A Great Invitation

Hope those alarms go off as scheduled! They're set for 3:15 A.M. Nancy and I have to get it together, and make it to the airport by 5:0O A.M. The plane takes off at 6:30. Nancy will be dropping me off, and heading back to begin her long day of work. What a Sweetheart!

This is the first installment of another expedition diary, thanks to an incredible invitation to go searching for glass fishing floats on off-the-beaten-track islands. I am unable to tell the reader more than that concerning the locations.

The invitation came during the later part of spring, and it's been a long wait for this moment to arrive. My bags are packed.

This diary will be written in a different style. There will be no computer access where we are going, a written diary will be kept, photos taken, and upon our return in 8 days, I will invite the readers to follow our day-to-day beachcombing adventure.

What awaits the four of us on those pristine beaches? The summer months have been a delicious blend of anticipation, phone calls, emails, exchanged photos, dotting the I's and crossing the T's. Oh Man!

Touched By History

Today, is one of those days when I am having a very hard time pulling myself away from the computer, and thoughts of glass floats.

A valuable piece of historical float information has been placed into one of the latest float puzzles that I've been working on. A number of emails have been written, and then it happened...

Sitting across from a display case putting my socks on, I got up and walked over to the case to open the door and look in at the floats. My eyes gravitated to the beautiful American Pat Pending Teardrop, then to a green float in the front right corner.

Having forgotten which float rested there, I picked it up to see its mark. Ahh, the recently-traded-for Laurvig. After admiring its unique shade of green, and the embossing, placed it back in its spot, and looking up, I saw the tag: #46, staring at me. Charles Abernethy's S-marked beauty.

I picked that float up, and turning it to the light coming through the north window, began to gaze at it. Feeling a strong emotion, I realized that Charles had once held the float in his hands just as I was, and found myself saying, "Did you hold this float in your hands the way I'm holding it, Charles?"

Wishing that I heard him say, "Yes," I had to be content with the realization itself. The float had been held and admired by a succession of collectors, by the glassblower and the apprentice, perhaps the net maker, definitely the capnet maker, the fishermen, the person who found and sold it, then Charles.

I cannot help myself, and have to put the experience in today's post to share with you.

Have you had a similar experience? Have you ever looked down, and there at your feet was an Indian arrowhead-then realized that the last person to touch the stone may have been the long-ago Indian who made it, hunted with it, and lived through it's use?

How often do you hold a float in your hands and are filled with wonder-the wonder of the float's experience-it's life? Now, that float rests in your hands, and the history continues...

What A Run!

It started with Roger and Torvald Strannes in early July, and is still going on as I write. Together, we accomplished one of the best experiences in float collecting-we made a trade that ended with both of us having new floats to marvel at, and a shared happiness. That trade was the start of a tremendous shot to the system via a 2-month-and-counting stretch of many prime floats.

As all of the collectors know, Ebay and other auction sites have over the last month, replaced late spring and early summer's dull lull of good float auctions, with an incredible burst of rare and beautiful glass floats. A mini-myriad of hard-to-find, some rare, and a couple of ultra-rare glass floats from European and Norwegian makers have suddenly appeared. We all saw two floats that were absolutely amazing: the third find of this year's discovery-an amethyst-colored Ship's Wheel and the first Cameleyre Freres Arcachon that I have seen anywhere. That particular float has inspired me to add one to the collection since I first saw the drawing of the mark in Stu & Alan's book. I've searched and searched, and finally one appeared. There is a chance that another will come, and hopefully, come to me. I'm certain that all of you are thinking and hoping for the identical wish to come true! Very nice auctions continue to appear. Charge cards have to be paid off. Wallets are a lot thinner, but you've got to go for it when the opportunities are there, and the excitement level is high. Back to July.

As the trades were crossing the Atlantic to reach their new homes in Norway and the United States, good friends from Germany finished a Norwegian vacation. During the hunt for museum quality bottles, my collector friend looks for floats too. As soon as the family returned home, he sent me an email, and promised another email with floatos. Oh Boy!

Two days later, I began opening email attachments showing an array of wonderful floats. A trio of floats left Germany on August 17th. They just arrived. The 21st. of September to be exact.

A pal responded positively to my offer to buy his gorgeous Cobalt Albrechtson's. He also offered other incredible floats that were for sale. Could not help myself, and purchased them too. They have crossed the Atlantic, and are currently in Customs awaiting clearance. Can't wait! The green glass Bjorkshults. was shown in the last post.

While all of this was going on, my first VB was purchased from France. Woody auctioned off two spectacular Asian floats, one of them, a bright skyblue colored Pumpkin. An ultra-rare beauty that sold for $2000.00 plus bucks. Two more VB's-a green and a nice light yellow/amber, a couple of Fortex's, an amber/green Grooved 5-incher, Starfish floats, the incredible Ship's Wheel (which sold for a bit more than $1,000.00) and others appeared on the auctions.

PerEinar offered an incredible array of rare Norwegian floats, including a large Teardrop or Sea Dog buoy float. The rare 2-float Kavelhund (both floats in the wooden enclosure are marked, one rich aqua F1 and one light green P.C.F) came to the collection, and two wonderful Eggs, one of them a fat-looking Knobbed Egg without the net. Great! I get to see the glass. The second is a green egg in an exceptional capnet with a snood tied into the end. That pair are in transit, crossing the Atlantic as I write.

After the first three great trades and buys, as Per Einar's incredible and rare Norwegian float auctions were being bid on, and counting down to the closing, another trade was in the works. The trade was culminated by each of us winning separate auctions, and trading those wins.

During the auctions, we had decided that good feelings meant more than winning. We would not bid on the same floats. Instead, we decided to each bid on a different float, and if we both won, to give eachother the float we had won. I'm sure that a day will come when we both desire to bid on the same float, but for now, we are giving eachother gifts.

Not only did we do the auction trade, we also traded some floats from our personal collections. I sent him a beautiful and large dark green or blackglass Czech. He sent me my first Laurvig, not to be confused with the dotted L's.

During the last month, have you been wondering, "when is the Seahermit going to write a new post?" I have been writing-everyday. I've been writing emails.

Every morning, during the day and evening, emails have been received. 2-4 hours per waking day, have been spent reading and writing emails. In the past, once in a while and normally on a weekend, a couple of hours were spent reading and answering emails. Lately, that has been a daily occurance. What great fun!

I have been immersed in floats, and have finally surfaced to breath. Taking another deep breath, I'm headed back into the depths of float wonder.

I sincerely wish all of you collectors success. Trade whenever you can. However one acquires a treasured glass float is a bit of heaven. And if the mood strikes you, kindly email me with attached floatos, and stories to share.

Click on the photos in order to see the beauty of the floats and their marks.

The little Grooved Egg has one full dot of glass on the side of the float's body, and a partial dot on the opposite side. Those dots were molten glass filling the vent holes of the mold. Often, dots are mistaken as being maker's marks. There are floats purposely seal-marked with one or more dots, not counting the dotted F's, etc. and those dots are more meaningful.

I've begun to wonder if the GW floats were French-made? Have always thought that they were made in Germany. Could GW stand for German Works? The engraver was a true artist. After looking closely at the float's glass and GW seal mark, and feeling the heft of the glass, I'm beginning to wonder. There is more to the "French Connection" than meets the eye. I'm certain of it, and would bet a bundle that as time goes by, we're all going to learn more.

I'm not accustomed to this lack of blog writing. It was so much fun writing almost everyday during Per and Amund's expedition. As you may have guessed, the guys made it home safe and sound. Amund's been out of touch, and it's possible that he might be stuck in bed trying to recover from living in the wake of Per's exuberance. Per and I continue to send emails to eachother almost daily, and there has been a continued exchange of float history and floats between us.

This post is more of a catching up for me, and hopefully, an interesting read for you. The last two weeks have been quite full. There has not been enough time in the last days to accomplish all that I would have liked-namely writing a post, researching and looking for floats on Ebay. Many emails have been received from collectors and others, and many float deals have been in the works. A wonderful trade was finalized, boxes are on their way across the Atlantic, and new friendships have started. Established friendships continue to bring emails, good thoughts and smiles.

A very exciting relationship was started thanks to Vebjorn. Most of you are familiar with Vebjorn's website, Best Norwegian. Vebjorn and I have been close email friends for a number of years, and he did me a huge favor by introducing me to another collector.

I woke up one morning to an email from a collector that I was unfamiliar with. The email began with an excellent introduction, followed by the kind of personal history that only another ardent collector could fully appreciate reading. This collector's experience and knowledge of Norwegian floats is unmatched. It has been completely exhilarating sharing photos of our floats, exchanging a few historical ideas, and forming a camraderie that will last for many years.

I continue to cut 6 acres of grass every week-thanks to a nice rain-filled summer that has kept everything lush. The business doesn't stop either-keeping up with the watering between rainy days, planting, etc. Always enjoy finding time to be with Nancy too. It is odd going to sleep knowing that there were a number of Ebay sites that I haven't searched for days. Trying to finish a good book while lying in bed before sleep has been all but fruitless too. A paragraph, then a line, then single words or phrases have to be reread a time or two, before I give it up and turn out the light.

Above is one of the most exciting floats that I've seen in a long time. As most of you Euro collectors know, the normal colors of Heye Glassverks floats are a few shades of green and sometimes shades of amber. Per has found an aqua Heye float. Not only is it aqua, but it also has water in it. This is the first aqua, clover marked Heye float that I know of. Here is Per's rendition of the story of his finding this wonderful and uncommonly-colored German float:

Hi Tom!

It is good to be back home again. It was fun traveling with Amund, and less stressful.

My conclusions from this expedition:

There were plenty of floats at the areas we visited. Only a handful of floats that had interesting marks, no rare shaped floats at all, and only round glass floats for sale. All the beautiful and rare shaped floats were not for sale, *%#?!!

This expedition had good luck too with histories concerning the use of glass floats, float color, etc. There are taped Mp4 record files of interviews too.


We have spent approx 5 days looking for floats and history. 10 days were filled with writing emails, photoshooting floats and areas, phonecalls, local advertising for floats, Eagle photography, fishing, driving my SUV and vehicle ferries to fishing districts far from the mainland, with hardly any population at all. Some of the places even advertise for people by offering free land if you settle down and make those places your new home.

Anyone interested? Your own Island home-away from everything. Purchase your own fishing boat, build a house with a boathouse. Go for it! You can connect onto the internet by cellular or satelite phone, and run your own business. LoL

A fisherman and I had a great conversation last week. He told me histories about using new fishing nets and other gear for deep water fishing. Very often, they pulled up old fishing nets with glassfloats instead of fish. Often, those glass floats were filled with seawater from the pressure of the deep. The floats were still intact and without any damage.

I have a few in my exhibition at home. My favorite is a 1/4 filled with sea water, 8 inch Herman Heye float, ice blue color and a beauty. It is my first find at the Austevoll area, just a few miles east from my hometown Bergen, and only one vehicle-ferry crossing. ;-)

Enjoy the terrific auctions that Per currently has on Ebay. If you look into each auction you will find additional photos from the expedition. Photos which were unavailable to post to the blog during the expedition. I've got myself psyched for at least one of Per's floats. Hope I win it! Hope you win one too. Enjoy seeing rare and beautiful floats, some with beautiful nets, a great wooden barrel, and wonderful photography from the eyes, mind and hands of Per.

SLUTTEN AV EKSPEDISJONEN

Hi Tom

How about a basement filled with floats? Approximately 200 glass floats from
Moss, Herman Heye, Flesland, Larvik and +pcf+. All common varieties.

Anyway, we had a great time, and we are now taking a well-earned dinner at a local restaurant. They are serving fresh water fish (not saltwater). The Norwegian name for the fish is Røye.

Our next plan is to go out fishing later, and tomorrow morning-out fishing. Late afternoon Monday, we are packing, then driving until midnight. By 01:00, our
destination is Trondheim, and the vessel "Richard With," from the Hurtigruten
Company. From there we are sailing down to our final destination-Bergen.

So, "that's all folks." We will send a few better pictures from our last
meeting later on.

THE END

Per and Amund

It's 8:00 P.M., and time to kick back with Nancy. Per has not been able to send any last photos yet, but when he does, I will do a postscript.

I don't know about you, but for me, the email was anticlimactic, as was the final meeting for Per.

It's been so much fun doing the trip diary along with Per and Amund. The day-to-day excitement was wonderful, especially getting up in the morning to find emails from the guys. Thoughts of floats and the blog filled my mind for two glorious weeks.

From the emails I've received, many of the readers have enjoyed it too. Discoveries were made, and I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to some Pereinar 123 auctions once the dust settles. Hope there are some good ones!

Enjoy tonight's auctions, and the anticipation of new floats appearing for each of us.

The photos from the top:
Sleneset and Lovund (the Eagles' mountain);
an abandoned boat house;
a rebuilt trawler;
Herringnet marker barrel and
Boathouse 1, the front.

NISE Saturday

After finishing last night's post, and putting that baby to bed, I spent time with Nancy. Before hitting the sack, I always shut the computer down. This is necessary if you want to prolong the life of the computer by not letting it continuously run hot, as well as protecting the cooling fan. I have to look for late emails, and Ebay auctions one more time. In the email account was a final note from Per and Amund.

Late Friday:
Hi Tom,

We have been out fishing again tonight, and saw a few tiny whales (Nise.) Nise is the Norwegian name for the tiny whales that hunt Herring in the fjords. As we watched the whales chasing Herring, that very same second, two Herring was hooked on my fishing gear. They are the very first herring I have caught in my life on sportfishing gear.

I wrote back to comment on the fact that they were once again back at the base camp. I thought they might still be on the island, then realized that Per did say that they needed to find a room for one night. Not sure if they were going float hunting this weekend, and thought that maybe they were going to take a weekend's rest, I asked what their plans were.

We had at least three big thunder and lightening storms during the night, and lots of rain. We've had a very wet summer compared to the norm. Getting up before dawn to a storm, I sat down at the computer, and found Per's answer to my question:

Vi Tom,

Amund's and my plans are:

Tomorrow, we have a meeting with a woman who is the daughter of one of the only two and biggest fishing boats in this area. She has some floats.

Later, Per sent some wonderful photos shown above, and explanations:

The pictures

From boathouse 1 are two teardrops, one approx 18" and one 12". Two beauties, and not for sale.

Closeup of the wodden fish at boathouse 2.

Pictures of the earlier owners of boathouse 2, repairing a fishing net. They are the father and grandpa of the fisherman we had a one hour interview with yesterday.

A photo of his and his father's fishing boat.

I have to listen more closely to the interview to find out interesting parts for you and the blog. An example: there was something he mentioned about using green color glass floats on one type of fishing net, and I've got to listen to the recording to remember what he said.

Will send one picture from floats that we found today. Looked hard, but nothing very interesting. It is very difficult to find rare floats!

Per

There was a second email with photos, and Per's explanations.

Outside Boathouse 1 on the left is a German Bomb or float-bomb from WW II. It was found on the open sea, by the grandfather.

On the right is a marker bouy made from a wooden stick, iron, flag, rope and of course, glass floats 5", also owned by grandfather from boathouse 1.

Per than commented further on tomorrow's meeting with the daughter of the area's prominent commercial fisherman.

Tomorrow's plan:

The woman we are meeting, her father was a fisherman in this area who owned huge fishing boats back in the old days. The very best interviewing subjects and the best float finds are always from these fishermens' families. So we will hope for the best.

We met her at an antique store. She was looking at the floats stored in my SUV, and we begin talking about old times and glassfloats.

I gave her a gift of an old oval float from my earlier finds. I like to give away beautiful floats as goodwill to people. Perhaps they might have interesting floats or info from the old days. As you can see, the gift resulted in a new meeting. She is now digging for floats all over the property for us to examine when we arrive on Sunday.

Per and Amund

And finally:


Hello again Tom,

You have plenty to do reading all those emails. Lots of fun, and also very interesting for all blog followers out there.

Picture below is from today. we were visiting a local antique store. I did purchase old medicine glass "poison" bottle from year 1800, and some very old glass bottles for decoration. And of course, two floats, one FG Made In Norway and one amber unmarked float.

We have found a meaning for the unknown AP mark. That's me and Amund's
ID float. Amund & Per... He, he, he

See Yaa

Unlike the normal weekend's break from float hunting while on the move, or in this case, Per and Amund kicking back to some cold beers, fishing, photographing, etc., the guys are thick into the hunt. Hopefully, tomorrow's meeting with the fisherman's daughter will be filled with excitement for them, and for us. Until then, have a good Sunday.

P.S. Forgot to tell you-Per did answer my question about the large floats in the photo: Looking In The Door. He said that the large floats were PCF floats, and that there was 1-9" Made In Germany float, but not for sale. So they were not as large as they looked in the photo, and definitely, not Japanese floats. The netting on them is superb. Go back and look at the photo, and enlarge them at will.

Inspector Floataholic

After yesterday's boathouse explorations by Per and Amund, I went to sleep thinking about the photos, and the possibilities for today. Per started today's emails by answering my question about the fish-shaped marker with the two glass floats attached. Attached to the first email was a photo showing a different fish-shaped wooden buoy, and Per's explanation:


Hi Tom

This wodden (wooden) fish similar to the white wodden fish with floats, is
called "Nise." Glass floats did hang from below the fish as seen on last night's marker picture. The floats on this "Nise" are gone-only the float hangers are still intact. Often used on nets at the beginning or end as a marker.

The wodden fish was also used to find out the power of the seawater's drift, and which direction it ran. They were often used together with the wodden stick with four floats that were attached below the mid-point on the stick, and there was a flag on top. (See photo of one of those markers on the 2/05/09 post) I will send a picture later tonight.

The wodden fish were also used together with a fishing line baited with Herring on many hooks. Remember that wodden float I sent you with 3 floats inside? The line was turned around it together with the hooks. When the whole line was set out at sea, the wooden marker was floating at the surface, the baited hooks and line below. Sometimes just the float box and gear, without the flag, or only the flag without the wodden fish-when the fisherman knew the current's direction.
I hope you understood my explanation and my English.

There was also an email from Todd the "Norsknailpounder," asking a question, and telling of his enjoyment of the photos that Roger and Marie sent:

Hey!
Now that shot of those teardrops is mouthwatering ! Did Per say what the two cork or bark sectional floats at the bottom of the picture were used for? Great to see all your pictures of the Stranne floats !!!

Todd

I forwarded Todd's question to Per, and he answered:


Here is an answer to Todd's questions. The two ordinary cork floats...Those floats are oval and approx 16cm tall and 12cm wide. Cork floats were used on Herring nets. Cork floats of this type were buildt up by adding slices of cork together.
They were no good for deep water because pressure filled the corks with salt water and the whole fishing net was lost!

Per also added:

The wodden fish without floats were used as frightening gear just outside the opening of 10 or so Herring nets strung together. The nets was tied together and set out at sea in a round circle which surrounded the Herring. A small rowboat was
situated at the opening of the nets, and the woodfish sent down into the seawater to frighten the Herring back into the circle of nets.

The day ends with Per and Amund's closing:


Hi Tom,

Am sending pictures from yesterday and this morning. More to come tomorrow, history too! Enjoy folks! And please ask questions of Tom if there is anything you wish to know.

Per and Amund

Enjoy the photos, and look at the mark on that float! I've never seen that one before. An email was sent to Per asking a variety of questions. One of the question concerned the photo, "Looking In The Door." I asked Per if those very large floats to the right were Euros or Japanese floats, and if Japanese, how did the Norwegian fishermen get them? Hopefully Per will be able to answer those questions. If they are Euros, they appear to be the largest Euro glassballs I've ever seen. What will tomorrow bring?

Over the Mountains, and Into the Sea 8/19-8/20/09

Time passes, and Per and Amund are into their second week of the expedition. Yesterday was a quiet day. The morning was windless, and perfect for taking the boat out for a ride to the deeper waters in search for big ones.

I woke up, and read Per's first email:


God morgen and good morning,

Vi ligger nå et stykke ute i velfjorden og fisker, vi har sett stor
hval og ørn, en flott morgen.

We Are now out fishing far out at Velfjorden, we have seen a huge whale
and Eagles. A beautiful Morning.

Per and Amund


Later Per sent me a photo of their catch. They caught a bunch of really nice-sized Cod and Whiting. Lots of good eating that night, and plenty of fish to freeze and take home for eating this winter.

This morning's emails started out with:



Morning, 8/20

God morning Tom. Time is 04:25 New York time. Get out of bed! ;-) You
have a blog waiting for your input! ;-)

We are on our way travelling among fjords and Islands. The picture is ferry #2 out of 5.

Will send you a picture now and then from today's finds, and our travel route.
One picture per email, since I'am using my iPhone.

Weather is cloudy w/rain, not the best photoshooting weather, but excellent for inside boathouse digging.

Take good care Tom and the blog followers out there.

Per and Amund

After coming in, I was greeted with another email from the guys:


Hello again Tom,

I think you just have finished your breakfast, and we are entering the ferry for a nice cup of coffee and a meal. Time is 06:30 New York time and 12:30 Eu time.

We visited an antique shop in the Mosjøen City neighborhood area. Found plenty of old bottles and medicine glass, china and old farmers gear. Not a single glass float. That's weird, because this area is a typical fishery district. Maybe these local antique shops don't find glass floats interesting, or the local people don't ask questions about floats for purchasing, and that's why you don't find
floats for sale? This antique store was not a typical tourist shop. It was hidden.

See Yaa

After breaktime, another:

Hello again Tom

Info from the area:
We Are waiting for the last carferry to our destination Sleneset, which is the nearest neighbor to the well known and famous bird mountain Lovund.

And at the end of the day, there were two more emails. The second-with its photo, knocked my socks off. How beautiful those two Teardrops are, and that marker buoy on the right hand side of the photo is absolutely wonderful. They are all family history, and just too precious to part with. I'm sure that all of us can relate to the feelings of the people that Per and Amund were with today.

It must be truly wonderful to be immersed the way the guys are, in all of that history. To handle and photograph those beautiful floats, to talk to the people who's ancestors used them, and to hear the stories-what a dream. A dream that is Per and Amund's reality.

We are all so fortunate to have a friend like Per, who is taking his time to study his countrymens' history, and for sharing it with all of us. Those who collect floats are getting a rare treat, and also a treat for those who may one day Google a key word that is in this blog, and suddenly come across Per and Amund's gift to all of us.

I will end here by letting Per tell you the story through today's last emails, and am looking forward to tomorrow:

Hi Tom

We Are ok, in a nice room. Have been talking with several people, and made new contacts. So we are filled up with jobs for tomorrow.

And the final email today:

We have purchased approx 7 floats. A few have very interesting marks. Marks that are rare and completely unknown to me! There is another super rare float similar to the Wind mark that I sold to Greg a year ago, and a few nearly perfect Aasnæs floats.

Sorry, but the owner will not sell those teardrops in the photo and two teardrops from another owner-even if my offer was above 700USD each. Teardrops have been used by their families for several years: dad, grandad, gran-gran etc. The history continues, and I understood these people and why they do not want to sell those beautiful teardrops. I did my very best.

We will send plenty of pictures and info of the floats and marks, fishery history, the area and our one-hour interview with the peoples' valuable history.

An example:

the clear 4" and 5" floats were used on Sei nets. Sei is the Norwegian name for a fish I don't know the English name for. I will hopefully find out the name later when we are back home at the cabin situated at Nevernes.

Per and Amund


The photos from the top of the post:

Carferry #2;
Carferry #4;
The island room for two and
Inside the Boathouse.

Click on the photos for a larger view.

Roger & Maria's Trovald Stranne Experience Pt.2

On Sunday afternoon Roger and Maria sent photos of their floats collected while on vacation. I was, and remain incredulous to see such beautiful examples of previously unseen colors of Torvald Stranne floats.

I am under the impression that the netted example seen above, and in the photo shown in Sunday's post of the floats on the table at Margitt's home, have capnets made at Torvald Stranne's store. Perhaps woven by Torvald himself.

Enjoy seeing these wonderful floats, and enlarge them by clicking on the photos. Oh Man! How nice it must be to pick up and admire these whenever you wish to.

Thank you Roger and Maria.

Saturday 8/15 to Today 8/18

Sat. 8/15

Hi Tom!

Yesterday we beachcombed on Vega Island.

Have added a few pictures from yesterdays finds, and a falling-apart-boathouse on the other side of the island Vega.

While beachcombing, we found only cork floats and old nets-no glass floats, but we have an agreement with an old fisherman out there. He needs some days to look for glass floats among his fishing-nets and old fishing gear.

Today has been a beautiful day so far with sunny warm weather. So we traveled far out to sea to catch the big ones-and we did, 18 cod fish and only large sizes from 2-5Kg each.

We have a few huge boxes specially made for deep-frozen fish so we can get all fish safely home.

See Yaa!

Per, (Amund is taking a nap)

Sun 8/16

Hi!

We were just in contact with a museum guy from the AAsnæs and Namsos districts who has buttons and maker's marks found in the sand and soil in these areas.

Next week we will concentrate more on the floats, and hopefully something interesting will show up on the islands we will visit.

Today 13:45 local time or 07:45 New York time, we have been fishing. Caught 10 cod and a took a few pictures of the baby Eagle. The mother or father that we have been photographing seems to be sick and tired of us traveling around in a boat in her territory-photoshooting her family. ;-)

Per and Amund

Monday 8/17

Hi Tom

Today we have been visiting with a guy with who has several boxes filled with
floats-approx. 100 floats. We found 5 interesting floats: 2 from Bjørum,
one from Aasnæs W/sunken pontil and two 2" floats (BV).

I guess the ice blue color makes it diffucult to see the exact marks. One is BV and the other is an HV or BV. I will try to take a closeup of the marks for you to study later on.

Amund purchased two amber unmarkt floats yesterday.

Per and Amund

Tues 8/18
Hei sender ved bilder av ørn tatt i dag morges.

Ha en trivelig onsdag!

Per

Translated means:

Hey,

Will send photos of the eagle taken in the morning.

Have a good Wednesday!

Later today: I sent Per an email using a translator to send it in Norwegian, and wanted to know if Per was able to read it. I followed the translated version with the same email in English, to see how the translation service worked. Here is Per's reply, and news:

Hi Tom

Very well done, just a few grammar faults. I did understand every
sentence, no problem ;-)

I think that you must be tired from work, emails and blog. You have done a fantastic job so far! (I've got a couple of months of work left, then vacation, in a new and exciting place, with terrific people to share the time with. Oh Boy!)

There's a very heavy wind outside our cabin today. We had to walk across
and over land to avoid waves, and to be wet all over by using the boat. Nothing very interesting today, and something in my mind tells me that this expedition might turn into a catastrophe or a huge miss or whatever the name is for something that does not end up with several interesting and rare floats, and only the smell of fish!

I have been in contact with the woman on the Island again and two other people in the same area. This evening will have all the answers.

A well known human way to behave is to:

tell stories about huge finds and plenty of floats on the phone; or you have a personal meeting-outside the float area; or if someone know someone who know someone, who know someone; and when you finally show up, ohhh I will not sell. Sorry!

Or:

I don't have the key; or can't find it; or my brother has it and he is
unavailable. But I know another fisherman, he might have the info and
floats you are looking for...ughhh!

My point is:

Far too many unpolite people out there!

But when everything seems to be darkness and no floats, maybe something wonderful will show up tonight after all the phone calls are done?

Pictures added in earlier emails are:
damaged boats on the coast;
one restored fishing and whale boat at Nevernes harbor;
Amund with another box with floats, but not what I'm looking for
and me taking a picture as I am digging for floats among rope and netting.

Nothing interesting.

Per

Uh oh! Frustration is beginning to set in, but in Per's email there is also the positive outlook that things can change in a minute. Hope tonight's phone calls prove both Per and I right.

Just finished dinner, and wanted to finish this post. While Nancy and I were eating, I told her about receiving an email from our daughter. She wanted to see it, so we opened up my account, and I saw that Per had sent a final email for today. Hmmm. Looked forward to reading it, but wanted to wait until after dinner, and this is what I found:

Hello my friend,

As you can see from picture below, Amund is working on the computer
with emails and pictures. So am I. Not on my computer as you can
see from the picture. My computer has taken a day off, and my iPhone has
taken over. It's easy, and works-even if the pictures don't have the
best quality.

We have finished an agreement with the island woman and her brother, and have been
invited over for a meeting on the Island far out. That's wonderful
news isn't it!

We both are looking forward to visiting that Island, and
the upcoming meeting with a few of the local people out there to
listen to their stories and stories of the Island's history. It must be like a fairytale living that far out at open ocean and very hard too.

We will leave our cabin and Nevernes early in the morning. Travel by
car for approx 4 hours, and 3 car ferries for approx an half hour or
more each. We will have a long travel-interesting and full of wonderful nature. We might have to stay over for one night on the Island. Time will tell. Wish us luck. ;-)

Per and Amund

That's it.

Per and Amund are motivated to find floats. You can see the look on Amund's face as he carries that box of floats. You can see the excitement in his body as he looks through the crates of floats in the last post's photo. You can feel the need in Per's words. Now, they are going to be off on another adventure.

They've had a good time while at the cabin fishing, photographing, finding a few floats, etc., but it's time for the big time.

You bet Per! We're all hoping that the two of you have a great trip over the mountains and out to sea. I'm really hoping that the big one hanging in the boat house will at least be photographed for posterity's sake, and also hoping that you end up with that float along with at least three beautiful large eggs.

Good Luck!!