Summer of 2012–Sitka Style

He was looking at a big stretch of empty

Wondering just what was up next….

The sun rose hot in the cloudless sky, its rays burning relentlessly onto the deck of the True North.   Whoa, whoa, wait – wrong story!  Ok, the first day we were at Sitka this year, and one or two of the others actually had the sun shining, but “hot”, “burning”, and “relentless” really weren’t in the picture.  Aside from those few days, the weather was 54, light rain or 54, heavy rain or 54, fog.  Still, sun or rain, it is a beautiful place.

This season is already over for us, at least the summer part.  Due to some timelines on a project at my programming business, we had to delay our fishing efforts until mid-July this year, and returned to Kalispell in late August.  A bit different than the last two years, but necessary and overall very encouraging. 

I’ve had more than a few readers tell me that last year’s blogs were depressing, and I have to admit they are right.  It was all true (fisherman true anyway…) and the sentiments expressed were pretty much right on.  I began to question my judgment regarding the whole commercial fishing thing and had made up my mind to have an enjoyable experience or else call it quits.  So there; a make or break year.

We arrived as I said on a beautiful, sunny day.  The walk down to the True North at her new moorage in Sealing Cove brought a weight of emotion and anxiety – but there she was, firmly tied to the dock and looking as pretty as the day we left her last fall.  She’s such a solid little beauty that if does a person good to look at her, knowing just how tough she really is.  We opened the cabin door, half expecting the funky smell of rotting whatever that seems to happen on a boat left for long, but no!  Our efforts to leave things in good condition, along with the attentions of our reliable boat-watch man had paid off.  A little light mold on a couple of things in the fish hold, but by and large all was in good shape.

I spent the first week torn between checking out all the systems, getting gear and equipment ready to go, and finishing up Phase I of the programming project for the team to test and train on.  Split like that, it was hard to get much enthusiasm going; it began to rain the second day and I had a good view of the surf breaking on the rocks out in the Sound.  My mind kept telling me how big the waves were, how likely things were to go wrong – just hard to get going.

Then, things began to change.  Emery and Todd came to spend a few days with us.  Their enthusiasm worked its usual magic.  We took the boat onto the grid to paint the bottom and install new zincs, which was fun to see them get involved with.  Simon and Philip came in on the Sea Fever, a little 22 foot boat they were taking from Juneau to Tacoma, and similarly livened things up.  Finally, nephew James from BC came for a week, and we had a real blast.  I’ll cover each phase in the near future on this, but for now – the jury is in – we had such a great time that we plan to continue.  Lots to do, lots still to learn, but we’re in!

Fish On!