Day Nine 20th

Today was again spent in the fjord supporting the troops ashore.

              A little bit of Wales sneaking into the RN

 A Dutch Cougar helicopter on deck

 In the afternoon I decided I really needed to get out on one of the boats because the weather was so good. I ended up catching a Landing Craft Vehicle and Personnel (LCVP) to the landing beach with the Norwegian LTCOL I had been sharing with who was returning ashore for good.  After I said farewell to him the LCVP crew asked if I minded if we didn’t go back straight away as they wanted to go fishing.  While I am not a big fan of fishing how could I say no when the views were just amazing, it was sunset and I figured I was unlikely to ever get up here again.  The marines moved the LCVP offshore a little and set to work trying their luck with the fish.

 At the first couple of sites there was noting biting but eventually they found a spot where small cod were biting.  While there was nothing worthwhile keeping at least there was something happening because it was starting to get very cold.  Suddenly one of the guys started yelling about the big fish that he had hooked.  It turned out be a halibut, which is a flat fish and it had actually chased a cod that he hooked onto when it took one of his lures.  His line was a bit small and he was concerned that he couldn’t actually land it without the line snapping.  Ever resourceful they decided to lower the landing ramp and he worked the fish around the side of the LCVP until it was positioned over it but still in the water.  It was than just a case of raising the ramp to bring the fish inboard. Very impressive indeed!  By now it was getting cold and as they really couldn’t top the halibut it was time to return to the ship for dinner.  It turns out that the one of the cooks has worked in a fish restaurant and says that it was easily £200 worth of fish.  That night the northern lights were active again, even more so than the night before.  Again it was mainly green but it now had orange highlights and covered more of the sky.

 Sunset in the fjord

 £200 worth of halibut