Location: Bering Sea
Temp: 29F
Swell: 1 ft
Yesterday was my first full day on my assigned vessel … and also
my birthday. Yay?
There are good and bad points of spending my birthday here,
but I figure this is an experience worth the sacrifices (And this is a happy
post, so I don’t want to linger on the sacrifices I’ve made.). I can, and fully
plan on celebrating with family and friends when I get home in the spring. As
if we need any excuse to make a round of margaritas or crack open a nice bottle
of wine! The moral of the story is: no regrets on the Bering Sea Birthday!
Anyways, here I
am on my boat (yes in the middle of the Bering Sea)! It’s a small boat with far fewer than 10 crewmembers. I think it
works for the boat, they seem to function well together and generally like each
other. It makes the whole boat seem more like a team than a WORK STATION. They
are all from the same town, and they keep all the clocks on the boat turned to
their home time, which I think its great, although at times, confusing. It’s funny, every night when a few of
the guys turn in they always say “Thanks for comin’ to work.” … as if going
into our little cubby-hole bunks bears any resemblance to going home.
Speaking of home, the boat, my home away from home for the
next however many days, is really amiable! No one on the crew smokes, (I think
a few are trying to quit. Good for them!), the house is kept very clean, and they
make pretty good food! We had pizza subs for lunch yesterday. It must have been
the first time I’d had them since probably 6th grade, and now I’m
wondering why I deserted them for so long? Plus, I lucked out in the fact
that I have internet, so I can continue to post to the blog even while out on
the water! (No photos unless I’m on land, but that’s ok, cause I’m not allowed
to take photos of catch etc anyways.) Overall I think this is an awesome
assignment, and I’m very happy to be with a crew of good people.
We’re running out to the fishing grounds now. Should take a
while, so I have time to write! I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the sight
of the Aleutian Islands. As we left Akutan we passed through a channel bordered
on both sides by steep cliffs. Snow covers all of the islands except where these
steep cliffs meet the water; there, with binoculars, you can see massive icicles
dripping down the cliff like frozen blue waterfalls. It really is
stunning.
One of my favorite pastimes as of lately is staring out the
window. This morning I stared at dawn … at 9:30am. The islands turned pink as
the sun came up over the other side of the bay. The water was like glass – and
then I realized it was because there was a thin sheet of ice along the surface
… it might as well have BEEN glass. One of my favorite sights is watching the
sea otters tease bald eagles with their snacks of snow crab. Yeah, you read
that correctly, the otters eat snow crab and try to keep it from the bald
eagles like we keep our french fries from the seagulls at home. Though if the
gulls from SoCal made it up here I think they’d die of a heart attack from the
cold shock (French fries may have been a contributing factor.)… or starvation,
cause god knows they’ve lost all natural hunting instincts. They call the bald
eagles here ‘Dutch Harbor Pigeons’, and they’re everywhere!
So to sum up my day I leave you with this Haiku:
Ice, otters, eagles
Pink dawn on snowy mountain
Bering Sea Birthday
Will you take a few pictures of the bald eagles? Also, why aren't you allowed to take pictures of the fish? Is it because the fishing company doesn't want competitors to know what they're catching?
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you have internet on the boat so that you can keep posting (: