survey pictures are posted

Survey pictures are posted.  Start HERE, if you want to read from the beginning...

Home!

So we made good time last night, and actually arrived in Juneau at 8 am instead of 1 pm.  That means we had a bit of a scramble to get things ready to offload, but we were done and off the boat by about 9:30 am.  It is good to be home.  This was an unusual trip, and I didn’t have as much fun overall – mostly because of the weird personnel dynamic on the boat.  We didn’t work very well as a team, which is odd and unfortunate.  But, there were some good times too, so it wasn’t all a loss.  

Oh, and check this out.  To get off the boat (with all your gear and duffel bags slung over your back/shoulders) you have to leap the cavern of doom (aka the gap between the ladder and gangplank), then climb about 15 feet up the (slippery, wet) ladder.  *shudder*  I had to make two trips to get all my stuff off.  On the way down to get my second load, the boat shifted away so it was about 4 feet to the gangplank, much farther than I was willing to stretch/jump.  So, I had to hang out on the ladder for several minutes until the boat drifted back…I thought clinging there for a bit was a better option than climbing back up, then back down once it was closer.  Glad I don’t have to do that every day!

So close

The weather calmed down over night, and overnight we had headed in towards shore to start sampling close and work our way back out, so that help us find calmer seas too.  The sun actually came out in the afternoon, so it was nice out while we scrubbed down all the gear and packed things away for offloading.  

Today is my bunkmate’s birthday, so the cook charred some steaks into nearly inedible meat pucks to help us celebrate.  Cook also made a cheesecake with the weirdest texture, it was rubbery and…snappy.  Like, it would probably bounce if you dropped it on the floor.  We all ate some though.  Wouldn’t want to hurt her feelings.

Tomorrow, home!  Predicted to get in at 1 pm, then offload since it’ll be high tide and not as hard to get things off the boat.

Bad weather and tons of fish

It looks like this trip is going to end the way it started…with grey skies, wind blowing 40 knots, sideways rain, and big waves tossing us about while working on deck.  Today we were only going to do three sampling sites to finish out our transect.  Unfortunately, the final tow of the day brought up an estimated 3 tons of fish, and it took hours to sort and measure.  By the time we were done, the weather was full-on crap, and we were all covered in fish slime (some more than others, because jumping into a fish pile is fun?).  

I stripped off my gear and went up to the wheelhouse to take this video, so y’all can experience it too.  This is taken from about -3040 feet above the water (at calm water).  Even though it looks kinda bad, they actually fish in a lot worse weather in the winter.  I didn’t get seasick this time, but I didn’t linger in the wheelhouse very long either.  

Tomorrow is our last day of sampling!

A boat cook's life

Now that we’re done for today there are only eight sampling stations left over the next two days.  Eiiiiiiggghht.  Ocho.  Huit.  888888888.  OMG I’m so ready to be home.

We can also see Mt. Fairweather and all her mountainy friends.  Very pretty.  Tonight we have some time to do some fishing, though I’m working instead (and writing these notes for the blog for later…).

Tonight, as I sat down in the galley to work, and the cook was cleaning up.  We chatted a bit about what it’s like to cook on a boat, for 13-15 people, three meals a day.  I suppose that’s not too different from a mom with a big family…but I have a new respect for her and how tough her job is (though I still don't love all her food!).  She’s out here for 3 months, I think, cooking (and cleaning) the whole time.  She said when she gets home after the survey is done she doesn’t cook for two or three weeks, she’s so sick of it.  She also said she’s been doing this for five years now, so it’s much easier to place the initial food order.  Her first year was hard – she had no idea how much to order, she was just given a budget, and EVERYTHING has to be ordered…from spices to flour to meat and veggies.  She’s starting each summer season with a bare pantry.   She will place one big order at the beginning for meats and non-perishables, then order for up to three weeks of fruit and veggies at a time.  So there’s usually a big enough port every three weeks or so that she can stock up again if needed (though sometimes that ‘big port’ is Dutch Harbor, where fruit and veggies are expensive and already 7-10 days old when they get there).  Keeping fruit and veggies fresh for 2-3 weeks is hard!  We still have fresh lettuce every day – and she said she spends a lot of her time picking it over, wrapping it in damp paper towels to keep it fresh, changing out paper towels, etc.  

I don’t envy her!  I like to cook, but I’d be mighty sick of it in no time flat.  I wonder if she keeps a stash of frozen pizzas for days she just can’t cook?  And when the seas are really rough…I noticed back when the weather was really bad that she had to tie the big pot of soup to the guard rail on the stove.  And the soup pot is really tall, but it is never more than about ½ full…I suppose that’s so it doesn’t splash hot soup all over the place when we roll.  So many more challenges to cooking that I would want to deal with!

Baby shark!

We caught a baby salmon shark!!!  It's sort of been a joke for days...'when are we going to catch a baby shark?'  We released it alive.  Even when they are so little they have wicked teeth.  So adorable.

But other than that, nothing terribly exciting.