June 23: Blessing of the fleet

Freddie Anderson has been organizing the blessing of the fleet for 14 years. Each year he asks someone from some type of religion to perform the blessing and this year, he asked Harry. Harry did a great job dressed in his Deacon's vestments. He was able to pull out many biblical references to fishing and fishermen and he invited Chris to come up to do one of the readings.

I was sprinkled with holy water for the first time in my life. I'm not a member of any church (though I think the Rector of my Episcopalian friend's church disagrees with a big, warm heart) but I am always grateful to receive a blessing from any that will give it.


Mark Williams' family - our wonderful neighbors since 1969 - helps out with the Blessing every year. Here is Mark, his older son, Marcus, and younger son, Sam with his wife, Dana, in the background.

















Freddie also invited the fire chief to make a presentation. His big safety message was PFDs (personal flotation devices) which I think is a great message and one we didn't need to hear, though reminders never hurt.

He also approaches the fish processors and other businesses in the area to donate food and safety-oriented items to use as doorprizes so everyone has a big meal and lots of people are winners.


Stephanie, Marcus' lovely girlfriend, facilitated the drawing.

Our crew won some fire-retardant-in-a-can (which most of them gave to the drift boat crews they were sitting near. (Those little cans are designed to stop fires on the water before they start) and a cup from Paug-vik.

It doesn't take very long in town before I begin to long for the tranquility and solitude of my cabin. We had talked about possibly going dancing this night - I like to go twice a season: once on my birthday weekend, and once at Fishtival weekend at at the end of the season. But by the time we made it home, too cold and exhausted to post, I was ready for a nap.

I forced myself out of bed at 11 to look at the tide and didn't like how it looked. So I asked the crew, all snuggled under a blanket watching something on someone's computer, to take the truck down before they went to bed. That turned out to be a good thing.