It's the journey not the destination...right?

Sounds sage enough.  I’d buy it.  Though, that wasn’t my tune a few days ago …

Another wise old saying is that the journey starts the moment you leave your door.  I think that’s horseshit. Well, at least, that isn’t quite the case when you live in remote places of Alaska, like, say, Cordova and your one and only mode of transportation out of said remote places of Alaska, like, say, Cordova, is the ferry on the Alaska Marine Highway, and said ferry keeps getting cancelled!

I think if you are stuck in the town you live in, like yours truly, your journey most certainly does not start the moment you leave your door.  That’s when purgatory starts. 

I was all scheduled to take off on the ferry Sunday morning.  But Mother Nature had other ideas.  That bitch.  The weather picked up to southeast 40 with gusts to 60 and the ferry was cancelled for both Saturday and Sunday’s sailing.  Ok, ha ha, all part of the fun of living in Cordova.  Right?

I’m a trooper.  I got up super sonic early Monday morning and was at the ferry terminal at 5:55 AM all excited to try again to get out. I showered, put on clean clothes,  had my coffee already made, a thermos full for the road, pasta salad I made the night before so I wouldn’t have to stop for lunch and other little snacks for myself.  Carefully packed the few remaining items into my car, arranging them just so.  Said good-bye, again, to my buddies and I was ready to travel.  My high hopes came crashing down like a tsunami when I found out I wasn’t even on the stand-by list.  I was told I had a snowball’s chance in hell of making it out. The car had been packed for days and I was already out of bed.  What the hey? I had to try!  I couldn’t get a confirmed reservation for another 8 days!

I waited and waited and waited.  For an hour and a half.  Finally, I was told to stage in Lane 2.  This is a good sign.  The ferryman pointed at various cars and told them to load.  I’m so close!  First this one, then that one, then another 20 minutes or so later ferryman said “Sorry.  All full”.  Meh.

I was sure I was going to get out, if nothing else, by sheer will alone!  Deflated, I slogged back to the terminal to rebook my ticket and was told that there were a lot of people ahead of me who had been trying to get out for the past 10 days!  But, that I now had a new confirmed reservation for Thursday, 3 days away. At least I know now when I’ll be leaving.  And, looky, that’s the one and only window of decent weather.  How lucky for me.

In the mean time, Cordova and Prince William Sound continued to get pounded by storm after storm.  The ferry was cancelled for Tuesday and Wednesday.  As my dad would say “The wind blew, shit flew, and no one could see for an hour or two.”  The wind did blow, I think we had gusts to 50 or 60. We got 20 inches of rain in three days; there were flood warning and high wind warning everywhere.  Luckily, most of Cordova is on a hill so not much flooding.

I woke up at 5 AM Thursday morning with little hope.  The tree branches outside bumped and thumped against my window all night, letting me know that the forecasted weather window did not arrive after all.  Demoralized, I got up anyway, didn’t shower, didn’t pack a lunch but just dragged myself down to the ferry terminal only to confirm what I already knew.  Cancelled.

This was starting to get old.  I mean, how much stand by to stand by can one woman stand?  My friends from down south tried to console me “be patient”.  It took all my will power not to tell stick it were the sun don’t shine.  It was my Cordova buddies that gave me the best advice a gal can get at 8:30 in the morning.  Start drinking.  Ha! Now that’s advice I can sink my teeth into!

I spent the day rethinking my travel plans, reviewing my other travel options (turns out, I didn’t have any), and pretty much beating my head against the wall.

However, managed to get to bed early and again, woke up this morning (Friday) at 5 AM.  Heard the same damn branches outside my window letting me know the wind is still blowing.  Debated a shower.  Threw on the same clothes as yesterday, made coffee but no snacks.  Tucked my remaining bags back in the car any old way,  didn’t say good-bye to anyone and slogged, again, back to the ferry terminal. There were cars lined up to get on, a good sign.  I parked and trotted through the rain to check in.   This time, I’m on the stand by list, that’s another good sign.  Ooh, number 3 on the stand by list…this sounds promising.  And the weather is starting to come down….

I get staged in lane 1 this time.  Someone checks my ticket.   Then finally, I hear the words I have been longing to hear all freaking week!  “Pull forward to the purser.  She’ll take your ticket then drive aboard.”  THANK YOU!

Me and my ass are finally getting out of Cordova after a long, emotionally arduous and torturous week of ups and down and going/not going and stand by to stand by is finally over.  I can at last start my 3500-mile road trip south!! My prayers are answered!

Wait, what?  What did you just say?  The Richardson Highway,  one and only road out of Valdez is closed due to flooding?  Shut the front door. 

An ass kickin’ silver season

Which has really been more of just an ass kicker,  than ass kickin.  This past week especially, when not one but two storm systems swept through Alaska.  They gave the seas out west of the Aleutian chain 70-knot winds and 17’ seas.  They ripped through the Anchorage bowl earlier this week with 100+ MPH winds tearing out trees, flipping small planes and left 30,000 people without electricity.   Three days later, some 4000 homes are still without power (http://www.adn.com/2012/09/06/2613732/thousands-still-without-power.html).

NOAA's weather graph for 9/4/12

By the time these storms got to us on the Central Gulf Coast, Prince William Sound and the Copper River Flats, it was merely blowing a steady but relentless 40 knots or so.  Of course, this was Monday and there was a silver opener so guys and gals were out fishing.  Most fishing boats faired without too much harm, just tales of close calls of sailing down the channel while picking up the net, catching trees, snagging down and ripping up.  Most guys stayed inside the protection of the barrier islands instead of fishing out in the open ocean where seas were probably over 10 or 15 feet, at least.

The tenders, on the other hand, don’t have the luxury of staying inside.  Their deep drafts prevent them from running all the way to the east end of the fishing grounds inside so they are forced out into the open ocean.  Also, once they have fish on board, they are pretty much committed to getting those fish back to town.  So, come hell or high water, or both at the same time, they usually go. 

Tender Alaskan Pacific

 

One tender, the Alaskan Pacific can attest to that. Coming out of the Bering River, the east end of the fishing grounds, they took a “30 year wave” one that ages you 30 years in an instant.  That wave that broke out both front windows and knocked both guys out of their helm seats.  Their windows must be about 12 feet or so above the water line and they said two-thirds of this wave completely washed over them.  It probably would have flipped a bowpicker like a toy in the tub.  I don’t know what electronics it knocked out, but I know they were lucky enough that it didn’t drown the mains so they were able to come in under their own power.  A 65 nautical mile run in big seas and 40 knot winds with no front windows.  No thank you!  They made it to town all right patched themselves up with plywood and Plexiglas and went back out, in still shitty weather, to buy more fish for Thursday’s opener.  

Usually, it’s the little bowpickers that get their asses kicked, this week it was the bigger boats. 

bowpicker

The Sound Pacer, an 80 foot tender with a green skipper was following fellow tender Tamar into Soft Tuk on the east end of the Flats this last opener, a place where this skipper had never been, with this boat anyhow.   The boat hadn’t been there either this year so the GPS didn’t have any current track lines.  These channels change on an annual basis, so there are no current nautical charts and track lines need to be changed every season.

tender Sound Pacer (picture by Chris Salmon)

After a snotty crossing on the Flats they finally duck into Soft Tuk, missed the channel and promptly ran aground.   They dented in their keel coolers and over heated an engine while getting pummeled by breakers.  Breakers that ripped off their rudder and caused them to start taking on water.  Hopefully, this all happened to the same engine so at least they would still have one engine and could limp off the sand bar when the tide came in. 

View from Sound Pacer (picture by Chris Salmon)

Last I heard, which was last night, everyone was OK and the pumps were able to keep up with the incoming water. They were able to limp in under one engine and were up on the grid last night! 

But fishing boats weren’t the only ones getting their asses handed to them this week.  The Chenega, our 220’ ferry on the Alaska Marine Highway took a pounding last Sunday crossing Prince William Sound from Whittier to Cordova, with 50 Girl Scouts on board.  Evidently, everyone was seasick and they didn’t slow down while getting hit with wave after wave.  They took such a pounding that structural damage was caused!  As of yesterday, September 6^th, inspections reveals that further welding to the framing will be required to meet regulatory standards.  The vessel has been out of commission all week and the soonest estimated date of service is Monday, September 10^th.  We rely on the ferry for transportation of not only people, but also cargo (such as salmon) in and out of town, produce and groceries. 

You can keep posted on that at https://www.facebook.com/cordovabuzz?ref=ts

Lets just hope next week will bring better luck.  And weather. 

Reluctant fisherman or just reluctant to write

Until today, I have been a reluctant fisherman, or at least a reluctant writer.  As you may or may not have noticed, my blog has been nothing but photos the past few weeks.  This started out innocently enough, lack of sleep or time to write due to copious amounts of fishing time, cool photos seemed the perfect solution.  But, now that I am back on land and the storm of the season is over, I am still tempted to just post photos, again.  Then I decided to roll my sleeves up and try to figure out why.

I can’t deny there have been some rogue waves the past few months.  As some of you may know, my mom past away back in April after a yearlong battle with cancer.  Two days after the funeral, I hauled my ass cross country from Ohio to Alaska, some 4000 miles, driving 14 hours a day for 7 days straight to make the 1^st fishing opener in Cordova.

Fishing took off like gangbusters and it was full fart from the get-go with 48-hour openers and shitty weather to boot, kicking all of our asses the whole time.  (There were some fish caught, though.) This was about the time my now ex but then current boyfriend check out of my life so fast he left skid marks.  After getting our asses kicked on the Flats for a month, we heading to the Sound where we proceeded to put in 20-hour days, fishing over 500 hours in 32 days.  It takes you normal folks about 4 months to put in 500 hours of work; we did it in a month!  Again, we caught some fish and made some money but I won’t say it weren’t hard earned cake.   That last week I tweaked my low back the day before our biggest. Set. Of. The. Season!   Honestly, our net was sinking.  I took near fatal doses of Vitamin I (Ibuprofen) and moved around like Mr. Roboto to get through the pain.  I had to dose myself at each change of time to get through.  High tide, take two.  Low tide, take two more. 

But, now I’m back in town, my back is on the mend, and I’m back to mending gear.  Having weathered those storms, the forecast is looking good.  V10.  After 2 days of sunshine and 4 trips up the ski-hill, the tide has finally turned! I met self discipline (SD meet Jen, "nice to meet you" Jen meet SD, "grumble, grumble")  but I lost 5 pounds, I’m going to a Poetry Workshop in a few weeks held in my most favorite place in the whole wide world, McCarthy Alaska.  (Gearing up for Fisher Poets early this year!) I’m having fun flirting with a hot man from Anchorage, I’m applying for Writer’s Residencies and looking into going to Bali then hiking in Nepal and inquiring to be on some T.V. program I know nothing about (wish me luck!)  So, finally, I have something to write to all you about.  I couldn’t quite make myself do it until the tide had turned.

But hey, when a fisherman gets a water haul, she just turns around and sets the net out again. 

Boats of the Fleet

The North line

Tender extraordinaire, Aquanator

James Baby on the Exodus

Curly and the Savonia

Guido on the Night Owl

Old WW II powerbarge turned tender the Robert S

Peter Pan tender the Victory.  Ain't she a beaut?  From 1942

Erosion AKA Ketchup

 Roulette It's a Russian boat. Get it? 

Russian Fleet waiting for a turn at the North line

I'm taking a poll.  The past few weeks I've only posted photos and not much story.  What do we think?  More photos or more writing?  Put a comment in box and let me know what you think!

Faces of the fleet

Leo & Curly

the Blackster aka Bill Black

Fishing is still in full swing here on the Copper and Prince William Sound.  We start fishing Thursday morning and fish until Sunday morning.  Then we fish Monday morning and fish until Wednesday morning.  Then we start all over again Thursday morning.  But its been fun and I'm having a blast taking photos.  This week I wanted to feature some of the faces of the fleet.  There are more for sure but this is a taste.  Hope you enjoy!

Fisher Poet Buck

Vince on the Pasak

Ian, pickin' up a frenzy

Bill loading up

Phil & his fish pickin' daughter Marina

Salmon Slayer Dan

Skipper Danny

Thea sunning herself on the North Line

Crew Quicksilver, Danny & Me

setnetters snoozing waiting to deliver

beach crew

JP, setnetter extraordinaire

What fishermen do in their spare time...

pick shrimp pots in PWS

take photos of cool boats

or funny boats

or funny names of boats

they take pictures of starfish

weigh really big red salmon

have sourdough pancakes with fishin' buddies  Leo & Curly

catch some zzz's in public places like park benches in Whittier

make cajun shrimp boil

eat shrimp fajitas with Danny &  Dan

watch other fishermen catch fish

take 4 AM photos of sunrises

document celebrity sitings, the Northwestern from Deadliest Catch

talk on their cell phones

SUP setnet sites

lug toys around

bullshit with each other

get dumped off on rocks to stretch the legs during sets after days on the boat