Wednesday ( Day 3 )

The day really never did get off on the right foot nor could it right itself. The morning started out fine with the usual trip to the bathroom, coffee shop and today an added stop at the fish processing company. The fish that was cleaned yesterday sat on ice for the night and we dropped it off first thing this morning with the company that will vacuum pack and ship it to our homes. The total haul was approx 115 lbs of usable fillets from all the fish we caught. Not that bad a haul considering it was our fist day out and a two of us were rookies to AK fishing. A quick stop for coffee at our favorite coffee shop, the marine supply store for rubber gloves and a knife and then it was back to the boat. This is where we started to try to find out what the deal was with Bruce and the jigs that were shipped up here last year.

This is where the day was thrown off track and didn’t get a chance to get corrected. The deal is last year some new hooks were ordered and shipped to Art’s friend Bruce’s house. Bruce lives on the island year round and his address was used to ship the hooks to. If all went according to plan the hooks were arrive in time to be used on last year’s trip. The problem is they didn’t arrive on time and the trip ended before they could be put to use. Then they sat in Bruce’s house for a year so that when the return trip was made this year they could be put to use. That sounds well enough but we couldn’t connect with Bruce to get the hooks. I think he was out on his boat fishing/working. After many phone calls and juggling we connected with Bruce and made a trip to his house to pick up the hooks. A quick stop at another marine supply store and we had the remaining rubber parts needed so we could make new jigs to use today.

The departure from the harbor didn’t happen until about 1:00 this afternoon at which point we motored in a different direction than yesterday and went to a cove to drop two crab pots. Once the pots were in the water we headed back across the cove, past the harbor and out to our fishing grounds. We did manage to get in three or four hours of fishing but didn’t get much of a haul of fish. The wind was blowing, the seas were about 2-4 feet and as soon as we would drop our lines the boat would begin drifting. Most of the time we would drift far enough in 15-20 minutes that boat would need to be positioned back on top of where we thought the fish were according to the sonar. After moving a half dozen times and fishing for about 4 hours we decided to head back in.

As we did the other night we cleaned everything, the tackle, the gear, the boat, the dishes, and the fish, everything was cleaned. Since we didn’t make it back to the dock until 8, the fish cleaning didn’t finish until about 10 and by then we were dead beat. Dinner tonight was Art making sushi rolls out of the Yellow Eye Rock Fish from yesterday. Now it is about 12:30 and the boat is down for the night and I will head to la la land myself in about 10 minutes. We plan to be out of the harbor at about 7 or 8 am on Thursday so we can get in a whole day of solid fishing. I’ll keep my fingers crossed on that plan.

The picture for today is the view from right out the back of the boat when we’re in the harbor.
That is all for now.

Right on.

J

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July 9Th (T-9 Days)

Stuff to take and stuff not to take, that is the question. Obviously I'll need jeans, t-shirts, sweatshirts, socks and all that junk one needs to get dressed and stay warm when on a boat. The question I have is what about the toys I need to bring. The GPS, a cell phone, binoculars, a leather man tool, Ipod and any other thing I could need or not need. This is an opportunity to use all the cool tools I've been collecting over the years, thinking I'd go camping or something similar. Now I've got a chance to actually use all that stuff. Who knows maybe the Loran (GPS for boats) breaks and my lowly Garmin will save the day. The engine could blow a head gasket and I could use the Letatherman tool to make a new one out of a wetsuit. There is huge potential here for me to bring the right tool to do the right thing to save the day..... Yeah right, who am I kidding.

Here is some of the swag I'll bring and maybe I'll use it or maybe it will just be dead weight. The blackberry is coming as it will do double or triple duty as a phone, quick camera, game boy, Ipod, or send the odd email during the insanely long flights. I've got a couple of knives to bring, one straight edge and one serrated. I don't know two different blades but now is the chance to find out if there really is a reason for each to exist. A small flashlight as I've got a feeling I don't want to wander the dock at night without knowing where the edge is and where the water begins. I'll be bringing a digital camera (Nikon Cool Pix) so I can snap a quick shot of our daily mistake or triumph. Lastly a waterproof digital watch that has a light or is back lit. This is actually the one item that was suggested to me by a friend who has been on a trip of this sort to Alaska. My buddy Bernie mentioned there will be a time when everybody is asleep and I'll need to check the time or use a small light to find my way around the boat (bathroom break) where a flashlight will be too much. The suggestion was to get a cheap watch at Wal_Mart that I won't worry about if it gets trashed, but has a good light to it.

That's it for this posting, I really need to get to packing my clothes, all my toys and ship the goods off.

Right on.
J

don't forget, www.CameraLandNJ.com