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I'm fresh from the sea. It's been a long while since I posted anything on here so I'm finding myself trying to organize the mess of my thoughts through thick brain cob webs in a hurry. Bear with me.
The fishing season was a longer than usual one for starters. I'll post a link to a fishing video I made last year for the guys here so if you've never heard me go on and on about what I do for a living and how it's all done in person you can watch it from my perspective. All the guys I work with are a great to spend almost 4 months with at sea getting the shit kicked out of you for a buck. Though the season did test our stamina both mentally and physically most of us made it al the way through. I turned 34 this year on the boat, another birthday shared with the ocean. I think I'm forgetting what it's like to have a birthday on land with friends. I did keep a journal this time and wrote about 2 pages every night before going to sleep. Someday,like in a million plus years, I hope somebody finds it and makes a discovery or A and E show program about it because it's mostly about fishing, the people who do it and my strange thoughts as the mate of a longliner. It could be a future cult classic!
Let's see, Here are some highlights
In general, we didn't do bad at all. The first trip was pretty slow. But started to pick up toward the end. Just before half way through the second trip we had to coe in to drop off one of our best factory guys because of a gnarly infection in a very private place- no names or comments here. Use your imagination though, it wont do it justice! Our third trip was pretty damn good. for a month and a half (including the second trip) we caught twice the fish that the fleet was averaging per day.. that is until a manic propulsion problem occasionally interrupted our fishing. We cut that trip short aswell to have some preventative maintenance done on the boat and finally our fourth trip though short because of the season closure was a steady grind.
The weather was wild especially in the last month. Forecasts of 35-to 50 knot winds were common. Fishing turns into a battle with the sea on those nights. There was one night n particular that I remember well, The weather was so bad that I was actually a little edgy trying to get a haul started in 30 + foot seas. I'm usually pretty good driving in that kind of weather but getting a haul started requires the most maneuvering and cn sometimes get tricky.. It was after all blowing rain sideways at 50 miles an hour. I wrote this poem while wedged in my bunk that morning after I got off shift.
The sea quathered in muffly blue- in contrast to a horizons hue.
A storm was brewing in shuffly zunes of rays of strays of windy cayes.
My ship careened with the zeen of fiends for fish we bleed these seas of needs. And all through the night froth’es mumbling wake of tales of whales or rudders quake. To my men in zen of knightly strife who power the wheels of changing life and to the rolling of ocean that we battle each fight-We face in arms each others harms.
Brothers of storm and sea you make mountains we climb to wield our prime. We share this home of mysterious zeal and share the rule we cannot steal. And you rise to meet us with a buffalos grin and race to charge us for fish and fin and we ride your back in awesome gales that live in our eyes when we revere your tales.
So, Know this both, and know it right when you rise quaking howl and winds grow tight that I stand with a force that lives in you and challenge your challenge with not a fearsome que for crashing is splashing and is fuel for my fuel and shall continue with what‘s in you for it‘s in me too.
I try to make up words sometimes as I go.
Ohh, one really cool thing that happened was that I was attacked by a large bird of prey! Believe it or not! It happened like this.
I Just finished setting several miles of longline gear and had to go out side to adjust our xm antennae so that I didn't loose the "coast to Coast" program I was listening to So I opened the door and latched it open without knowing that I had swept up and captured a large sea hawk or falcon who was hiding from the storm in a leigh behind the door. It was a shock to us both obviously! I just heard scratching at first but when I got a flashlight and shined it down where he was trapped, I was shocked to see massive talons and brown feathers crunched into the bulkhead by the door. I wasn't really sure what to do.. I mean, he had some big claws. I mostly stood there awestruck by the sheer possibility of seeing one of these guys up close and over a hundred miles from land while I watched him wiggle his way out.. And when he did get out, he was pissed! Ofcourse, I was the first thing he saw- You'd think that once he got out from behind the door that he'd just fly away.. No! He saw me and flew right at me, Talons in the air, wings flapping, Beak snapping! I jumped and fled back into the wheelhouse into the little U shaped corner that I drive the boat from and tried to sweet talk the bird whose beak by the way could take fingers off and he chased me! This is a valid "no shit, there I was" cornered by a man eating sea falcon or whatever beastly avian name he goes by who was determined to get a piece of me. I grabbed a sguigee that I use for the windows and yelled .. "back off you big feather flapping fuck head bird!" But he just bit at it and jumped at my feet. I had no where to go so I started to sing to him.. Gooo too sleeepp, Goooo tooo Sleeeep Goooo tooo sleeeeepp myy little falcon.. IT worked, He actually calmed down so I kept talking to him Squeegee in hand. I grabbed the phone because nobody was going to believe this and I was still trapped in the corner by this bird and called down to the galley for some help. You might imagine that the cook didnt believe me when I told him that I was cornered by a large bird of prey but he sent some guys up to see what I wanted. I managed to snap a few pictures of the bird once he got comfortable too! But as soon as the calvary arrived the bird knew that he was outnumbered and jumped back outside and flew into the night. Believe it or not!
I'm going to leave the Bering sea update there for now and just upload a few pics and that video. I'm In Juneau right now and although it's a little bit of a ghost town outside right now, I have some explorig to do.. If not Drinking and socializing.. I am a sailor ;)
P.S I hope you like sunrises!
