Reine is high up on our list of best places to dock a boat. The town is scenic, surrounding mountains’ spectacular, and best of all, this town still earns its living from the sea.

The cod fishery is fascinating.

In the 17th century an Italian sailor was shipwrecked here and spent the winter. He took home a supply of dried cod which started a trade which goes on today. Italy is still the largest market for Lofoten cod.

The town is surrounded with drying racks. Which tells you something about the humidity level between January/February when the cod is caught, and April/May when it is shipped.

We’ll have to ask some of our Italian friends for a recipe.

The drying system may be traditional, but the handling gear is up to date.

The area where our dock lays is surrounded with cabins which at one time provided quarters for winter fishermen.

These have now been converted to tourist cabins. With the views, local ambiance, and relatively warm weather compared to the rest of Scandinavia, this must be a popular spot.

In particular we like the roofing system. Sod on all or part of the roof with slate on the rest. It looks good, and in the spring creates a roof top garden.

Many of these buildings have traditional fishing boats stored below them. It wasn’t that many years ago that these were in use.

They are double enders, with very fine entry and exits. The construction is light, but strong. We were told that up through the 1960s there were so many boats in Reine during the cod season that you could walk across the harbor on their decks. There are fewer small boats now, most are larger, but the annual cod fishery is still a big deal.

Here’s something we need to check on. We saw no seagulls working on the cod. The Lofoten Islanders must have them trained. This flock landed, and then took off again. We need to adapt this system to Wind Horse as she has been known to attract gulls to her rigging.