From the Inner Edge of Nowhere

This has been a tough season so far.  The first two months of mechanical gyrations were well worthwhile; the improvements have made a world of difference in our confidence in our equipment.  Even though I still spend a lot of effort worrying about things, it is not with the same intensity of apprehension I felt with the older, worn out motor, rigging, and other gear of last year.  Things happen; seawater, wild, assaulting motion, and a host of other factors all eventually lead to failure, that’s just the way it works.  At least when you rebuild and replace things, you have a better understanding of weak spots and potential show-stoppers, and that helps one to deal with the whole experience.

The tough part right now is made up of two factors; weather and fish migration patterns.  This year, we have been hammered over and over by major weather systems that are spawned somewhere in Asia, travel the Russian coast, then head our way.  We have had 1 sunshiny day since August 1; the words “Rain likely” seem to be the mandatory wording for our weather report.  Rain isn’t a problem, it’s just a reality here.  The large ocean swells that these big storms generate, along with the winds they bring are another story.  The fish numbers have dropped off to dismal amounts; it is not unusual for boats to work all day in the Sound for 20 fish.  That’s not enough to make this worthwhile.  Last week, some of the boats discovered that fish have moved thru Inian Pass to the Icy Straits area, and they are doing very well.  The number of boats fishing the outside coast has dwindled to a handful, and we hear numbers of 60-80 boats working the Straits.  New plan: Monday or Tuesday, depending on weather, we will try to make the Pass and move inside.  If fishing doesn’t pick up in there, at least we are one step closer to getting the boat back to park at Sitka for the winter.  Bank accounts are imploding, so hope there is work somewhere for the winter.  Give us this day our daily bread…

Enough gloom and woe – we still can laugh!  The 35 knot “breeze” blowing through the Cove makes being tied up this Sunday not feel too bad.  One of the guys was telling us about an old fellow who fished till the was 90 years old out of the Cove.  Things get slightly warped after so many years here on the inner edge of nowhere, and reality blurs more than a little bit.   This lonely old fellow spent a bit of time increasingly worrying about what he heard floating thru the ether on his radio, and became convinced that the Government was interested in monitoring his life.  The obsession got so great that he appeared back in town one day with a new hat, which he wore till the end of his days.  It was fashioned out of aluminum foil, specially shaped with ridges to deter the brain-monitoring satellites the government was using to spy on him…  I don’t know, maybe he had something there.  He was a tough old guy; his boat hit a rock at Point Lucan late one winter evening and went down.  He got off a radio call, but no one was near, so he (without survival suit) was forced to go for a swim.  The tide was coming in, and Dave the Boatwright took his large vessel out to search.  Finding a floating person in the dark who has no reflective gear, EPIRB, or strobe light is next to impossible, so the fellow floated right on past Elfin Cove to South Inian Pass.  Finally, hours later, fortune washed him up on one of the rocks there.  Most men would have been dead; not this one.  Dave, calculating tidal flow, kept searching, and finally came across his rock.  Rescued, he took a bowl of hot soup, dry clothes, and asked to be returned to home at Elfin.  No hospital, hypothermia ward, or other assistance, just get him home; after all, he was over 70 at the time!  I have no doubt that the story has improved over time, but if even half of it is true, I’m impressed!

Kirk has had to replace his head gasket during this storm.  On the way up from Sitka, he noticed his oil pressure was abnormally high; when we got here, he found that his oil was more like gelatin than oil.  He kept some samples for analysis, and cleaned out all the goo he could get.  Unfortunately, the only cause for such jelling of the oil seems to be if someone added something to it, and the only source of that would be sabotage.  Some investigation, dependent on oil analysis findings, is probably in order.  If it was malicious, it isn’t a far stretch to think an attempted murder charge would be in order; one’s life is very much in jeopardy if an engine failure occurs.  I hope it is just a case of product impurity, sort of unsettling to think anyone would stoop to such an act.   Of course, on re-assembly yesterday, a critical weld on an exhaust flange broke, so he is repairing that today; hope he’s ready by tomorrow so we can go catch fish.

Steve’s deckhand had to return home to her winter job.  She is from some small village on the Bering Sea, north of Bethel.  He promptly hired two more of his friends from Sitka to come out for the rest of the season.  The girls are high-school buddies of his from Mt. Edgecumbe – sounds like they are spoiling him already – boat is getting cleaned, goodies cooked,  Steve’s just smiling!  He said he needs 2 deckhands because the next 3 weeks are going to be phenomenal fishing.  Hope he’s right!

Stay tuned.