Been a long time

Hello All,
Wow it has been a long time since I've been here writing. My tender season came to an end on the 12th of September after a banner year of Commercial fishing We brought in 3 million pounds of all salmon species for the season. It was record poundage for a gill net salmon tender for the company. When I returned home my mom and I went to the state capital of Juneau Alaska to attend the Pioneers of Alaska Convention where all the members from all over the state gathered for the event. It was a really great time had by all that attended. When I returned home I rebuilt a wood deck on the house that was in major disrepair and finished the pole barn that I had started last fall.

My best friend Daren and his family left Hawaii on their sailboat in August and landed in Kodiak in mid September after getting there butt kicked a few times due to fall gales popular this time of year. They managed to get the boat to Homer and just last week I helped him get it to his home in Cordova. It was no small feat to be in the Gulf of Alaska in November but with patience and a good weather forecast we got there with no issues. It took us 52 hours to make the trip going day and night while the weather was good. I just returned from Cordova a few days ago after spending some time with him and his family.

Now that I am back I have a few personal things I need to deal with like selling some of my audio gear that I had at my house before I left. Some of these things I will never use again so I need to get them out of moms basement. Outside of that , all is well here and my family is doing great. I am planning a trip to Washington in a few weeks to see my cousins. I haven't seen them since i was there on the boat in 2009 so will be nice to visit and catch up.

So far I don't have any plans for the winter but I do have some irons in the fire so I will keep in touch and let you know what I am up to.

P.S I attached a a few pics below of my moms projects

PEACE

Silver Salmon Season is here

Hello All,
We are still out here taking care of our fishermen even though a few of them have called it a season. The pink salmon run is all but about finished and I understand it was a record year, beating out the summer of 2005. The silver salmon have been filling in the gaps and we have been getting more and more of them every day. They are worth more money but are not as plentiful as the other species. Everyone is hopeful for a good return this year. I guess it has been about 4 years since there was a good run so the fisherman are hoping this year will be better.

Last night we got a little taste of late season weather with a low pressure that is moving through making the water rough and the wind gusting to 30 knots. It should pass by tonight but this will happen more frequently now with fall around the corner. We are hoping to get another 10 days of work out of the season before they call us back to the cannery. So long as there is fisherman here catching fish we will get to stay but if their nets come up short of salmon the cannery will call us back due to lack of revenue. The fishing right now is a little slow right now with the weather so we are at anchor reading books and getting some rest. This next week will be the test to see what the silver season holds.

I will talk to you later.


PEACE

Pink Salmon Run Begins

Hello All,
I found some time to write once again. Since I last talk to you we were sent to Cordova for a little break between salmon runs. We expected it to be a 7 day break but as it turned out it was 2 days before we were sent back out to the fishing grounds for the Pink salmon run. It started with a bang last week with everyone getting heaps of fish but as of 4 days ago it has slowed down. Some think it's still a little early yet to get to excited about it being a fair to poor fishing year. Time will tell but if it doesn't pick up here in another week it looks like it will be an average year.

The fishing is open 7 days a week 14 hours a day so fish or not we are busy on the boat. I just got all of the oils changed in our generator and our main engine so there is always boat work to do. There are 3 tenders covering our fishing grounds so every 3 days we get a day off as long as fishing stays the same. We spent our day off in Whittier fueling up the boat and taking a walk around.

The weather has been overcast and raining from time to time but as a whole hasn't been to bad. It has been one of the sunniest summers on record. Of course, I am out here.

That's all I have for now so I will talk to you guys later.


PEACE

Time off in Whittier

Hello All,
We made it into Whittier on Monday and we will be here for a week till the next fishing opener. We are between salmon runs right now so the fishing is pretty slow. It is really nice to be tied up for more than 2 days at a time. We will be doing some boat work while we are here so its like a working holiday.
We will be getting into the Pink salmon run next and the forcast is suppose to be good for fishing so I guess we will see.
All is well on the boat, we have had a much better time now that we are getting a little more sleep at night.
I would have added a few more pics but the Internet here is painfully slow.

Well Im off to try to fix the auto pilot so I will talk to you soon.

PEACE

Very Busy Month

Hello All,
I finally found the time to write something about my adventures out in Prince William Sound. Lately it seems that when I do get a free moment I use that time to sleep. The month of June is usually the busiest and that holds true to form. Our boat gets paid a flat rate daily, so we and the boat have had only one day that we didn't get paid since May 26th. There has been a lot of fish caught this year by our fishermen and our boat has racked up 1.6 million pounds so far. That weight is delivered to us one brailer sack at a time off the small boats.
The month of June was beautiful with only a few rainy days and being out here on such days is breath taking. The scenery around our fishing grounds is amazing. Snow caped mountains, 100 foot waterfalls, pristine waters and beautiful Islands covered with thick greenery.
We get to see civilization a few times a week when we have to get gas and diesel in the small harbor town of Whitter. It's not much of a place but still nice to take a walk around when time permits. Last weekend my Mom, my sister Pam, with my niece Celina and nephew Alex came up from Nikiski to see me for a few hours while we were in Whittier. It was a brief visit but nice to see my family. It has been a few months since I have seen them.
Well I better get going we have to get busy taking care of our fishermen.
I will talk to you all soon.


PEACE

Raining Cheeseburgers

Hello All,
I found a minute in our busy day to write a little something. Two days ago we were tied along side a pump boat when a small airplane flew so low I thought it was going to hit our mast and he threw something out the window. After seeing a few small bags hit the roof of our boat we went to take a look, it was McDonalds quarter pound cheese burger's. The plane made several passes over us and dropped a total of 20 burger's. Some did hit the water but we had a fisherman tied along side so he went and got them out of the water. I don't think I have ever seen any thing like that before. It turns out that one of the fisherman's dad likes to fly over the fishing grounds for a look and gets a kick out of dive bombing some of the boats with burger's from time to time. It was a real treat for sure.
Outside of that we have been busy receiving fish everyday and I am told the season is just beginning.
The month of June is the busiest time so if I can get through this it will get a little easier.
We have had some great weather, it has been sunny for a week now so I am getting a little tan back, Yay.
That,s all I have for now so I will talk to you soon.


PEACE

Working on the Trask

Hello All,
I have finally got a minute to write a blog after all this time. The salmon season for Prince William Sound (PWS) has started off with a bang. We have just reached a half a million pounds for the fish we have received. Like I said on an earlier blog we don't catch the fish we only receive the fish from the fisherman then we either take the fish to the cannery or we deliver the fish to a bigger boat than us and they take them to market so we can stay out and service the fishing fleet. The big boats have what they call a pump to get the fish off our boat and put it in their holds. They use what is best described as a great big vacuum, you stick it in the fish hold and it sucks them all up through a maze of pipes and the fish end up on their boat. It works pretty amazing. The hours are very long so when I have some free time I go to bed. The work is not to bad it's mostly the long hours that are hard.

We will be getting into the peak of the season pretty soon so I will have less time to write but I am told after the middle of July it gets to be less hectic.

The fishing is closed in the area today so we finally got some time to ourselves. It will open in the morning and be open 24 hours so we will be busy once again.

That's all I have for now and I will write when I can.


PEACE

Salmon Tendering Prince William Sound

Hello All,

It has been a long time since I have bloged. We have been so busy trying to get our tender boat "Trask" ready for the salmon season. We have been in Cordova Alaska since the 1st of May. The crew of the boat is Matt the captain, Tabatha our book keeper that will keep track of the fish delivery weights so the smaller boats can get paid and my self as deck hand and engineer. We have been having fun here even though there is work involved. Matt has been tendering here in Prince William sound for 19 years on several different boats, this will be his second season running the Trask and is looking forward to anonther salmon season. This is all new to me so it makes it pretty exciting.

Our season starts on Monday on the west side of the sound so we will be leaving tonight so we can be there and ready and hopfully relax a little before the work begins. I am told the beginning is a little slow waiting for the pink salmon run to come in full force but once it does we will be up all hours buying fish from the gill net fishermen. I will explain the process more in detail when I get time to do so.

I posted a few pics so you guys could see the boat I am working on. Matt has more but I have to get them from him at some point so stay tuned. I wont be bloging as much as I did on my sailing trip but I will do my best.

I will talk to you all soon.

PEACE

Winter work and Cali Holiday

Hello All,
It has been a very long time since I posted. I have been just busy living and working, yes the four letter word. In late January My best friend Daren let me know about a boat repair job in the port town of Seward. The gentlemen that owns the boat, Jon Andrews, fishes with Daren and I have known him a long time also. I gave him a call and he was very interested in hiring me to help out. I spent 8 weeks replacing generators, removing old fuel tanks, redo plumbing for the fish hold and many other projects. The boat I was working on was built in Oregon in 1944. Her name is "Trask" and she is all wood and is 75 feet long. It was a lot of fun to work on such a boat with so much history.

I was just days from finishing the project when I had committed myself to a 14 day holiday in California. Jon was supposed to be out fishing by the time my departure date came to pass but he managed to do the last finishing touches with out me there.

I went out to Sacramento California to mainly visit my grandma Morris that I havent seen since I had my boat in San Francisco Bay in 2009. She had been keeping track of my travels via my aunt Jill that made copys of my blogs because grandma doesnt have a computer. She showed me the stack of paper blogs, they stacked about 10 inches high. We had a great visit and I also got to spend Easter with my Uncle Mart and Aunt Jill and their 3 children. Everyone is getting a little older and the kids are getting so big. From Sacramento I went to visit cousins in the bay area, Bob and shelly, an old crew member Dan and a cruising couple that I had met in Fiji and New Zealand. They are working in Richmond at a Marina living on there boat. I spent 4 days around the bay and had a great time with with everyone. From there I went to Reno and saw my Uncle Jim and aunt Lynn and spent a weekend in the high desert.

It was really nice to see everyone and get warm after a really long winter here in the far north.

This summer I will be working as boats engineer on the Trask, the boat I worked on, and will be tendering for salmon in Prince William Sound. That means we will be anchored where the small boats are fishing and gather their catches, keeping them refueled and what ever needs they may have so they can be close to the fishing grounds without having to go to town. I have never done this before so should be a very interesting experience. I will have my computer with me out on the water so I will be bloging my adventure through the 4 month season.

That has been my winter in a nut shell and I will be keeping in touch as soon as the season starts.

PEACE