WIND SPEEDS UP TO 51M/SEC

Faxi RE docked at Vopnafjördur late last night after a long steam from western Iceland. The route taken was the longer option, passing south of Iceland due to unusually bad weather conditions off the north coast over the last few days, and skipper Albert Sveinsson said that they had storm-force conditions the whole way. The wind speed indicator topped 51m/sec at one point, although sea conditions were not bad.

‘We can say that we didn’t see the weather moderate until we were practically off the harbour at Vopnafjördur,’ he said, commenting that the trip was 900 tonnes of herring taken deep west of Snæfellsnes and off Faxa Bay.

He said that the fishing has been good on grounds west of  Snæfellsnes, and when things started to slow down, some strong marks were located at the outer edges of Faxa Bay. Albert Sveinsson and his crew finished their trip there and when they started steaming for Vopnafjördur, more marks had been found deep off Malarrif. There has been no search for herring on inshore grounds off Stykkishólmur since the opening days of the season.

When we spoke to Albert Sveinsson the last of Lundey’s catch was being discharged and Faxi was next in the queue to start pumping ashore. Ingunn AK is at sea off western Iceland in its third and last trip of the short season. Lundey and Faxi each have one more trip to go.

The pelagic vessels will next switch to fishing blue whiting south of the Faroe Islands, which is unlikely to start until the later part of next month.