Hogfish Bar & Grill Groupper selfie at the Key West Aquarium Waiting out the storm at Hog's Breath Mom and Dad were ready to go home after a day of snorkeling and live mu...