The coastal course on the island Randoya about 15km out of Kristiansand city went from Monday to Friday. In 4 groups mixed up with the Norwegian outdoor class we each had to prepare presenting, introducing or leading different activities throughout the week. We lived in old military buildings throughout the week cooking together and establishing great contact with lots of the Norwegian students. Many of us wished they would have gotten such a chance in form of a combined field trip earlier this semeser.

Monday:
Arriving at Kongshavn at 10am to load the boats and get shipped over to the Island. After settling in the ‘old hospital’ and having lunch me and my group (3) had our first lessons in kayaking. Since us internationals had only been instructed about kayaking a week ago two of us introduced and led the kayaking technique session including getting comfortable on the water, technique sessions, games and a little round trip as we had fantastic weather. Technique lessons were repetition of what we had learned in the kayak a week earlier including the support stroke, turning strokes and ‘the 8’ to move sideways. Everybody felt more and more comfortable in the kayak and we had a good time. Especially working on the ‘Edging-technique’ in very easy conditions helped to improve said technique further.

Tuesday:
On Tuesday it was my turn to, together with Lea, guide a kayak day trip. Before heading out to the kayaks we reminded everybody to bring their drink, snack, sun protection, spare clothes, life vest and spraydeck. Since we had low winds and sun we were out into the kayaks quickly to once repeat the techniques we had learned the previous day. Given the mild conditions we decided for a route along the coast and to the west, through a couple of islands, then south and, most of the time sheltered behind islands, back to Randoya. Lea and I alternated leaders keeping the pace nice and low and stopping in sheltered places or behind islands out of the wind and waves if there were any. Due to the very easy conditions we even decided to take a leg (about 1km) through somewhat open sea as a shortcut though reminding everybody that in worse conditions we would have hugged the coast. After stopping in a very sheltered bay for a leek, snack and drink we were on our way back to Randoya. If the winds would have been higher than 3-4m/s we would have tried to have the wind in our backs at the end of the trip. This way we didn’t have to worry about that and got back after 3 hours from a nice extended kayak tour that everybody enjoyed.

The afternoon lecture we were introduced to shallow water biology. With wading pants and water-binoculars we went into the max-hip-deep water to search for anything we could find bringing back mussels, snails, starfish, alge, small shrimp and even crabs. Especially the crabs were hard to get, though when laying out a bait (cracked open mussel) and with a bit of patience the crabs showed themselves. Back at the beach we learned that starfish aren’t actually fish while they also don’t carry any blood in there vessels but work on water only. We cooked up a couple of common mussels and snails that tasted a little rubbery but actually not too bad. Afterwards our lecturer Svein walked us a couple of hundred meters down the shore to show us wild rhubard growing beneath the rocks. All in all this shallow water biology was a facinating and very exciting lecture as you realise how much life you can find even on just a square metre of sea.

Wednesday:
Tuesdays lecture was followed up Wednesday morning by deep water biology. Getting 7mm+5mm wetsuits, fins and snorkeling equipment we went out into a rocky bay to dive. To my surprise diving with the snorkel went very well and I managed to get down to three meters without a problem. Staying together in pairs we snorkeled in the bay for about 30mins. Apart from many different Alge we collected starfish of various sizes and colours and mussels. Unfortunately we were not able to catch one of the colourful fish that we saw deep down while snorkeling. Especially interesting to me were the bright purple coloured almost shiny rock parts under some bits of alge that looked like some sort of acid-sulphur connection had happened right there and spilled all over the rocks. The deep water biology lesson was just as interesting as the shallow water biology lecture and helped to further understand and use the coast as a working and educating environment.

Wednesday afternoon/night my group was scheduled for fishing and the island survival night. Svein-Rune taught us how to prepare and lay out the fishing nets. One fishing net was about 20-30m long, 1,5m high and had a boye and a rock at each and at top and bottom. They are to ensure that the bottom part of the net sinks lower than the top part which is kept the top part by the boyes. One net has got three layers, two outer layers with wider squares and an inner mesh with much smaller squares. This ensures that fish will swim into the net and get confused, tangled and stuck inside. When preparing the nets we were to remove all the dirt and alge out of the net before carefully layering it into the box. Throwing out the nets at the we did the opposite. Rowing away from the coast we layered out the boy and rock first the then give out net while moving. After having set the nets we were to row onto a designated island to survive the night with nothing else but two tarps and some cord. Because the group before us had a thunderstorm and heavy rainfall we were dropped on an island with many trees and shelter possibilities. Not loosing any time right after we had rowed ashore Lasse and me were back out to fish for dinner. We were lucky with the precipitation though we had a strong west wind that made rowing out to sea and fishing in one place a rather difficult task. Especially because besides a rod we only had a blue handle with a long strong fishing line, a weight at the bottom and 5 hooks above it spacing 30cm approx. This in theory is a rather stationary fishing device which meant one of us always had to row to keep us kind of in place. After fighting against wind and waves for a while we got better and found a place in the open where the wind, waves and currents would not move us much for a while. Trying my luck with the rod first it only took two throws until I had caught the first fish of my life. A small makrel. When using the blue-handle fishing device afterwards the trick was to let it sink to the ground and then pull up 1 or 2 metres. After Lasse had caught a cod with it I gave it a go. Trying to get a sense of it we had a new fish on the line every good 20 minutes finishing at 6 fish. After getting drifted a lot again and our rod stuck on the sea ground twice we decided to go back to camp around half past 8 already pretty hungry. The other group had caught three fish, already filetted them and started a fire. I had watchted the group from the day before gut there fish to know a little bit about it.
When gutting the fish you cut the skin from the head to approx. bottom fin. If careful you will not puncture any intestines and they will be easily ripped out of the fish. After washing the fish again you can decide on cutting out fillets (more to that later) or as I did put them on a stick over the fire. Leaving the head on helps when putting them on a stick to smoke them. While the flame touches the fish the skin protects the meat from burning and as soon as the meat feels tender and looks white and done you can eat the fish right of the stick. The rest of the fish we filetted and fried them in our trangia pan. 9 fish and a couple of carrots and potatoes made for a good meal for the 7 of us.
Since we had a great rockwall as shelter from the east wind we decided on using one tarp as a footprint and one as a blanked for everybody. Especially with more tarps but also then it would have been adviseable to put the top tarp up as a wind barrier and heat wall as the wind was the biggest issue with the cold when it went down to 10 degrees at night. I tried to sleep in my 6/3 layers with only the tarp, my life vest and my backpack under me and did quite well scoring 2hrs+1hr+1,5hrs of sleep throughout the night. Though latest when the wind drifted into a south wind around 4 o clock it was getting too cold to sleep anywhere close to comfort and most of us spent the last 2 hours at the campfire that we had been restocking overnight to keep the embers going. When doing this in a realy survival situation again I would definitely sleep closer together and in a more sheltered are than the one we chose.
We started rowing back just before 6 o clock against about 10m/s south wind. When keeping a good course and rhytmical strong rowing it was fine for the distance we had to cover though. We reached the nets and got them in catching 9 flunders in one and nothing in the other net.

Thursday:
After a rest and some sleep we gathered down at the pier again. Having already gotten the fish out of the nets to kill them we layed out the nets along the jetty to free them from all the alge that had been caught in it for the next ones to use them again. Afterwards we were to learn how to properly filet fish. Important before the actual act of filetting was to wet the cutting board and have ready on bucket of water for the guts and one with alge in it to wash hand and clean the boards. When filetting most fish cutting in from behind the side fin and then along the top using the spine as a guideline is the way to do it. With the flunders it was different. After cutting behind the side fin we had to cut into the middle of the fish where we could feel the spine to then use the ribcage again as a guide for the knife to have the most of the meat. One flunder makes for 4 filets and is in my opinion easier to filet than the other fish we did the night before. Filetting 9 flunders still was quite a lot of work. Together with potatoes, carrots, leak, pepper, onion, garlic, cream, bouillon and other spices + flour and butter we cooked up a very tasty fish soup on top of roast veggies and battered fish. A very tasty meal over all especially as we had caught them ourselves.

The Thursday afternoon lecture was again with Kjetil who was going to teach us how to work with small motorized boats. Before getting into the boat we repeated some important rules at sea and some basic navigation. The small max-5-person outboard-engine boats that we were going to use had to be checked on fuel before heading out. After we had done that and refueled a little we got to know the steering with the steering bar, the gears (D, N, R) and the dead mans plug that should always be connected to the body in case of a sudden emergency. We also learned how to use the oar when coming close to shore and how to lift the ship’s screw out of the water if needed. With all that knowledge we were good to go and had a frew pratice rounds in the bay landing slow and on a 45 degree angle to come to a stop at the pier. There we most often double tie around an ankerpoint to then double halvage so that the boat can’t move away though the knot is easy to untie. We went for a bigger round that after took us through a small pathway out to the sea. We went for quite some power through the pathway to tackle the oncoming waves. One of the four motorboats motors broke down right as we were out and to keep it away from land Kjetils boat came to the rescue starting to tow the remaining boat after assessing the situation. When out at sea they seated all 5 people in the front boat to make the vessel easier to tow. The first boat and Lasse and me had already been 50m further out when that happened. Not being entirely comfortable to stear the boat in these conditions in a shallow bay we decided to not follow the plan to stick together as three boats at least. Having one kind of experienced person in each boat with Lasse and Hanne we decided to not just stay in the waves but to take the boats to our next meeting point around in a shelter bay 20mins slow boatride onwards. We were questioned but backed about this decision by Kjetil afterwards which felt good. Thinking back we should’ve kept visible contact with them at all time though which we didn’t for the end of it. After having a quick chat at the jetty we returned to Randoya for our last night.

Friday:
On Friday we only had the rowing lesson with Svein-Rune to go. Since we had rowed a lot on our island survival two days ago we knew a lot already. Still he taught us again about being sensible with the correction of course to not overcorrect and work hard again to get back onto it. Also we learned about how to use the wind to our advantage with the same ‘ferrying-technique’ we had already used in kayaking. Furthermore we learned that for small corrections we can keep rowing but add a whip on one side to the end of the stroke to make the boat turn the other way. I also greatly improved my Norwegian at sea having Lasse and Johannes as very good, amusing and patient teachers. After a snack break that we used to repeat knots including the clovage and the fishermans not we rowed back to Randoya.

Packing and cleaning up went down very quickly as everybody helped.

All in all I don’t think the week could have been better to introduce to us these many different activities and life at sea. The learning outcome was amazing and the broad knowledge of the teachers as well as the teamwork with the Norwegian students made it an exceptional educational environment!