I took the new (to us) four wheeler into town because the old one had a low tire. I noticed that the new one has a speedometer, giving me a way to figure out wind speed. When I got the wind to my back, I rode to find the speed at which I couldn't feel wind in any direction and the speedometer would then tell me how fast the wind was blowing. And what I learned is that our typical blustery day that we go out and fish in without much comment is at least 20 MPH.
Our opening is at 4 am when there will be 9' of water at the mean low water mark for the Nushagak. That means it could be anywhere between our thighs and our necks here, depending on how the wind blows. The wind is blowing hard, but it's southeast, slightly offshore. Not so great for fish, but it makes setting the net in a lot of water a much safer and drier proposition.
My dry suit is on the bench for the rest of the season. I considered breaking it out again for this tide but it has a sure leak in the zipper and the leg, weighed against the possible leak down the top of the waders. Well, the waders also have a sure leak in the heel - like a worn out sock. But I finally remembered the neoprene wader socks that have languished in my mud room for a few seasons. Water still seeps into the foot of my waders, but my actual feet stay sort of dry because the wader socks are sort of waterproof and their heels don't yet leak. Dry feet is a luxury that I appreciate very much.
We ended up setting at about the limit of everyone's waders (except mine which had retired to the inside of the boat). I'm glad the opening didn't start 10 minutes later. It's an expensive fine if we're in the water early (or late) and minutes
count. We went through the nets, and finding little, came in for a nap before the later pick of the morning. It seems funny to be many paragraphs and events in before showing the sunrise of Evan's birthday that I thought it worth giving up my warm bunk and a few minutes sleep to snap a photo of. I figure that I appreciate the warm bunk right when I'm in it, but I'll appreciate the photo for much longer. After the morning pick, I took a trip into town to get avocados, mushrooms, lettuce, tomatoes and hamburger buns for the festivities in Evan's honor and since the truck was going in anyway, I took in a load of garbage; filled five gas containers and five containers of drinking water; filleted, sealed and froze two 10 lb kings; filleted, skinned, de-boned, and cubed two reds (one of which a seal took a swipe at, leaving not enough of it to sell in good conscience) for pickling for us to snack on; remembered to get feta cheese out of the freezer for the orzo and broccoli salad (I hope we have orzo); got an air tank filled (the rear tires on the ranger are low - maybe accounting for lame pulling power? and one of the old four-wheeler tires is low); got tire gauges (needed a very low pressure gauge for the four-wheelers and a regular one); and stopped by the post office - Huge's box finally arrived! Yay! And Trevor's mom sent me my own package of brownies, not wanting me to have to order something from Amazon when I become desperate for the fun of getting a package in the mail too. Thank you, Meredith!
I'm not sure I've ever reviewed how the days here go: I already mentioned that we were up at 2:30 to set the nets at 4. We went through them and found almost nothing so we came in at 5 and decided that that could count as our flood pick. We geared down and napped till 7:30 when we geared back up and went through the nets again. A little more, but not much. We came back in at about 9:30 and with Evan's help, I started roasting chicken and potatoes for breakfast. Josh and Roger gathered up garbage and empty water containers for the town run. I asked Jeff and Jake to be responsible for getting the dishes done - not that they had to do it, but if they didn't get done, I'd come looking for them. They got done and not a moment too soon. Luckily it's pretty cold over there, retarding the development of new life forms - or old life forms, for that matter.
They went back out at 10:30 when I put the food in the oven and then left for the town errands detailed above. When I got back, they were napping (no doubt, exhausted or possibly traumatized from the dishes experience) to get up again at 5:30 for a 6 pm flood pick. If there are few fish, we'll come back in for a short nap and go out for the ebb pick, when we'll also pick up the net. Somewhere in there, I'll bake a cake and cook the meal (we also decided on sweet potato fries and the orzo salad with burger extras of bacon, carmelized onions, sauteed mushrooms, and the other fresh vegetables). Then we'll nap for a few hours and get up again at 3:30 am for a 4:30 am set. That's what the day is like. We keep busy.
It's a little past midnight now. I had planned to stay out of the afternoon/evening pick to make Evan's birthday dinner. But it was too windy (probably at least 30 MPH since last night's "breeze" was about 20) so they came and got me. Exactly what I want them to do and the fact that they will do that is what makes me comfortable sitting out sometimes.
We had a very busy flood - no high water rest. The net on the third site was sunk. That's always a daunting site. Just how full is it? We helped the Bathtub crew pick through it and ended up delivering a total of 10,500 lbs for the tide. It slowed down for the ebb (or we'd still be out there picking through the roundhauls). We picked up the nets and will set them again at 4:30 am. I noticed that I didn't experience the anxiety I've experienced in recent years in the face of such full nets. I think it's because I have such a high level of confidence in this crew. I mean no disparagement of previous crews. We've had a run of really good crews for the past several seasons. But there's something special about this one... they are fast, smart, willing, energetic, and good learners. They still make mistakes - and so do I. And we fix them together.
Without a birthday dinner, we opened a couple a #10 size cans of stew (and I added a couple of cans of garbanzo beans because I think they are so good for us) and will postpone the birthday dinner till the fish slow down.
David told us that he noticed that one of the windows in the cabin he's staying in was just duct-taped over a hole in the wall and the duct tape is coming loose. We all immediately identified a whole roll he could use "to make it permanent again" and Jeff added the suggestion of using Gold Bond, which is the panacea that has been suggested for just about every disorder. I love this crew.
I told them that I needed to come back to my cabin to sleep before the next tide but my knee hurts and I didn't want to walk. Huge and Chris jumped up, each took one side of the chair and carried me. They are hilarious.
See you in the morning.
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