No More Sangria!

After word of our arrival became village knowledge, there was a constant procession of visitors honking car and truck horns in the driveway, or coming up the stairs to knock on the door.

The morning of day two was no exception. Guests started arriving right after breakfast. I had taken it upon myself to do the morning cooking, which was a lot of fun, and was an opportunity for me to show my gratitude to be invited into the established three-way friendship. It was fun meeting these folks, who universally had smiling eyes, a warm grin, and very pleasant manners. The conversation was always from the heart and genuine.

I was the first to wake up in the morning, normally before first light, and was quickly followed by Stan, who made the coffee. On that 2nd. morning I went surfishing, and on the first cast hooked a fish, but lost it when the hook pulled free. Later, another fish grabbed my jig and tail combo, and was also lost without seeing it. Nothing but fish stories.

After breakfast, we decided to do some work on the house. All of us had packed something extra for the trip together with our normal baggage. My extra was an indoor/outdoor fan for the new screened in porch. Once the electricity was sorted out, charged to the switch, and the fan put together for hanging and wiring, it only took a few more minutes to have that baby running. Sleeping on that porch with the cool circulating air from the fan, and the sound of the waves to go to sleep by and wake up to, was intoxicating.

The third morning found us up early, and after a filling breakfast, we jumped into the gear-filled pickup, and headed to a dock to meet our guide. On the way there, we passed a flock of Flamingos grouped together in the middle of a small bay. The sunlight illuminating off their feathered bodies shone a beautiful shade of pink. We stopped to try to photograph them, but they were pretty far away, and no one had a telephoto lense. At the landing our guide pulled up in his pickup, and we began to unload his fishing gear, extra motor, extra gas cans, etc. In no time we were ready to go. The boat's engine was running nice and smooth, and we took off for an outer Cay.

Once we reached the cay, and pulled the boat up onto the beach, we donned our camel packs, grabbed our hand rakes, and started hiking into the brush. I don't think 15 minutes passed before I saw the gleam of purple glass. Rushing over to the gleam, and pulling back the brush, I was greeted by two pieces of a beautiful amethyst float. The rest of the float was nowhere to be found. Finding an amethyst float was my second goal. I guess finding two pieces was apropos.

Finding the hurricane debris line and the walking were so much easier than our first foray into the brush. It was hot, but the cay was surrounded by water, and not that wide. A sea breeze was easy to find. There were bottles, and plastic floats all over the place. In no time we were separated-each covering a different part of the debris lines. Bottles, plastic floats, light bulbs, more bottles, then suddenly I saw the round side of a green float. I took my time walking up to it. Looking throughly at everything between the float and me, and not wanting to miss seeing another float, I reached my find. Stooping to pull it free from the sand, I was dismayed to find that my float was in reality the bulbous end of a sangria bottle. Fooled! That episode was repeated at least a dozen times before our trip ended. We all were all victims of the ruse-over and over again.

Hours of walking only yielded lots of bottles and plastic floats, but no glass floats. What happened to that promising beginning? Finally, working my way to the beach, I could not resist the cool inviting water, took my clothes off, and jumped in. Man! That felt good. Stan emerged from the brush, asked me how the water felt, but declined to get in because the dry salt on the body made him uncomfortable, and we still had most of the day ahead of us. Having lived with a salt-caked body for more than a week on a month-long Baja trip, a few hours of salt on me was nothing to deter me from a great swim.

A short while later, together with our guide, we met under the Casaurina trees for lunch. In front of us, with low tide wavelets lapping at its emaciated body, lay a dead half-grown Sperm Whale. The sharks had cleaned the flesh off most of the body, and there was no odor.

Lunch was terrific. After lunch we decided to walk a bit further, and soon came to a high coral bank where a "Great One," was smashed to smithereens.

"Great One," is the name given to the large Japanese floats that are sometimes found in the Carribean. Of all the places to beach. That "Great One," pounded on a rocky cliff, and that was all she wrote. A short time later, Stan found our only whole float of the day, a nice blue/green unmarked Euro. I believe that it was made by Fabrica de Gijon Fabril which produced the "Scrolled 65," or the "GF in the boat". Coming to an impenetrable Mangrove forest, we decided that float hunting was over for the day, and it was time to go fishing. We were also on a bit of a timetable.

The preceeding afternoon, we had arranged to have dinner at a local restaurant after our guided trip, and didn't not want to keep the cook waiting. Piling into the boat, and stowing our float hunting gear, we broke out the fishing tackle. We had two fishing rods, and four guys, so paired up, and made a deal to give up the rod to our partner after each fish.

Trolling plugs through the outlet of the coral reef, we were in purple water when a big one grabbed my lure. I could feel the strength of that fish's body as it took line, and quickly knew that there was not enough line on the reel to weather it's run. There was no turning the boat to chase it either. As the line disappeared, there was nothing left to do but clamp down on the spinning reel's spool with my hand, and hope the fish would give up its run. Quickly the line parted. What a fish.

We had a great time after the big one got away. Blue Runners and Rainbow Snappers grabbed our trolled lures every 5 minutes, and we soon had a nice mess to eat. The conformations of the inland cays were beautiful, lime/green with growth, and varied in shape. There were caves created by the eons of crashing waves, and rocky points that hung out over the water resembling half of a bridge. Two of those points had collapsed into the sea, due to eons of undercutting of the rock by the surf. The waves crashed over the fallen points as we trolled by.

Entering the inlet of the creek leading to the boat dock, we had to help our captain by keeping watch for rogue waves coming at us from the side. The tide was coming in, and the waves behind us were big and pushing us forward. The rock wall to our right was only 10 feet away. Wouldn't you know it? A really big fish grabbed Jim's lure.

There was no moving that fish, and we could not stop to fight it. Line was melting off the reel. Jim tried to battle that fish, but it was just too strong, and another monster got the better of us. Then Stan hooked up with another brute. That fish was as strong as it gets. We lost it coming through the gap, and when the lure was retrieved, one hook was completely pulled off the plug-including the O-ring. The other hook was straightened, and its O-ring was just about pulled open too. The lure had been crushed, with holes in the tail, and water inside. Great Barracuda, King Mackeral or Wahoo? We'll never know. But we negotiated the entrance safely. The ones that got away!!

Our guide was the best, and we thanked him profusely for a great day. Luckily, he is a good friend of our host, and has since become someone who I admire and like very much. He visited us twice more, and filled hours with stories of his family, and life. On our last day on the island, he and his wife invited us over to see the treasures he had found while diving for Conch and Lobster, and beachcombing.

The four of us were still high on excitement, and all talked about the day as Stan and I quickly filleted the fish, packed and refrigerated them. Then everyone showered and dressed for dinner. It was an amazing dinner. We were the only guests at the restaurant. Conch had been caught that afternoon, and was as fresh as is possible to eat. Our chef presented us with a starter of Conch salad, a fresh vegetable salad, followed by a boneless filet of Grouper, beans and rice and Conch fingers. All was washed down by cold beer, and the owner's wife joined us for dinner and great conversation. We were promised Conch fritters too, but that is another story. It was great not to have to cook that night.

To be continued...

We're Still Alive

On the morning of our second full day at the Carribean Island house, the four of us were loading the pickup for an easy trip. I blurted out the title above, and jokingly said that would be the heading of our 1st. story on the blog. Lusty, testosterone laughs were followed by a barrage of witty quips. We were in Paradise, knew it, and shared the same feelings about the day before. Thursday was a day to recover.

Our planes had landed 20 minutes apart at Miami International. Getting off the plane and through the C gate, I was greeted by floor-to-ceiling installations of beautiful fiberglass molds of all the popular sport fish in Florida's waters. Each species of fish was arranged in an artistic design of 4-10 fish with about 2-3 levels of designs per wall. They were beautiful, and I took a few photos as I waited for my companions to arrive. We'd never met before.

Standing in the waiting area in front of the gate, my eyes and the eyes of my host-Stan met. We recognized eachother immediately, thanks to photos shared through the previous year's emails. I had wondered during the many months of waiting for that moment, what it would be like to see the real faces and persons responsible for great philosophical and float-sharing emails. The glad-to-see-you shake and hug answered the question. Followed by two more similarly warm greetings from the last two of the Buoy Brothers Rudolfo and Jim, we were quickly talking. For the next 9 days, the only lull in great conversation, came when we were asleep or reading our books during the short snatches of minutes between adventures.

Needing a lot of hydration was the lesson learned on our first float hunting expedition. Each man carried a camel pack, bandages, net bag for floats, walkie talkie and camera. We had battled thick brush, with little-to-no-shade, over 100-degree temps, and no cooling ocean breeze filtering through the Casuarina trees to relieve us. There were many moments of dizziness, trying to catch my breath and breathe through my nose, and not my mouth. There was a breakdown when I draped myself over the waist-high branch of a 7'tall palm. The top part of my torso from armpits to the top of my head was bent over, supported by the palm's branch, and I wondered if my companions would find me if I passed out? From somewhere deep, came the strength to stand up, clear my head and push on.

Half an hour earlier, while searching for a piece of tideline left over from Hurrican Ike, Stan had called me on the walkie talkie to come see a glassfloat that he'd found. Our two companions were searching closer to the Casuarinas, about a quarter of a mile away.

Stumbling as quickly as I could through the maze of brush, scurrying lizards and bleached Landcrab remains, I found our Buoy Brother standing over an opening in the brush, looking down on a beautiful colorless Euro. Quickly, a few photos were snapped, and Stan stooped over to pick up the float and see if it had a maker's mark. It did...LT. Our fourth float of the day. Rudolfo had found an unmarked amber shortly after we started. Jim had found two throughly broken floats, one a Heye Glass Clover.

Fifteen minutes later, and only a few moments before the draped-over-the-branch experience, I'd decided to walk to my left to see if I could find the tideline again. I found it, and just after finding it, there in front of me was another colorless Euro embedded in the old debris right next to a European metal float. What a beautiful pair!

I called Stan over, and while waiting for him, I snapped a couple of floatos. I'd found an RG Made in Portugal 5-incher. My goal was realized. During the summer months between that moment and the initial surprise invitation, I had tried very hard not to set myself up for lack of float finding disappointment, so kept the hope alive that I would at least find one Euro on this adventure. There it was!

Walkie Talkie conversations evolved into a plan to leave the brush and get back to the truck where cold beer was waiting for us, where we could convert our long legged brush pants into shorts, and get the hot and sweaty socks and hiking sneakers off. That old dirt road was a little piece of heaven when we broke free of the morass. We slogged back to the truck. The only thing comparable to being able to sit down as we drove back to the house, rolling the cold beer bottles on the sides of our throats and faces, and drinking a good long gulp of liquid refreshment, was putting my face up and my body into the cool outdoor shower on the back porch. Nirvanna!

The next day's easy pace, and rehydrating ourselves throughly, was what we all needed, because our third day was planned. We were hiring a guide to take us to an outer Cay for more float hunting, and some afternoon fishing.

To Be Continued...

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?