Still working on the boat

I know my mom has been asking what's going on so I thought that I should update this.

We had a lot of rain off and on last week. It sort of slowed down our progress somewhat, but not too bad. Mostly everything is ready to go on the boat, the only major thing that we are still waiting for is the RSW system. (Refrigerated Salt Water) The refrigeration system is on the big seining boat, The Guidance, and it is to keep the fish holds cold so that the fish stay fresher longer. We have to have a specialist come and set up the refrigeration, so that it is up to code and all that. And the guy that was supposed to come, didn't show up, so we had to get another guy and he was pretty busy and couldn't make it for a couple more days, and then he had some delays too. Anyway, he should get it done soon.

We are going to head out to start fishing either sometime this week or at the beginning of next week. Depending on when the refrigeration gets done and how the fishing is doing in Prince William Sound. When we do go fishing we will go to Prince William Sound, with the smaller boat, The Harpazo. Right now, at the beginning of the season, they are letting the fishermen fish for 24 hours on, 24 hours off. Or 48 hours on, 24 hours off, or 24 hours on 48 hours off, depending on the number of fish that have been caught, and how many have made it to the river already.

Once we start fishing we won't be coming back to the house on Wednesdays and Sundays. We might come back for Sundays sometimes, depending on when we are allowed to fish.

We will be gill netting until about the middle of July. Then we will start seining.

Seining is a little different, I can't really describe it because I've never done it, but if you search Youtube for some videos of seining you can see what it looks like in action.

Rick went back to the boat yesterday, (Sunday) but left me here so that I could go to the Sunday night service and work on the net this morning. Etta was going to have to drive down to Homer today anyway because some parts for the refrigeration were going to come today and she was going to drive them over to the boat so that they can have them right away. So, since she was going to be going to Homer anyway, Rick decided that I just ride with her when she goes down. But today Rick decided that he is coming home tonight, so Etta doesn't need to go down to Homer after all, because Rick will be here and he can take the stuff down tomorrow. So, that means that I am here in Ninilchik for the day, and have some free time, so I was able to get some things done, which was nice. :D

Yesterday, we had a 90th birthday celebration for Mrs. Leman, the mother of one of the missionaries that Calvary Baptist (in Ninilchik). So, I grabbed my nifty fifty and attached it to my camera. Now, Abby would know what my nifty fifty is, but for the rest of you I'll explain. My 50mm lens in also sometimes called the nifty fifty, and it is good for 1 or 2 person portraits, but not good for groups because it isn't wide at all, and it doesn't have any zoom. At the time I wasn't think about the fact that I would probably become the "official photographer" for the family reunion group shot. :P


Anyway, I went around got lots of pictures of the guests and the birthday lady. But when they wanted a group shot, I thought to myself, "Oh, great" I tried to back up as much as a could, but I couldn't fit them all in, so I took the camera turned it on it's side and took a panarama with several shots, hoping that I would be able to paste them together with Photoshop. And I was able to paste them together with quite good success, I think. The lighting wasn't very good either, it was dark in the room and most of the light was coming through the window behind them, thankfully I had my good 'ol speedlite flash and did a partial bounce off of the ceiling, and fixed that problem. Good 'ol flash, where would I be without you?

Well, that's that.

I hope to write again sometime.

This is Tim, signing off.