March 13-19, 2007 — Tuesday, March 13 was the day the Discovery left Bellingham to embark on its 2007 longline season. I had to drive my beater blue truck because my other truck called in sick with a leaky transmission seal. For the past three years the Blue Bomb has been the launching pad for our giant rope swing we have in the yard — the kids climb up on top of the cab, jump off, and swing out over the yard on the end of the 60-plus-foot rope hanging from a fir limb.
Because of its unusual service, the top of the cab is all smashed in from the immense weight of children, and it leaks right through onto the front seat when it rains. And because it just sits there amongst the trees, it has grown a dense coat of green algae all over its northern-facing quarters.
Despite its shortcomings it made the journey to Bellingham, algae and all. I nearly missed the ferry off San Juan Island because the truck decided not to start. I had five minutes to get out my house before I would miss the ferry, and when I went to turn the key — the battery was dead. I had that thing hooked up to the charger within 60 seconds. Next I pulled my wife’s car into position to jump start just in case the battery didn’t charge in two minutes on HIGH.
Miraculously, it started. With zero minutes to spare, I pushed that 1970 3-speed truck to its upper limits (which really isn’t saying much), earning back a couple of precious minutes on the drive in. It’s a good thing I didn’t back down because I made the ferry with just a minute to spare.
The rest of the morning’s procedure was as routine as always: I napped on the ferry; I got groceries at Costco with Brett; the guys said, “What took you so long?” when we returned to the boat with the groceries. And then we were off.
The run north went a bit quicker this year because Mike put a new engine in the boat. We must have gained a quarter of a knot, but over the course of hours and hours, that added up to a very tiny time savings. But any gain is appreciated on this slug of a boat.
The biggest highlight in the galley was when I filled the salt shakers up with a bag of salt I found in the galley drawer. When we sat down to eat we discovered each and every bite was crunchy. Whether we were eating green beans or the pot roast I had been stewing for hours, it had a distinct, gritty, flavorless crunch to each and every jawstroke.
It turns out the salt I added was actually a bag of sand Mike kept handy to use as nonskid when painting the floorboards in the engine room. It might work well in the engine room, but this sand should definitely be kept out of the galley!
We hit the Petersburg nightlife on Friday night, March 16. We had a leaky steering line so we had to wait until the morning so we could fix the line. We pulled in around 10 p.m. — just in time for the town to wake up. Well, it turned out Petersburg doesn’t sleep in the off-season months of winter; it falls into a coma from which it seemingly is absolutely dead.
The most exciting thing was when a guy smoked one of Brett’s “roll your own” cigarettes that I had filled with parsley flakes. He took one hit and looked like he was either going to puke or pass out. He was a bigger guy and I’m really glad he took it in good spirits. It’s a good thing he didn’t get the one I filled with cayenne pepper; there is a good chance he might have kicked the living daylights out of me!
We got the steering fixed the next morning, and we were on our way by 11 a.m. on Saturday, March 17. We started baiting halibut gear, sticking a cut-in-half piece of squid on each hook. We arrived in Sitka in the wee hours of Sunday morning, March 18. We baited all day Sunday, and departed for the fishing grounds on Monday afternoon to catch both halibut and blackcod.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Comments