Fishing

Umiak
Mike Jaques
Sat 16 Jul 2022 11:57
66:21.5N 22:36.8W

Next destination , a shake of the scrabble letter bag, and the winner was
Veioileysufjordur, which is just south of the Horn of Iceland , and in the
National Park there. Precipitous cliffs fold in a protected fjord an almost
perfect shelter aside from the 30 knot gusts that funnel down the the
classic u shaped valleys of the ice ages. We had a little company from a
French yacht which had put ashore some doughty adventurers who had mad up a
small camp of brightly coloured canvas. Of bird life there were the
standard guillemots, razorbills, fast submerging puffins and the usual
fulmars, their stiff winged glide making identification from other more
fearful gulls , who do not risk a wing tip . A shore party of Paul Jim and
John reported back that there wasn’t a lot to see . Those who had stayed
aboard I think had already made that surmise.
But we were treated by our fish supper. Mike had spotted a bank or plateau
off the headland and decided that that was the place to try our luck and
sure enough with two lines and feather lures within about 10 minutes the
crew had landed 7 largish cod although one smaller one was spared to be
caught another day. Gutted and filleted , not by the squeamish two surgeons
aboard, and shallow fried in a tempura batter, Mike’s hunting and cooking
skills were the gifts of the gods and provided several meals.
An early start and back to Iskafjord for a day off and early departures for
John and Jim for whom pressing matters required their presence back in
heatstroke Blighty.
Back in Iskafjord our jib was returned and a good job of stitching had been
done, a visit to the state off-licence which are usually conveniently
located within a short carry of the quay and a visit to the cultural centre
by me completed our tour of the north west.
Strangely there is a very active Rolling Stones fan club in this northern
settlement and they had staged an exhibition of Rolling Stones memobilia ,
I’m luck a rolling video of the famed day in 1999 when He, Mick Jagger ,
visited the port and was interviewed by th local journalist.
The next morning we waved adieu to the crop duster plane taking off from the
strip adjacent to the harbour bearing away our erstwhile shipmates . We
headed off south.

Gareth