Coming Attractions

Here is the time line and the low down on where and when I am going on the first leg of this journey into the AK.

I will leave from Seattle on the morning of Sunday Aug 10 on a plane bound for the AK. I will land in Anchorage later that Sunday where the company will put and all the other Observers up in a place to stay for the next 3 weeks. We will start our training in how to decipher the different species of ocean life that we will encounter while on any of the boats. Each boat will be fishing for something different then other boats, so what it is that I will be surveying for and studying will change depending on the type of boat that I have latched on to.

There I will learn exactly how intense this job really will be. I have an idea of what to expect, then again I have no idea of what to expect. Every week I will need to pass a test in order to prove that I know enough not to look like an idiot, or screw up the research while on the boat. Come Aug. 30th or Sept. 1st I will be shipped to my first boat. Not until that day will I know what port I'm going to, or what kind of boat I will be on. From that point on, I'm kind of on my own.

I will be with the same boat as long as they are out at sea getting their catch. This could last from any where between 3-4 days to 5 weeks. This depends on the size of the boat, the catch, and how quickly they make that catch. No I will not be on any of the Deadliest Catch vessels. Though that would an awesome experience, those boats are just bigger then any of the possible boats I'll be on. The vessels will range from 40 - 100 feet in size.

I will live with, eat with, and work around the crew on board. This is what I am most apprehensive of about. I am in a position where some of the boats really do not want me aboard. The other boats won't mind, but would rather I wasn't there. I will be the science nerd hopping on board with grizzled sailors. My survival on board will hinge on whether or not I can show the man on board that I know what I am doing, I'm not going to screw up or slow down what they are doing, and that I'm not just a nerdy science kid hopping on a boat in the bearing sea because I thought it might be neat, (even if that's exactly what I am). The actual work, and the data entry will be physically hard go long into the night most of the time, but with training I will be fine. The science and research is not what scares me. Finding a niche with the crew, and mentally conquering being by my self for the next 10 or 11 weeks in a cold, wet, dark environment is the scariest part. But I am very excited about testing my self in that way.

To some of you, this may have seemed like an out of the blue, out of no where way to escape. Don't look at it that way, I never have. This job and experience is the start of my new journey, one that I was reluctant to take during college, and directly following. I have a feeling this is going to be exactly what I need to kick start me on my path.

Yogi Berra has said, and my father has reiterated it to me one multiple occasions, "If you reach a fork in the road, take it." And that is exactly what I am trying to do.