Day 11 of 11!

We set our last stored string @ 0600 this morning! The last 2 days we had beautiful weather, but building tides and strong currents. We had to do a lot of running around looking for buoys. If not for the tides, we would have been done much earlier, but we’re still 18 hours ahead of the deadline. We also spent the last 2 days rail dumping, and probably dumped about 30,000 lbs back. We ended up planning conservatively on our quota and will probably come in several thousand pounds shy. This is intentional, because going over our quota could lead to huge fines and lots of meetings with various Fish Cops that could really ruin my day. It’s a little anti-climactic, but it’s the way it is. Sometime I may try and write about the management policy surrounding crab fishing, but I have to have a clear head & a lot of time!

We’re all very tired, but excited to be coming home!

We have Gale Warnings, NW40, so we’re traveling on the south side of the chain. Our plan is to stop at Adak and offload lines and buoys, then head to Dutch, a 2-day run.

Adak is an interesting place. Built as a secret and highly restricted military base during the Cold War, it has since been decommissioned and given back to one of the Aleut Native Corporations. it’s an eerie place, having been designed for thousands of personnel and now housing a community of about 100 people. Adak is struggling to find a purpose. Seafood processing has had limited success there, but at the moment there is no sustainable industry.

When I fished out here in the 1980’s, Adak was highly restricted and top secret. It took many complex maneuverings for a fishing vessel to be allowed access to the harbor.Through the 1990’s that gradually lifted until the base was completely decommissioned sometime in the mid 90’s. Adak also plays a key part in my ascent to the wheelhouse, which is another story for another day!

I know of at least one Island Fitness member who was stationed on Adak for several years.