Alaskan Adventure part 2

Here is the continued story of my adventure, I am up to date with my writing, but it is all on paper and I have to type it up on the computer.

I tried to upload photos on Facebook, but it isn't working for me, and I don't know why.
I'm working on getting pictures up, hang with me.

Sunday, June 8th
We slept in and got up around 7:30 or so. Rick and I got some showers, and by shower, I mean we heated up some water, put it in a bucket, took it into the shower place, and powered it over your head with a pot. That kind of shower : )

After washing up, we had breakfast and then Rick ran to get some of our running water. Then we went to church, Calvary Baptist in Ninilchik.

When I was introducing myself to people, a lot of them would go like, "Oh, so you're a Petersen, ok. Missionaries to Poland, right?." And then they would usually ask something about Poland, like what it's like or, what the weather is over there. After I introduced myself to someone a girl, who over heard me, turned to me and asked, "Did I hear you say that your name is Timothy Petersen?" And being the honest person that I am I said, "Yes."
Then she replied with, "Cool, when you guys were here last time you stayed in our cabin. We were away right then, so we didn't see you, but I remember that you guys stayed there."
Then I probably said something like, "Oh, cool, yeah I remember that. You have a trampoline, right? Yeah, we had a lot of fun on that trampoline."
(For my family: It was the place with the wood stove, and the chickens, and the trampoline. I don't know if you remember, I'll post a picture. Sometime.) Later I found out that the girl's name is Sarah Cobbs, just fyi.

The morning service was about studding our Bibles, and giving us some advice and challenges. I enjoyed the message very much, it was very good to hear. Right after the service Rick cutout to go finish up with any thing else that he needed to do on the Deacon. (Deacon, that's the name of the big boat. The Harpazo is the name of the small boat.) Etta and I, along with what seemed like half the church, were invited to dinner at the Cobb's place. (The same place that we stayed in '03)

Dinner was good, we had our choice of either lamb, or rabbit, or halibut, or a little of each if we wanted. After dinner the other kids and I had a lot of fun playing capture the flag, it ended in a stalemate, but we all had a great time. I got to know the kids some too, which I enjoyed quite emphatically.

Afterwards, Etta and I walked back to the cabin, where we met up with Rick, and drove down to Whittier, to go fishing the next morning. We spent the night on the Harpazo, (little boat) it was pretty cramped for storage space, but it worked out ok.



Monday, June 9th
I slept pretty well on the boat, even though it was rocking around some, it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be though.

We had a 48 hour opener, starting at 8 a.m. that morning. A 48 hour opener means that fishing will be allowed for the next 48 hours, so we could (and would) fish until 8 a.m. Wednesday. At that time everyone's net had to be out of the water, or else you could get a huge fine and something.

The Department of Fish And Game decides when and how long people will be allowed to fish. Sometimes there are 24 hour openers, sometimes there are 72 hour openers. I'm pretty sure that it's based on how many fish there are, if there are more fish, then they give longer openers, if there are fewer fish, then they give shorter openers.

At first I just watched Rick and saw how hi did everything, and then I jumped in, and started picking the fish, and grabbing the buoy, and getting the nets ready to set, everything that I'll have to do at Bristol Bay. (The main place where we will be fishing.)

I'm sure glad that I was able to get some practice at picking here at Prince William Sound, (commonly called "The Sound") before we go out to Bristol Bay, because fishing is much more relaxed over here than it will be at Bristol Bay, so it takes a lot of the stress off of me. I know that I'm not able to pick very quickly yet, so being able to get some experience before the "real deal", is nice.

The fishing was pretty slow all day, though it picked up a bit in the afternoon. We caught about 30-40 fish per set (per set, meaning, everything time we threw out the net.) for the first couple of times, but if kept getting a little better as the day progressed, and by the mid afternoon, we got one or two 90 fish sets, which are still on the small scale normally, but they had a cold spring here, so things are a little slow still, they should pick up soon though.

During the night we did 3 hour sets, so that we could get some sleep while the net was in the water. (A 3 hour set means that the net was in the water for 3 hours before we pulled it in and picked it. (picked it, meaning picked the fish out of it.)) Normally we were doing 45-60 minute sets, if there are a lot of fish then we would pick it more often.

Picking is hard, but I know that I'll get it, I can already tell that I'm getting better.



Tuesday, June 10th
About the same as yesterday. The fishing was very slow, (slower than yesterday) and I was still getting the hang of everything. By the end of the day, I felt like I had a pretty good grasp of how to do everything, like preparing the net to go out, or come in.

We got one set that was 142 fish, but the rest were mostly in the 40's or 50's.

I haven't been out here for very long yet but I can already see how this is going to be an endurance contest, it's not really strenuous work most of the time, but you have to work quickly and without mistakes. You can't forget a step when getting ready to pick or set the net, otherwise you could have a major problem and end up ripping your net. Also while picking and setting, you have to be constantly watching for problems, like your lead line,
(bottom line of the net) going over your cork line, (top line of the net) if that happens, then the net will get all tangled and messed up. There are other problems that can occur too, like the net catching on the drum, or snagging on a rock or something, so yeah, there are things to look out for, so you have to be paying attention.

The scenery around here is beautiful. There are mountains in every direction of the compass, some of them are snow covered, and others have luscious green grass and tall, full trees. The water is a deep, royal blue. And the sun is blindingly bright, reflecting off of the water's shining surface. I'll post some pictures as soon as I can, but even they don't display it's true beauty. The weather has been really good, no rain so far, just the sun and the big blue sky. And some clouds, we've had clouds too.



Wednesday, June 11th
We kept fishing until about 7:30 a.m. we were getting very few fish at that point, only about 20 or so each set. The fishing closed at 8 a.m., so there were a lot of boats at the tenders waiting to unload their last fish. So we had to wait our turn, Rick talked with some of the fishermen in our group. We are in a group of fishermen, they don't do much as a team here at Prince William Sound, but at Bristol Bay Rick said that they kind of work together to fish where the fish are and they help each other out that way. Everyone in the group, has a group radio, so that the guys in the group can talk without being on the public radio wave lengths. Mostly, they talk about how many fish they are catching, and commenting on other people's catches, and bragging about how well they did. :P Stuff like that.

Well, we dropped off our fish and then drove - well what do you do to a boat? You don't float it, and it's a motor boat, so you don't sail it, so I guess that you drive it - anyway we drove or whatever you want to call it, over to the harbor and docked.

Etta left because she was going to pick up another deckhand that night. Rick and I fixed up the holes in the net, then I cleaned the boat, the windows, the cooler, and anything else that needed cleaning. Then Rick and I got showers at the harbor master building, and then we each took a nap. After that we went over to the store, and Rick bought some ice-cream, and I bought a pad of paper, which I am actually writing this on, since I didn't bring my computer on the boat. (I wrote this up on paper, and am typing it up on the computer.)

Rick and I too the ice-cream, and went and shared it with one of the guys in our group. We went over there and Rick and Coltan (That's the guy we went to see.) talked about engines and stuff, because Coltan's clutch had broken that day during fishing. One of Coltan's deckhands was an MK from the Philippines, so we talked a little. He is the 10th kid out of 13 in is family. He is 17, and this is his second year working in the States for the summer.

After that we pretty much just wrapped it up and went to bed.



Thursday, June 12th
We got a new member today, and his name is Richard, Richard Hawks. He flew in to Anchorage at 1 a.m., and Etta picked him up and brought him over to the Harpazo right away, (little boat) so that we could leave to go fishing at 6 a.m.

Richard is about Jeremiah's age, 19, just finished his sophomore year at college. He's from Oregon and is interested in making a lot of money.

Last year Rick had one guy that had been around for a couple of years, and then he had two new guys, Jeremiah and someone else. This year we are all new; as green as a premature banana. None of us had fished before, so that's one of the reasons that Rick wanted us to get some practice here at Prince William Sound, before going out to Bristol Bay, where the majority of the fishing will take place. It was great to have Richard aboard, I wasn't the newest guy around anymore, so it kind of helped me, because he had to learn the same things that I had to learn. I trued to help him when I could, but some of the things just take practice.

At precisely 8 a.m. we were out there with our net flying off of the bow. And then we waited. Waiting the agonizing wait. Waiting for time to pass. Waiting for signs of fish hitting the net. Waiting for the fish. Waiting. An hour passed us by, and still we waited. Waiting for the command from our captain. And then long expected words were finally called out by our lowly commanded. "Let's pick this one up." The long awaited order. I flew out on deck, threw on my gear faster than I ever though possible. Then I stood there, again waiting. The icy breeze slapped against my face. My finders numb from the cold, twitched in anticipation, as Rick drew in the net. I stood read, prepared for the onslaught of fish. Then came the fish. Like clockwork, Rick and I, side by side, picked the hordes of fish out of the net. Fish were flapping, blood was flying, adrenaline was pumping. So many fish they couldn't be counted, all of them hopelessly caught in out net. Their outlook is bleak until we free them, only to dash their hopes once again, by grabbing one of their gills, and ripping it in half leaving the fish, gasping for air, and slowly bleeding to its death. Oh, the thrills of fishing, I felt them. I am now a fisherman, through and through.

Ok, well that was exciting. Now do you want to know what really happened? It was pretty chilly, and it can get pretty exciting, but it isn't quite as described in the previous paragraph. Firstly we only caught about 20 fish in that set, so they certainly weren't innumerable. Secondly, I exaggerated about pretty much everything else too. :P

The day was pretty slow for fishing, we were normally only catching about 20-30 fish in a set.



Friday, June 13th
My day started with an awakening at 4 a.m. to go out into the cold and pick fish with Rick. Out on the water it's pretty much sleep when you can, which is not necessarily at night.

Rick decided to call it off early and go up to Ninilchik to work on the Deacon. (Big Boat) So we finished of around noon, and fixed up the nets, then drove up to Ninilchik. We arrived at around 9 p.m. or so.

Etta's parents were visiting from Oregon and they were staying at Rick's cabin, so we had to stay on the boat.



Saturday, June 14th
Today was a lot like Saturday the week before. We worked on the boat, doing all sorts of different tasks, cleaning, organizing, tweaking, welding. One of the things that I did was put up some insulation in the galley. (Where the crew is going to sleep. We call it the galley.) The insulation not only helps keep things nice and toasty warm, it also keeps the condensation down. When the galley is warm, and the walls are cold, because they are in contact with the icy sea water, the water in the air condenses on the walls and drips down and gets things wet. So we wanted to avoid that is much as possible.

We ate pizza at Save-U-more and they have free wireless internet there, so Rick told me to bring my computer, because he wanted to check something. So I brought it. I downloaded E-mail, and then Rick looked for tachometers, because the new one that he bought wasn't working correctly, it was reading about 5 times to high. So, anyway, he didn't find what he wanted, but I was able to check E-mail.

After lunch we continued working on the boat until about 11 p.m., by that time the only thing left to do was the welding of the hatch down, and Rick had to do that himself, so we pretty much had nothing to do, and just stood around in case Rick needed us until about 12 o'clock midnight, at which point I decided to turn in. Richard wanted to stay up a little longer to keep Rick company. Rick and Richard ended up going to bed around 1:30 a.m.



Sunday, June 15th
Happy Father's day!
Rick didn't quite finish up the welding last night, so he got up around 6 and was finishing it up when we got up and 7 a.m.. Then we all cleaned up the boat, and then drove over to Rick's cabin to get showers. I took the first shower so that I would have enough time to walk to church in time for Sunday School. Rick and Richard were still waiting for the water to heat up, so they didn't make it to church until the morning service. I was much more relaxed this time, because I knew some of the people already, or at least had seen them before. Mr. Pherson continued from last week about speaking in tongues and spiritual gifts and stuff. When Rick and Richard got there I introduced Richard to some of the young people, so he met them, but he mostly stuck close to Rick. I went out and sat with David, the pastor's son, he's 16.

After the service, we were invited to go over to Buzz's (Someone in the church, everyone calls him Buzz.) place for an after church dinner. That was fun, I got to talk to a lot of people and answer their questions. One girl in particular I talked to her for quite a while, Misty is her name. She asked about what Poland is like, about the language, about the people, the works. Something interesting about Misty. Last week, when I was here, Misty came up to me and was like. "Hi! What's your name?"
"Tim, Tim Petersen." I replied.
"Oh, really? Wait. Are you the guy with the YouTube video? The one with the juggling, and riding on the..."
"Unicycle" I finished.
"Yeah." *smile*
"Yes, that is me" (Incorrect grammar, I know.) I was honestly fully expecting her to ask, "Are you the missionary to Poland?" Or something to that effect, so her question was a huge surprise, completely not what I expected. So as soon as I recovered from my shock I asked,
"Where did you find out about that video." And then I think that she said that someone E-mailed her the link. So that was really cool, it's the first time I've been asked something like that.

Misty is a really nice, sweet, friendly, and outgoing girl. Last week, she came up to me, all smiles, and introduced herself, and then after the conversation above, she showed me around and introduced me to some of the other young people. And then today when ever I looked at her it seemed like she smiled at me, it's possible that I'm just imagining it, but I don't really think so. At first I thought that she might like me, but I think that it's just part of her character. Her friendliness, and outgoingness. So I talked myself out of thinking that she liked me and decided that she was just trying to be friendly. Etta noticed me sweating when I was talking to Misty, so she teased me a little about that. (I sure hope Misty isn't reading this, because if she is I'm going to be so embarrassed. :P )

Anyway we had fun at the dinner, afterwards, some of us went for a walk to see a waterfall. The water fall was pretty cool, I took pictures. On the way to the waterfalls, we saw some bald eagles, and I was able to climb pretty close and get a nice picture. I was wishing that I had my DSLR and a 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM lens, (Which I don't own, by the way.) because tat would have been sweet. That lens is a great telephoto zoom lens often used for birding. Anyway, I got a good enough picture with what I had, so I'm happy. It still would have been sweet to have one of those lens. :)

Rick and Richard cut out pretty early because they had to get back to Whittier to go fishing in the morning. I didn't go with them because Brandon was flying in that night at 1 a.m., and was going to go fishing with them. And since there isn't enough room for 4 people on the Harpazo, (little boat) someone had to stay back, and I was the one because I had the most practice at picking, so to let the others get more practice I had to be the one to stay behind. It's not like I wasn't going to be doing anything though, Etta and I had errands to run in preparation for the upcoming trip to Bristol Bay.

After the dinner we went to the evening service, and then after the service we went over to the Cobb's place. (Same place as last week.) We stayed there for a while, the kids played some games and stuff, and the grown-ups talked. I did a little of both. : ) And then after everyone was good and tired, we went home. I was staying at the pastor's house which I was looking forward to. Hopefully I'd be able to get to know the Phersons some, while staying at their house. Kit Pherson, (the pastor) and his family used to be missionaries in South Africa, so we had something in common already.

There was Kit and Joy Pherson, Diane (20's), Easter (I forget), David (16), and Carla (15). And then Emily who is also (20's)
I had met most of the family at church already, but I hadn't met Diane, or Emily. Well Emily isn't really one of Phersons, but she was staying with them; she was also down there in Africa with the Phersons so they know each other quite well. So we went through the introductions, and then they showed me my bed, and then I unloaded my pictures from my camera, and then went to bed.