Since it's Sarah's birthday, let's start with a photo of ... Sarah, on her birthday.
These photos might make you wonder, "When does that crew sleep?" I think we wonder the same thing, sometimes. Oksanna's bunk looks out at the moonrise, so that may have pulled her from her few hours to rest before we went out the the nets at about 4 AM on Sarah's birthday. She got this shot of the moon rising over the Space Hut and the bunkhouse.
We were up and going through the (empty) nets before and during the sunrise. It is enough to make us all stop and turn around to watch the show. It isn't always a show, but when it is, it can't be beat. We came in from the flood pick just after the sun topped the horizon and started burning off the fog.
My cabin and Debby's are between the crew cabin and the sun, so our cabins are featured in many sunrise shots. Here I am, trudging back to my cabin for a few hours of rest before going out to clean up on the ebb.
But wait, I think I'll get a few more sunrise photos first.
At first I wasn't sure this was of me - why would I be walking toward the Space Hut and bunkhouse at 5 am? But those are my dogs following. Oh yeah! Pictures!
I've collected photos from as many of the crew as I can. Here is a beautiful panorama from Oksanna with the sun rising cheerfully behind my cabin and Debby's, Patrick over to the left, and the crew cabin and Space Hut not quite completely in the light yet, over on the right. So often, the colors here make me think of a Maxfield Parrish painting. Roger used to say that the sky looks painted here.
And Patrick wasn't just posing with his camera. He took this photo. Sometimes Phil will remind us that we are Bristol Bay millionaires. If I ever wonder what he means, this picture would tell me. We don't have running water (well, David has rigged some up for his cabin), we don't have electricity except a little from old solar panels, and a generator, we have composting toilets outside, we wear the same clothes for a week at a time (unless they get wet), and fresh tomatoes are a luxury. But we get to walk outside into this. I'll take it.
Returning to my cabin, this time to sleep, Oksanna caught a photo of me in the sunrise. The spiky hair is a tip-off.
Oksanna had many many more photos. I will pick this last one of the view toward Pedersen Point. You can see from where the tide is that it still has some time to rise - it'll make it all the way to the cliff.
A few hours later, we went back out for the ebb pick and... still no fish.
I came back in to participate in a conference call - and I'll bet of all the people on the conference call, I had the best sunrise.
Tomorrow morning marks the end of this season's "free (three) week(s)." Growing up, we always called this the "Fall Fishing Schedule." Typically, it's 9 AM Monday till 9 AM Friday. That schedule is in effect in the Naknek/Kvichak district from June 1 until... I think it goes through the end of August, maybe into September. Except for about a one-month period that will start on June 23 at 9 AM this year. That month long period is called the "Emergency Order Period." During that period, we are allowed to fish only when Fish and Game permits it. I'll explain more about that in the next post.
As of 9 AM tomorrow morning, we will be listening to the radio, watching email, and calling in to the ADF&G Info Line for announcements of fishing time. In the old days (that is, before 2009) we relied on the radio. Announcement times were 9 AM, noon, 3 PM, 6 PM, and 8 PM. Nothing can quiet a room of Naknek fishermen as quickly as hearing on the radio, "This is the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in King Salmon with an announcement for fishers in the Naknek/Kvichak district."
Since our morning tides have had no fish, David's crew just decided to pull on this evening's tide. Too bad - we'll have to wait for our first Emergency Order opening to take Sarah's permit for a spin. But at least it came today! Whew.
Sarah, Oksanna, and I went into town to get what we needed for Sarah's birthday dinner.
This is Naknek Trading's dirt parking lot. Note the rows of vehicles - pickup trucks mostly - parked in front of the entrance, about 5 or 6 vehicles across and about 4 rows deep. There are no exits or entrances, but there's usually a hole in each row that the vehicle in the closer rows can weave themselves through to exit.
We decided to have a pizza party using the Boboli's we shipped up, supplemented by rice (with pistachios, currents, and green onions), and a delicious strawberry and spinach salad. Here is the crew with the beginnings of food coma.
We had German Chocolate cake for dessert. And who doesn't love the fisherman's dirge version of "Happy Birthday?"
I love birthdays up here!
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