Day 1

On the first day we had to paddle some of the sea kayak from Kongshavn to Randoya which was good fun because I hadn’t done any sea kayaking before. It was interesting to see the difference between a sea kayak and a river kayak. Having an extra six feet of boat in front and behind you makes it so much harder to turn; a river kayak will turn with only a little bit of input from the paddler.

The first activity we did, in the afternoon, was the shallow water biology. We donned waders, which promptly filled up with water, and started to find as many sea creatures as possible. There were loads of starfish and clams (that weren’t native to Norway). I was surprised at how many different types of seaweed we managed to collect also.

Day 2

For the morning of the second day we went snorkelling to see what there was in the deeper water. It was the first time I had been snorkelling so I was a little bit unsure of what it would be like but once I got into the water I really started to enjoy it. As the water was really clear there was loads to see but it was still pretty similar to what we found in the shallow water biology the day before. If I was to do it again I would take some extra weights as the buoyancy of the wetsuit meant that I couldn’t dive down at all.

During the afternoon we rowed out to the island that we would be staying on for the night. As there was quite a strong we decided to stay on a closer island. The brief said to only take kit that you would normally have on a day trip so I took some extra layers (fleece and an insulated jacket) and my bivi bag among other things. As the spot where we had made that camp was quite sheltered these proved adequate to keep me warm enough. When we were looking for a place to sleep we made sure there was no standing water and that it was out of the wind. The rest of the evening we spent catching snails and fish for dinner and finding fire wood. The evening was quite warm so it wasn’t an uncomfortable night at all.

Day 3

We had to get up quite early in the morning, not only because we were cold and uncomfortable, but because that was the best time to collect the nets that we had placed the previous day. However we only had one fish and a small crab so we went back to Randoya a little bit disappointed.

After breakfast we had a lesson on the various ways to fillet a fish which would have been more useful before we spent the night on the island (my fish looked like a monkey had tried to butcher it with a stick). We were shown two different ways and some of the key learning points that I took away from the lesson were that you need a very sharp knife and to use long smooth strokes. I also learnt another way to kill the fish, previously we had been just hitting them on the head with something hard (rock, priest or fist). In this other method you slice through it’s throat all the way down to the spine, stick two fingers into it’s head and pull it back until the head snaps. This method is far more efficient but it makes a larger mess.

In the afternoon we went out on the big boat to learn about the rules of the see and maritime navigation. I had covered a lot of this when I did my powerboat license a few years ago but it was still good to go over it again. It was also good to be able to relax after not getting much sleep on the island.

Day 4

We spent the morning learning to row and then we went on a small trip around the islands. It was quite hard to row in the sea is there was quite a bit of wind. The wind continued to hinder us through the rest of the afternoon as we went through the basics of sea kayaking. The instructor took us to a sheltered area to make it easier, otherwise we would just get blown back onto the beach. The method that the instructor used was to demonstrate the technique then we would practice it whilst he critiqued it. I found this to be quite a good technique for me as I often learn best my doing something as much as possible.

Day 5

We went on a short sea kayaking expedition. The instructor stayed towards the back and nominated one of us to lead the leg. It was quite exciting to paddle over the waves but we couldn’t go to far out to sea as not everyone in the group was capable. Instead we paddled back to Kongshavn and left the kayaks there.

Learning Points

For me the main learning points were about how to fillet and kill the fish. The practical parts of the week I had done before but it was still useful to go over them again.