Friday, April 29

Called home early this morning at 12:30 AM and woke my parents up to let them know I would be leaving tomorrow to go herring fishing.  I have packed all my gear and transferred it from the boat I had been living on to the fishing boat.  Wallace Fields and I will be leaving sometime tomorrow for the herring fishing grounds which I believe are some distance away.  I anticipate being out for about one week and then being dropped at Bear Island where I will spend the rest of the season which should last into October.  Bear Island is 10-12 hours by boat from Kodiak harbor.  You can find it in one of the maps at the top of the blog.  I don't think that I will be able to contact anyone with my cell phone from now until October but if anything changes I will call.  I will be sending back video recordings when I can along with pictures.  If you have questions, just leave them as comments and I will respond when I receive them.

Wednesday, April 27

Finishing up repair work at the ranch.  Then new tenants move in on May 1 so all the building remodel work needs to be finished.  Plumbing and electric needed to be redone along with drywall and paint.  Leaving tomorrow morning for herring fishing.  Not sure what that will be like, but the new experience should be fun and its nice to get away from the construction work for a bit and back out on the sea.  Received a CARE package from home which I will enjoy.  The abundance of animals here is amazing.  I have seen hundreds of bald eagles over the last two weeks and lots of sea lions which at times gather around the boat I live on and bark half the night.

Sunday, April 24

Went to church this morning for Easter service.  Had a great dinner with Wallace Field's family.  Lot's of great seafood for appertizers along with ham for dinner.  No work today.  Found out that the Rev Moon from the Unification Church has a big presence on the island.  He comes up to Kodiak to fish.  He also owns 2 fish canneries on Kodiak and comes to Kodiak from time to time to perform mass marriage ceremonies.

Nate Vanderwal, who was my roommate at Calvin during my freshman year, will be joining me for salmon fishing around May 20 on Bear Island.

I may leave for Bear and Harvester Island earlier than anticipated to get the fishing camps ready.  I was supposed to leave May 2 but may leave earlier than that.

Friday, April 15

Pulled into Kodiak harbor to offload our cod.  We are third in line.  I was able to call home since there is cell phone coverage in Kodiak.  We offloaded about 7000 pounds of cod.  Cod season is over.  The remainder of the time before I leave for fish camp on bear island will be spent cleaning up a small ranch owned by the Field family and getting the boat scraped and painted for fishing season.

Thursday, April 14

Since we are at sea, we started fishing at 6:00 AM.  This is the last day of cod fishing season.  Lots of new stuff to learn.  We fished straight through until midnight to finish the season.  It was a long day.  We pulled into a bay and slept overnight on the boat.  Tomorrow we return to Kodiak.  Seeing lots of bald eagles - at least a hundred of them.  Lots of sea lions also.

Wednesday, April 13

Breakfast on the boat.  The Cornelia Marie from The Deadliest Catch is moored in the harbor this morning.  Wallace picked me up this morning to get my commercial fishing license.  We left on his boat to the fishing grounds.  Fished all day on Wednesday for cod.  Slept on the boat overnight in a bay.

Tuesday, April 12

Left early for the airport.  Said goodbye to Mom and Dad.  My plane left O'hare at 9:40 AM.  It is a 6 hour and 45 minute trip straight to Anchorage on Alaskan Airlines.  After a brief layover in Anchorage, I catch the 737 to Kodiak which is about a 45 minute flight.  Landed in Kodiak at 4:05 PM.  Mountains are still capped with snow, it looks beautiful.  Time difference between Kodiak and Demotte is 3 hours.  Wallace Fields picked me up from the airport and took me to the boat which I will be living on until May 2.  It is a 75 foot boat located in Kodiak harbor.  Had dinner at Wallace's house and met the family.  Quite a day!