June 1: Two boats are ready to “splash”

We walked to the truck this morning, having parked it on the town road because of the anticipated high tide. We had an early start because I needed to get to King Salmon by 10 to pick up the replacement outboard for the Grayling. John had already looked at the 25 and found that the water pump is fine, but the throttle is very stiff and the siphon (kind of like a choke) is broken. He’s going to fix both issues – I asked him to do what he needed to do to restore my confidence in that outboard. When we all pile into the Grayling, usually to go to shore, I always hold my breath until I am sure that even if the motor gives up, we can still get in or at least we can grab onto a net or something so we’re not stranded. So we dropped David, Roger, and Jeff off at the processor to get started finishing the first two skiffs and maybe even start on the Ambi and the New Boat. I went on in to King Salmon.

When I got back and mentioned the broken siphon to Jeff, he said, “That explains a lot!”

Many little things remained to be done – get the nets in the skiffs, make sure we have the needed caribiners, make sure the end corks are red, make sure we have the tie off lines tied on, fix the cracked outboard, bolt on the new outboard, and worry. Lots and lots of fretting and worry.

I even had some time to take pictures today!

Here are Jeff (left), Roger (middle), and David (next to the roller at the right) working on the New Boat. This boat never made it into service last season - we just couldn't get it to run reliably. So the crew (not me) removed the outboard and all its many parts and pieces last year so we could ship the whole thing south for repairs. Now we (they!) have to try to get it back together again. The other thing this photo shows is that the sun finally came out!! We have rain gear, so it's not so bad to work in the rain, but when the sun comes out, it feels like being smiled at.

Here is a photo of the very good news for those of us who occupy the rest of the spectrum of mechanical expertise. This is Roy, the guy at the top of that spectrum - I think he is a mechanical genius (and a heck of a poet besides), and one of my dearest friends for many many years. I think he has a parental attitude toward mechanical things - he is nurturing toward them and applies a firm hand when needed and is not reluctant to show his anger when a machine is harmed as a result of ignorance and carelessness (like the time we ruined a power pack by running it without oil).

And here is Harry, my brother. He also helps us, being much closer to Roy's end of the mechanical spectrum than I am and even more importantly, being a really good brother. He also fished his whole life and in many different fisheries. Then he left fishing for... well, for many years until he just had to come back. I am very glad that he has, and only partly because his crew is made up of my nieces and nephew! I would post more photos - I took many. But my connection is very slow which I remember many times a day is much better than no connection at all, but it does force me to extend my attention span.