Two east coast kids
We both grew up on Jersey's east coast, around Archirondel, and played on that beach as kids. Neither of our families fished, but both were mad about boats: Leyton learned to fish there, Gabby learned to swim and sail there. Years later, our dates were fishing trips, and on his lunch breaks Leyton used to drive Gabby out to Archirondel for a crab sandwich. These days, we run the cafe there.
The skipper
Leyton
Leyton never wanted to be anywhere but on the water. He fished angling competitions as a boy, crewed charter boats as a teenager, then qualified as a commercial skipper and captained superyachts around the world. It didn't stick. He came home, worked the boats, and in 2019 bought Jade-S, one of the best-known boats in the Jersey fleet, from the fisherman he had crewed for.
He fishes all three ways: pots, nets, and rod and line, and rod and line is the real passion. He has sat on Jersey Fishermen's Association committees for years and has always trained up younger crew. Family lore even traces the line back to fishmongers at Billingsgate in 1806.
"If I had all the money in the world, what would I do? I'd still go fishing."
The shore boss
Gabby
Gabby trained as a geologist at UCL and travelled the world for work before taking a government job at home. For two years she worked both jobs at once, fish before work, fish after work, fish every weekend. When it came to a choice between the job and the fleet, she chose the fleet and the community.
She couldn't fillet a fish when they started. Now she teaches others, runs the shore side, the counter and the restaurant, and is Vice Chair of the Jersey Fishermen's Association and a committee member of the Jersey Hospitality Association, one of very few women working Jersey's boats.
The night it all started
In March 2020, Jersey's fisheries shut down before almost anything else, because the export markets in Europe closed first. Leyton re-rigged the boat for line fishing, took three out-of-work fishermen with him, and landed a full load of beautiful fish. The merchants took a handful and refused the rest.
That night, Gabby sat down at the kitchen table and made a Facebook page. The orders came in, and deliveries ran around the Island out of Leyton's mum's place. Seymour Hotels lent them ice from their closed kitchens, a kindness that set the whole thing off on the right line. Within a week, other fishermen were asking the pair to sell their catch too.
As restrictions eased, deliveries became weekend stalls: the back of a pickup and a gazebo, pitched first at Grouville, then St Aubin. When money was tight they bartered with the farmers, fish for vegetables, old school trading. From there it was built bit by bit, every penny reinvested: an ice machine, the vintage Citroën van, then the unit at Victoria Pier with its processing rooms, walk-in fridges, live tanks and blast freezers. Two people became a team of six, with Gabby's nephew among the crew, and the restaurant, Driftwood, came along too.
"We get to spend every day all day together. It's actually a great life."