Pondering in the Pit

Well, it’s a Bloody Mary morning….. Willie Nelson

There is something about the smell of blood before your 5 am coffee that just seems wrong.  It’s mid-July, and it’s been like this for several days now; wake up by 4 am, listen to the latest weather while the diesel engine warms up, fire up the stove and put the kettle on, then into the rain gear and onto the forward deck to pull anchor.
Find your place in the line of boats that are leaving Hoktaheen Cove, head between the fearsome looking guardian rocks over the breaking swell while silently praying that your motor doesn’t decide to have a morning hiccup and leave you to the mercy of the waves and rocks; then, keep going out past the one-mile prohibited zone offshore to begin setting gear.  It is a little bit of a matter of pride, but practicality too, to see how fast you can get all 4 lines with their total of 80+ hooks properly dispatched and fishing.  I’ve learned to put my floats out first so the other guys really have to look hard to see if my heavies are in, or if I am just in the back enjoying the view.

This year, with some coaching by good friend and fisherman Bob Santi on the Mary C, I am finally able to get the gear out in a respectable time.  It seems to be the little details that make a lot of difference.  Years past, I fluttered and pooted around with gear that varied in length and configuration, hoping that the Christmas tree approach would give me a clue as to what the fish wanted for the day.  This year, Lovie tied everything to EXACT lengths, and all my spoons were the same color, my flashers were consistent, and once we found the preferred hoochie design, that was the same.  Lovie made gear tubs for each type of gear, and neatly organized them so my initial set was always easy, no tangles or jumbled up leaders.  What a difference in productivity and attitude! Thanks Bob.  Thanks Lovie!

Lovie -my Sunshine!

Once the gear is set, I wander back into the wheelhouse to see where we are, what the other boats are doing, and if the coffee water is hot yet.  It usually isn’t, since we rarely leave the oil stove on overnight.  Even at idle, it keeps the cabin toasty, and neither of us sleep too well if it is too warm.  I also have a bit of paranoia (you think?!) about leaving the fire on overnight for both flame and carbon monoxide reasons, although we have detectors for both.  I just generally have a lot of paranoia while on the boat – ask my first mate if you need details.  So, since not much is more disgusting than lukewarm instant coffee, I usually just have to go pull a line to see if we have any fish, how deep they are, how big, what color they are biting on, and so forth.  That first Clunk on the head, Gaff, and Thump on the deck always results in our nice clean deck getting splattered with fish blood – also the bait shed walls, the gurdies, and me.  It always seems the first fish won’t die gracefully, but has some inherent duty to bleed and flop about as much as possible.  And most generally, I always belt out the first line of the old Willie song – never get too far, but it feels good to sing it out and smile, hoping this will be a good day with no surprises.

Where is my coffee??

By the end of the first pull, Lovie usually has mercy on me and has a hot cup of coffee ready – 37 years of being married to me, and she knows that I really don’t function well until the coffee goes in.   If it’s rough, or foggy, the morning tensions can be up early, too, and you know it is going to be a long day.  It’s incredible sometimes to have 50 fish on the deck, some in the hold, you are already battered from getting thrown from one side to the other in a 6 foot swell with a 15 knot wind and an ebb tide stacking up the chop, and you look at the clock – 7:15 AM… wow.  Why am I doing this?  Ah, it’s an adventure… and so it goes.

This was a good year – still is, as a matter of fact.  Our buddies are headed back north for the last round; coho and king are closed for the mid-season evaluation, and there is still a short 3-day king opener to come. 

In one of those decision moments, I decided to call it enough, and we have headed home.  We made a lot of improvements that worked wonderfully, but we got a couple of setbacks that made me nervous enough to head back to Sitka for evaluation and repairs.  Once we were there, it just seemed that the time was right to shut down and make the changes needed for the next round.  Optimism prevails, we have a new, modified plan for next year, and are excited to get it underway. 
I headed north to Sitka on the first of June, while Lovie held things together back home.  As it seems to happen these last few years, I am never quite finished with my programming work, and I have to split my days between all the boat projects and the programming projects. 

Summer Office

I have been able to get online to do my work, but so far have not found the bandwidth I have back in Montana at Applied, so it really crimps my style, waiting for code to transfer.  I always promise myself I’ll not leave town until the projects are FINISHED but so far, no luck.  By week 3, I was actually more Boatwright than Programmer, and by the time we ended the season I could hardly even remember what the project name was!  I just looked at my hit list for boat projects to be completed by July 1, and was impressed. 





There is always a ton of work to do just to get ready, not to mention the self-imposed miseries of new projects and improvements.  An abbreviated list for this year includes:

• Have the boat hauled out at Halibut Point boatyard for bottom paint, zincs, a new Transducer ( for the depth sounder) and new thru-hull fittings;
• Install the new radar, computer, AIS, heading sensor, depth sounder, and monitors;
• plumb the hydraulic lines to the new outboard gurdy locations;
• weld the new safety rails on, and install the roof tarp struts;
• install the new combo VHF-GPS antenna and the backup GPS unit;
• install the second LED floodlight and new LED decklite;
• wire in the refrigerator;
• build shelves in the forward storage areas and tool box location;
• install LED lights in the forward storage, electrical closet, and engine room;
• change oil and filters;
• prime and paint the new raised bow section;
• install UHMW trim on the new bow area;
• put the TRUE NORTH name back on the bow and stern.
• configure all the new software to integrate – CATCH, radar, AIS, sounder, temp sensor, heading sensor.

Those are some of the highlights, and it all went pretty well.  We love the new look of the boat, with the bulwarks and rails in place it looks like a little gunboat of some sort. 

I’ll post the season rundown next time; we survive, caught a lot of fish, and only had three or four heart-stopping moments.  We ran up the outside of Chichigof Island all the way to Elfin Cove and back to Sitka on our own, a real milestone for us; fuel problems, electrical problems, all in the name of the game.  It was our fifth season, so I guess we should be over any surprises, and next year we have no excuse.  We’ll sea…!
Meanwhile, my rearview mirror caught Lovie, early morning ponderings in the pit…