Kickin' The Blues That Can't Be Satisfied

The days have been starting to become monotonous aboard the boat. Each day seemingly a rip off of Bill Murray's Groundhog's Day. The same ominous grey back drop, which seems to have been stolen from a scene in a Hitchcock movie, looms around all view points and extending over horizon. Everyday is wet, grey and rocky. The weather seems to spit water at me from all directions like the war scene in Forest Gump. The wind has been a steady 10-15 knots. Just windy enough to make you thoughtful of every step and action taken to ensure no spilling of the morning-noon-3 o’clock cup of coffee. The boat rocks continuously with no end with an irrational rhythm. Rocking with just enough tilt and randomness forcing you to be mindful of every step and movement. Trust me, its as annoying as it sounds. My rack has the resemblance of the cut the beautiful assistant in half magician's cart. I have to roll myself into it every time I want to find somewhere away from the galley to run to. Getting out is a different animal. Usually ends with me conceding my pride and I send myself rolling, tumbling, and acrobatically springing to my feet from the 2 foot drop. I need more practice. Food is running low, and portions have been cut back a little. Not enough food ordered and stocked the last time we left town is considered the reason to blame. The books I have left to read just don’t seem interesting enough to keep my attention. And the nature in which I have to rest my head and contort my body if I am to watch a movie in my rack after the day’s work is done, has left the right side of my neck in a loop-swoop-and-pull kind of a knot.

Not so surprising I’ve started to ask myself if maybe I’ve spent enough time in the Bering Sea. Come August, I will have been at this job for a full year. I will have totaled upwards of 180 days of it at sea. Have I gotten everything that I set out to get from this job. Not having a familiar pillow and comforter that one can rely upon to be there when the day gets to stressful and worrisome, is starting to upset me. I keep reminding myself of the freedom this job allows when I’m done, but is that freedom still worth this to me. Is it worth 180 days of my life lived in this Groundhog’s Day of mine?

I woke up this morning sore and in pain. My shoulder hurting and my back yelling at me. The coffee burnt. The eggs dry. Out of bread for toast, and Ibuprofen stock low. “Haul 257” The captain comes down to tell me as I’m donning my Orange Unitard work suit that I noticed yesterday, has a growing hole in the crotch. I bundle up, throw the rest of the stale coffee down my throat quickly and without tasting it, grab my clip board and muster a couple of consecutive steps towards my position on deck. The first pot comes aboard. I press my finger onto the clicker duck taped to my clip board. Pot 1 of 52 down. Next Pot. Click. Pot Three. Click. Pot Fou... SPOUT.





Everyone’s head turns and there are two Killer Whales about 100 yards aft of starboard. They land the pot, and get on my feet from my spool of line I call a bench, too take a look.


SPOUT.





Again, this time closer, and I catch the very end of it. Now I’m racing back into my room to get the camera. I’ve heard other tales from observers of Killer Whales following the boat feeding from the by catch tossed over board, and I see a chance for some pictures.


I come back out to see all 5 guys out on deck staring out in the direction of the whales as I hustle aft to the rail on the stern of the boat (sorry no life jacket mom, but don’t worry, I shuffled my feet across the deck, I didn’t exactly run.... well I didn’t sprint...).

“Have they left?”
“No they’re... right there!”









This job has it days, weeks, maybe months, that are rough to endure. Mentally and physically challenging in ways different from jobs and day to day life on land in the city. Of course that can be left unsaid, but can’t really be understood until you yourself have been through this specific set of challenges. Throw on top of this fire the fact that I myself come aboard as an outsider. As the Government. Then sprinkle on the fact the boat pays my salary but I don’t work for the boat. There are obstacles beyond the obvious ones that come with life out at sea. It’s easy to forget the benefits and the experiences I am afforded to take home with me when I leave this job. The pictures, the hikes, new cities, new people, new foods, stories, and above all, the freedom to travel after a contract completed. For now that is good enough to keep him focused on what I am here to do, and what I am asking the job to do for me. For now it can fulfill that. The next move, the next step is around the corner though. Don’t for one second think I haven’t been plotting it. As soon as it’s set in stone, I’ll let you all know. For now, I’m just going to enjoy the occasional Killer Whale Spy Hopping in the distance (Yes I really took this picture).








- Casey Franklin

12 days later...

May 22

It’s now day three of my new assignment. A new boat, a new crew, a new type of fishery. I am a guest this time aboard a smaller pot boat fishing for Sablefish (Black Cod). Pot caught Sablefish is saved for the end of the season fishing by most pot boats. These boats are usually crab boats finished with their Oplio and Baridi Crab quotas. They switch out the pot launcher, drop off the crab pots and pick up the much smaller, circular Sablefish pots. By the size of the pot, a full one looks like it could only yield 30 to a total max of 40 fish.

This fishery allocates only very small quotas compared to the others I’ve been ridding along with. The fleet is small and the crew experienced. This boat fits that mold. The crew has been fishing for the last 5 months switching from one crab season to the next. This is the last fishing of the year. A month or so picking at their Sablefish and Halibut quota, and then its home for the next couple of months for most of them. The crew size is small, 4 deck hands, an engineer/captain (only for one trip), and the captain.

This crew and the job is really laid back, the mood very easy. Every crew member hails from a different part of the world; Vietnam, Samoa (not American Samoa, Western Samoa), different parts of Alaska, Washington, New York. The boat is packed with soda, snack foods, lunch meat, water, music and movies. Free reign has been given to me multiple times a day to make myself at home and take what I want. As always, this isn’t as hard of a way to earn a dollar as it seemed like it would be when I signed up for this.



May 25
Today is one of those days where I wake up and remember where I am. Where the mundaneness of the everyday grind has faded away long enough to allow my mind put sentences and ideas together about my position in the world. “I’m in Alaska?” Is usually stated out loud as if this statement can’t be true. I’ve been at sea for around 120 days since the day I started this job back in August. When the fog lifts, the sun shines, the nearest bit of uninhabited land shows it’s self in the distance, cogs within my brain each rotating counter directions lock up; which queues my lungs to breath deep, my head to rise, my eyes to gaze, my nose to smell, and my mouth to utter those words, “I’m in Alaska?” Today is one of those days.

May 31
Two days from a steam into land. A day in port to get supplies that have almost run out. A day to catch up with the news. A day to stretch my cramped legs. A day, after 11 days at sea, and another 10+ waiting on the other end. I have been waiting for a day for the past 8 days. One man is running home once his feet hit the dry land. A 5 month sentence on the boat over and a 2 month reprieve with his wife, 5 kids, and motor-home on the horizon.

As for me and my sentence, I have 30 days down and 60 to go. I may change that. I want to be back here by August 1 for the beginning of longline season. This boat will have a need for me for another 3 trips at the minimum. That’ll get me to right around July 1st. My boss may be persuaded to allow me to go back to Seattle at that point so that I can debrief, brief and get back to Dutch for the next trip by beginning of August. This would give me probably 2 weeks in July to have to play, get a sunburn, and see friends and family. A 90 contract from that date would land me in Seattle right around Halloween. The one true schedule this job holds to is that there is no schedule. I can plan as much as I want to, but the likely hood of everything falling together is unusual. But that is the plan as of now.

Happy Anniversary Ben and Keri Saad. I think of the two of you often. For those who don’t know, Ben is serving is second deployment in Afghanistan in the Army. It was always Ben’s plan to be exactly where he is since he was in high school, serving his country as a helicopter pilot. Its easy to be proud of that man.



June 1

This morning we were getting the last of the fish into the live tank before heading back into town to off load and do town things, when the Coast Guard announced they were coming to board. Kodiak, Alaska is home to the largest Coast Guard base in the world. They board the fishing vessels periodically to make sure protocol is being fallowed and the vessel is up to code on the safety regulations. Last October I was aboard the Pathfinder F/V when we were boarded by the Coast Guard as well. I was surprised to see a familiar face among the Coasties, Brandon Sanford, a kid who I graduated high school with. Of course I was wondering if he was going to be among the crew that jumped on board this time.

Brandon sticks his head in the galley and starts spinning around, this time without that authoritative mustache he had been growing last Fall. It’s very amazing that two kids from the North Side of Spokane would run into one another two times within a years time in the middle of the Bering Sea. I have had so many “small world” moments in Alaska with the people I’ve met, but this one is the craziest. It’s good to see that this job of his has treated him well and has provided him a career he’s taken too.

I showed Brandon and a couple of the new Coasties around the boat, which takes all of 3 minutes. Then conversation turned towards our mutual friends living on land. Who’s are getting married, are married, who’s doing what, the natural small talk. Hard to believe that conversation would be taking place in the Bering Sea for the second time. After the inspection, and completion of the small talk, Brandon now an officer, takes his crew back to their skiff to ride back to the gigantic “mother ship”. I’m glad I got to see him again. Though we weren’t close by any stretch of the word, in high school, it was really good to see him again.

Now it’s time to finish the days fishing and steam back into Dutch Harbor for a one day, two night vacation. In this fishery, I don’t have any responsibility during the offload, there is a biologist at the plant we offload to that monitors, takes specimen samples, and all the rest of the dirty work. That leaves me to my vises; meaning a couch, the internet, and Sports Center.

June 3,

Looks like I'll be around land longer then thought. I'll be here for two days before we roll back out to sea.

- Casey

Kodiak, Gulf of Alaska, Whale Watching, oh and work ...

I'm just arrived in Anchorage from a 12 day at sea trip aboard a longliner fishing for Sablefish. The boat picked me up in Kodiak where we fished in the beautifully calm Gulf of Alaska. Once their alotted quote was met, the boat steamed towards Bellingham to offload their catch, but on the way they kicked me off in remote Yakutak, AK. Look it up on Google maps. You'll still find yourself saying, "Where is this....?" "Is this Canada?" I'll write later about the day I spent in Yakutak and the amazing ride into port along a pennusula covered with mountains and glaciers. I'll combine it with my flight from Yakutak to Cordava to Anchorage. Beautiful clear flight with some over head shots of receding glaciers among the vast mountain range of north, Southeast Alaska.

Here are writings from sea. As well as a few pictures. I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think and if you have any other questions about the Gulf of Alaska. Tomorrow I fly to Dutch Harbor to get my next assignment.


5/3/09
Kodiak




I arrived to beautiful Kodiak and the 60 degree weather that made every local I met sweat through their first shirt. The flight in was much more then I expected it to be. I got to fly from Anchorage to Kodiak without a cloud between my and the Ocean. It was a quick one hour flight packed with the local high school track team coming back from a regional competition. Yes their track team flies Alaska airlines to go to a “regional” track meet.



The island is vast and open, save the abundance of timber covering the island. A traveling hunters destination, it was easy to picture the large Kodiak Bear, Deer, and the rest of the game that rich men travel extreme distances for a week long guided hike with a rifle. There were multiple such men on this flight as well. I over heard them as they all discussed how many times they had made this pilgrimage before, what they brought home, what the new cats should expect to see, etcetera.

As for myself, I arrive on this island alone and carrying 150 lbs of gear and sampling equipment. Unlike Dutch Harbor, my company does not have a bunk house or a person designated to take us to and fro the island and get us to our boat. To my delight, my boss answered my phone call with news of delay from the boat.... 60 degree weather, myself with a hotel on the company, hiking trails starting from steps outside of downtown.... I get paid for this?

I know it sounds weird the first place that I would walk to, once I get my gear to my hotel and get settled and changed, would be to the dock. You may think that I’m going to get enough of the ocean in the up coming months to fill my cup. Its a clear 60 degree spring day in a brand new Alaskan city. I could never get tired staring into the ocean and walking the docks on days like those. I tired a hike to the top of the hill looking over downtown Kodiak and City Harbor, but I wasn’t sure where I was allowed to walk and where I wasn’t. I wasn’t going to be stepping on any toes my first day there, and the lady at the hotel desk was no help with where I should take my hiking boots. So the harbor it was. Never second best in my heart.

The next day I started my 3rd voyage out to sea aboard my vessel. They picked me up at the dock at 1500 Alaska standard time, and we embarked a couple of hours later. First impression of the crew and captain were great. This vessel is another longlineing vessel fishing for Sablefish (Black Cod). I thought at first this could be another 20-30 day trip like I had on my last longliner during B season last October, but the Captain quickly told me hell no, they’d be dropping me off in Southeast Alaska in no more than 8 days. I head swiveled around and I said gave him the biggest, “you better not be kidding me son” look I’ve ever thrown and someone. Southeast Alaska in the spring? I started admittedly hoping that I get stuck there for no less than 3 days. I have been plotting a way to lose a month of my life in Southeast AK either this summer or next. A 3 day head start in Spring will come as a welcomed gift from my employer.

I get paid for this....



5/08/09

Alaskan Icing

“... You mean, Like the Deadliest Catch?”
“ No, Deadlier .....”

I must admit, that show was a factor in me deciding to take this job. It had to be. That show is the only actual representation for what I was getting myself into. Before taking this job in July, Discovery channel just so happened to serendipitously playing a marathon. OK maybe not so serendipitously, since they are always playing a marathon of the Deadliest Catch these days. Why is that? Anyways, I had to make sure that I was going to be OK with the inherent risks that come with this occupation. Of course the first boat I get assigned to, a crab pot boat fishing for Pacific Cod. I’m staring my apprehension directly in the face...

This being my 3rd contract and wondering how much longer I’m going to continue this job, My mind starts to think back to what got me out here and what I’ve learned and who I am now because of this experience. Having to face that kind of inherent fear face on with no way to back out was a good way to quench the thrill seeking portion of my brain, but will not ultimately be the lasting experience I take away from this job.

Every boat I’ve boarded faces the same danger of those who are portrayed as cowboys who are wanted dead or alive on the Discovery Channel show. Crab is just sexier than Cod or Pollock. I believe that’s what separates those boats from the ones I’ve been on. You see the pay off immediately and obviously in crab in pots. The other boats, its a slower process, and the catch isn’t exactly as clean as the crabbers. Either way, every fishermen out there should receive the same kind of admiration those cats get. The thrill seeking aspect of this job starts when you leave the dock is filled within a couple hours of floating around. You quickly realize its not like the Discovery Channel. A thrill seeking expedition that this adventure might have started as has transformed into so much more.

As I’ve written about before, I’m a visitor. Every boat I get on to, I’m a guest and I have to remember that. Every boat has made me feel welcomed, and I’ve felt nothing but welcomed, but I’m still a guest. I have a job to do that is contrary to the process the boat was designed for. I have to try and design a scientific design around the movement of a floating processing plant. I can’t slow things down and ask for even precise numbers that would be easy to predict and use. This job doesn’t function that way. Never is one haul the same to the last. Quick thinking within parameters of a scientific design are essential. Confidence in yourself and problem solving skills are tools more essential then any measuring equipment I lug aboard these vessels. The confidence I wield is more then just my ability to adjust the design to still fit within parameters yielding readable and comparable results. Its a confidence that the fishermen, mainly the captain, need to hear in my voice, see in my gait, and it can’t ever waver. This confidence lets everyone else know exactly where I stand the moment I walk on the boat. Eliminating any chance relationships created on board will in any way be able effect anything that makes it on to my paper. This confidence allows me to remain unbiased, thus my words and numbers reported are unbiased. Finding this confidence within me is the greatest discover this job has provided. The fact that I also get have this once in a lifetime adventure on top of it, is icing. Oh, we get cake out here too. Packed with icing.


- Casey

5/09/09

Somebody said they saw me
Swinging the world by the tail
Bouncing over a white cloud
Killing the blues


Quick question. When you look out your window at work, if you’re there right now do it quickly, what do you see .....

Do you see this.....







BAM!!!! Sperm Whale coming at ya’ hot.



What? You don’t have one of those outside your window? Oh, I do...

I saw these fellers floating around for a good 20 minutes 300-500 yards over the starboard side feeling us out, and then all of the sudden, they were down. Flukes in the air and diving. It’s common for Sperm Whales to follow longliner boats fishing for Sablefish. They know that fish will be near by and they compete heavily with the boat. Not a welcomed sight for the captain. And to be honest, this one sighting and the next one I had, are all I really needed. I’d much rather a happy boat and crew then my own excitement of whale watching while getting paid.

The possible sighting of the spout of a sperm whale in the back of my mind, has added some excitement to my favorite past time of sipping coffee on the dock staring out into the ocean, smelling the salt water. This has been a great way to start my third trip. I have figured out how to bridge the gap of my relation with the crew members and my duties on board. This crew is relaxed and excellent to work around. This fishery allows me to be outside most of the time, counting fish on a line. Outside with the weather is where I’d rather be on the boat in the first place. With this wonderfully agreeable weather we have experienced the entire trip, I’m getting my fill of day gazing into the ocean. Did I mention I get paid for this?


5/11/09

Be wary the bird that flies directly over head
It may just poop on you....

This may seem like a quip to those who haven’t planted themselves in one spot on the deck of a floating fish factory for hours at a time. But these words hold wisdom gained through, lets call it ... maturity. During daylight hours, our vessel is stalked by over 200 birds feeding on the discards from the factory. Watching the birds fly from port side to starboard speculating which side offers the better deal, I’m caught in between and completely unarmed. An umbrella is an item I will not board a longline fishing vessel again without. I am covered in rubber rain gear in anticipation to battle 30 mph winds, water breaking over the bow of the boat on my back, the rain, and the frigid cold. The rain gear is no help however to stop the humiliation of the uric acid bombs assailing upon me from 15 feet above. There is one man who seems to get full enjoyment from seeing the bombardment that occurs during feces prime time. He sits lofted and looming over the roller man watching his catch come over the roller onto the boat. Because I need the same view to tally the fish coming aboard, I stand directly opposite of the captain’s chair among the elements on the deck above the roller station. While the captain is eating cookies drinking coffee, listening to country music (for some reason all captains love their country music. Its a weird anomaly that I’ve discovered), I stand exposed to four elements of the sea; wind, rain, cold and bird poo. He shoots me a crumb covered smile coupled with the tip of his coffee mug, just as the bright orange bird waste beckon I’m wearing, receives its latest deposit.

All in the name of Science ....



-Casey Franklin