A Committment vs An Interest

One of the plant observers shared a great quote with me about the difference between interest and commitment:

"Taking an interest is when you participate in something when it's convenient. Commitment is when you take initiative and make it happen, no matter what."

 A lot of the time it is not possible to workout on the boat. There is no stationary bike, treadmill or space to run and forget swimming entirely! When the seas are rough I cant even do push ups, sit ups or squats. But I would like to think I have a commitment to my health and physical fitness. (Land Ali races triathlons for crying out loud!) My subconscious certainly does! One of my most frequent dreams as of lately has been of Pacific Coast Highway, on a sunny, windless day in SoCal. In my dream I'm riding south, past Newport Coast and along the rollers into Laguna Beach. I can feel the sun tanning my back and arms as I cruise the shoreside highway on my bike. The view is an amazing panoramic shot of the sparkling Pacific spreading out past the cliffs and kelp beds into a cloudless blue sky. I'm riding pretty hard, I can feel it in my heart rate and in my legs, but its a good pain of pushing the envelope, building on my endurance and making me stronger. I'll do about 45 miles on this road, and afterwards head over to my favorite breakfast burrito in Seal Beach before passing out for a solid mid-morning nap. It's one of my favorite rides at home (yes, this is a real place and memory from home, and I CHOSE to come to Alaska. ... What's wrong with me?)

Waking up to my dark bunk, incased in a claustrophobic house on a rocking boat in the middle of the frozen north is the definition of a rude awakening. But just because I am no longer home, and its not convenient (much less enjoyable!) to workout up here I want to stay fit and be able to pick up where I left off in CA when I return. So every time we offload in port I make every effort to walk over to the community gym. 

The first time I was not expecting much. Maybe a treadmill or a stationary bike (I prayed), some weights and a couple other machines would be acceptable. As I walked up to the little loft and looked around I realized there was an abundance of free weights, weight machines and even a hanging punching bag. No treadmill, but, my heart leapt as I spotted the little reclining stationary bike in the corner! Thank god! All I wanted in life at that moment was to sit on a bike for a couple hours and spin! It may not have been a traditional bike layout, but I could live with a reclining bike for a few months. As I sat down I realized something was very seriously wrong with the bike. The seat no longer locked in place, the arm handles didn't turn any more and when I pushed the petals the lose seat threatened to topple over. Clearly this was not safe to use. With my cycling dreams dashed, I stood lost in this "gym" having a somewhat serious emotional breakdown over a broken ten year-old stationary bike. Eventually I spotted the only remotely cardiovascular themed piece of equipment in the "gym"  a Stair Master 3000 from 1995! I gathered what was left of my resolve to work out, stepped up to this machine that was built the year I started kindergarten and said a little prayer for it to work. 

To my great surprise it did! Now, it was no bike ride along PCH, but I did get a good workout of 45 minuets of "stairs" and the endorphin kick I was craving. It's a serious chemical dependency at this point. So from then on, every time I'm in port I always make the pilgrimage to the little "gym" to climb stairs while I stare longingly at the forgotten dream that was a spin workout in Alaska. At this point I'm just thankful I cant get some exercise at all, and that I can continue my commitment to my health and fitness.

FAQs of Alaska

What was your favorite part of the job/trip/experience?

Seeing and learning so many new things! Alaska, despite its hardships, lack of civilization, and general cold-shoulder to newcomers … or maybe because of these things, is truthfully, pretty amazing! Everything is big, unforgiving, and wild. The islands are picturesque snow covered volcano-tops sticking out of the sea, sometimes you can even see them smoking! The wildlife is beautiful, and untamed. And the marine life is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before; for example: wild orcas, albatross, salmon galore,  50+ lb halibut, more Pollock than you can imagine (… no really, Pollock for days), and countless new species to see! I’ve had the privilege of learning an entire new ecosystem and seeing landscapes that most people will never get the opportunity to. I feel pretty lucky to experience this for a living.

What was the most difficult part?



The lifestyle change required of the job was, by far, the most difficult adaptation for me to make. You have to be flexible with pretty much everything including, but not limited to, your living situation, the food you eat, your workout routine, and your assignment location and duration. Staying healthy and content in adverse or difficult circumstances can be a challenge but I am very glad that I made the effort to stay positive and workout when I could or I would have gone crazy!

By the end of a contract we pretty much all look like Mr. Coffee Owl here.

  

Is Sarah Palin correct in that you can actually see Russia from Alaska?

With visibility the way it is here most days, I’m lucky if I can see across the bay. It’s true that the air is SO MUCH cleaner than in LA, but snow, rain and heavy fog (let alone the curvature of the earth!)  make it pretty much impossible to see across the sea. … But some boats in US waters do fish so far west that they are technically east according to their longitude!

Hate to dash your hopes and dreams, but sometimes Sarah Palin doesn’t know what she’s talking about.



Insert SNL Sarah Palin skit video here ((((Here you go http://www.hulu.com/watch/34465)))))

Hot fishermen?

Unfortunately not, but, as any observer here will tell you, some of the helicopter pilots are pretty easy on the eyes. This actually came up over breakfast with my lead the other day when we found out our plant is closing down pretty soon. I said that I would dream that “night” (when I sleep, which is technically day, yay night shift!) about being woken up in the middle of the night to leave Akutan and go home! And he replied. “Yeah I can see it now: ‘ALI WAKE UP! You’ve got to pack before the helicopter pilot flies us out to Dutch to catch a plane to Seattle! And he’s going to do it all without his shirt on!!’”





I know this is a picture of Prince Harry, but its close enough.

 

Would you it again?

Sure! The benefits outweigh the costs for now. Actually, I told my company I would come back this fall sometime. I’m hoping to catch the end of whale season! I’ve heard there’s so many humpbacks in Whale Pass during the summer you can see them on all sides of the boat. Plus that’s when the puffins come to town, and who DOESN’T want to see adorable puffins in real life?



Pretty sure this is an Atlantic Puffin, but he's adorable so I'll let it slide.





When are you coming home?

 Good question! When I finish here in Akutan hopefully they’ll send me to Dutch Harbor, where I’ll wait for a plane to Anchorage and then to Seattle (like everyone else working in the Aleutian islands at the end of fishing season!). This could take days. After I’m in Seattle I have some science work to do, and I will wait for a debriefing appointment with NMFS (my program, the National Marine Fisheries Survey) which could take 1-2 weeks. After that I’m driving home to CALIFORNIA!!!!

My office whiteboard hommage to California.

The succinct answer is sometime in May.





Huntington Beach California - Home, Sweet, Home





The Cold Hard Truth



This is NOT my boat, thankfully. But left unbroken, ice can pile up like this quite easily.


I get a lot of questions about the weather and "exactly how cold is it there?" Honestly, most of the time I don't notice how cold it is anymore. I realized I've been in the cold a very long time when I was walking to the "gym" thinking how it was a nice warm day for once ... and then I stepped in a puddle that was freezing over as I thought about the "warm" day. Sunshine can be deceiving.

That's not to say that I am always warm. It has been quite cold on some days. So I figured I should probably write about what everyone wants to hear, me being miserably cold on the high seas (why else do you keep coming back to this blog?  Morbid curiosity is totally human, I get it) The worst day was in early March. I woke up to an announcement that we we're hauling back (aka we're bringing the trawl net up and dumping the fish into our tanks), so went up to the wheelhouse to moniker the haul. Just FYI for anyone like me, who has no extreme cold experience, your first indicator that its colder than hell frozen over outside is when you can see a thick layer of ice covering every surface on the boat. Меня зовут Али и я люблю лед и снег!

The icicles were pretty cool (cool, haha, get it? Ok back to the story.). It's just as you imagine, there were long, thick blue daggers slanting away from the wind along all the eves of the house. I decided I should probably put on another layer of clothing at the point (thank god I have some common sense). When I stepped on deck to sample my fish I immediately felt the cold hit my face and lungs as a breathed it in. It almost hurt to breath. "Ok, once you get moving, and pushing fish around it will get better, like warming up at the start of a swim!" I told myself. Right?  ... Nope.com Actually the longer you're out there the more your face hurts and the cold starts to seep into your double-gloved hands.

 I got straight to work (well as soon as I broke up the inch layer of ice covering my science gear), which turned out to be a pretty good idea for a couple different reasons. One, the faster I worked the less amount of time I'd have to suffer this frozen nightmare. Two, moving around did keep my core warm and occupied my mind so I couldn't dwell on my discomfort (to put it lightly). And three, I realized as I was sampling, the fish were actually freezing solid to the deck around me! Yay! 

By the time I finished my work I could barely read my writing on my deck sheets, turns out its really difficult to write legibly when you cant feel your fingers! I had fish slime and water frozen to my rain gear. In short, I don't think I've ever been that cold before in my life. Luckily in the coming days the weather lightened up and the heavy freezing spray turned back into snow.

 And that's the cold hard truth of ice on the Bering Sea!















My only ice photo, taken in Akutan





Marooned!

I have news! I am finished on my boat! I have been reassigned to the plant in Akutan as the second observer. Now I stay on land and take salmon genetics for all the boats that offload here. I work nights so this has been an adjustment! I try to keep busy to stay awake, writing for the blog, reading (conditions are never too crappy to read on land!), editing data, and using the internet (the novelty probably won't ever wear off). The highlight of my week has been discovering that pandora radio works up here, (shhhh don't tell the plant)! Adnrew Bird radio is where it's at.

Despite still being in Alaska and not heading home just yet, I am very pleased to start my new chapter as a shore side observer. I got to sleep on a real mattress in MY OWN ROOM THAT WASN’T MOVING last night ... Well today, last day? I don’t know, this days and nights thing is getting really confusing. Regardless, I am looking forward to having a set schedule for a while, going for a run/walk, depending on road conditions, and going to the "gym" before "breakfast" every day. The cafeteria doesn't have the best tasting food, but they have salad most days and apples a lot of the time, so I get to eat healthy! I heard they even serve tacos occasionally, but I’m not holding my breath for good Mexican food just yet. There are always a few options here, as opposed to boat life! I had plain yogurt and granola for dinner this morning!! It was awesome. I’ve never been so excited to see plain yogurt before in my whole life.

I won't lie, I'm also excited that I don’t have to do dishes, laundry or any other chores while I'm here, the plant pretty much covers that. What am I going to do when I go back to real life and I have to do my own laundry and PAY for food?!? People here are really nice to the observers, probably because the plant doesn't function without us, and everyone at the plant has been brainwashed NOT to harass the observers. (Fun Fact: Observers are protected by the marine mammal protection act! Not lying, can’t make this up.) I think I'll be here till the plant closes for the season, which should be soon if rumors are correct, but its fishing so I wouldn't carve that in stone any time soon. So for now, I am marooned on this tiny rock of an island, observing shore side.

This is a shot from about halfway up the mountain lookng over Akutan and the bay.