I'm not sure what the eagle was doing, I just know the marks made by the other wing in the fresh snow seemed impossibly far apart from this one.
After work I wandered down to the mouth of the river to see who was parked at our dock. F/V Sea Storm is a 120 foot trawler with a single 1700 HP main engine. Sea Storm is currently set up to fish for trawl cod and is delivering to us this season. It varied while I was watching but there were between 8 and 12 eagles perched on the boat at any given time with another dozen lined up at the mouth of the river - I'm not sure what they were eating.
At noon today along with the ever-present eagles roosting on poles across the street from my door there were these super thin sheets of ice spinning downstream with the current, each with its own trajectory and course but also confined by the banks of the stream. They spun and smashed into each other, so thin they looked like smoke or fog, forming and reforming like plates of the Earth creating Pangea in a dozen different forms in as many seconds. I could have spent the afternoon watching but the wet snow and Chico's relentless desire to locate lye drove me inside to the laptop and then to the responsibilities of the workplace. . . . . my mind returned to those spinning sheets of frozen smoke throughout the afternoon and I pondered the meaning of the messages scribbled on the water surface by an unseen hand . . . .
Living on an island can be tough on a dog, sometimes it's hard to find life's essentials out here on "the chain". Chico likes to make soap and has a new idea for the next batch incorporating seaweed collected on the spit enclosing Dutch Harbor. He has all the ingredients he needs except he is low on lye . . . . you see, lye is tougher to find than it used to be because lye is also a primary ingredient in the manufacture of methamphetamine. One look at that face and I think it is plain to see Chico does not manufacture meth - he makes soap, pretty good soap actually.
Do you remember a couple days ago I was crowing about temps in the 40's and beautiful sunshine? Well I wanted to post a few pictures from my noon dog walk that day because the NEXT day we got this awesome swirling sleet, sort of like getting sandblasted from all directions, and then today we got a couple inches of wet snow and it was down to 30 degrees when I was out earlier with Chico.
I haven't really watched Deadliest Catch but I guess the Maverick isn't going to be on this season for one reason or another. I think the Maverick looks like a crab boat should and I like the tribal killer whale below the wheel house. I wish them all the best in their on-line sales of crab and salmon - their price on crab is actually probably the best on the internet when you factor in the free shipping.
With long hours and no days off you are constantly forced to make choices in how you spend that 3 t0 4 precious hours each day not spent working. Reading, housework, dog walks, hikes, workouts, phone calls to family, relationship time and hobbies all vie for attention - and then some days you have to just take it easy and relax. I had time to blog last night but instead used that half hour to catch up on the blogs I try to keep up with, those faceless friends that are part of my life on the island.
With apologies to all my Mexican friends, that is my interpretation of "where are the fish?" We are at full crew levels right now and we are all poised, waiting for deliveries of the season's first pollock and opilio. The technicians and engineers have re-vamped and repaired everything and at midnight tonight begins a top to bottom scrub and sanitizing of the whole plant in preparation of fish - piscados - soon . . . .
My posts have been quick and dirty lately, and I've even missed some nights . . . truth is I'm trying to kick a cold before it turns into something more nasty. It's hard to kick anything when you work long hours seven days a week but I've had pneumonia a few times in my life, and the flu strains out here are horrible - a few people died here last year from the flu - so I'm doing all I can to get better. I've been missing dog walks and getting to sleep early and just trying to get through the day at work - I think I might be turning the corner and starting to feel a bit better. Goldfish has been truly golden in taking care of things this week when I've been less than 100% . . . . she had a day off today and took down the Christmas tree, it leaves a huge hole in the living room but we still have all the other lights up and the Rudolph Christmas village and the Nativity set my Mom made.
I learned a good lesson a few days ago when I took this crappy picture of the moon rising behind a raven perched on a cliff - sometimes it just better to watch what is going on instead of trying to capture it. The next night I purposely left my camera at home and I just looked around, watched the sea otter swimming along shore, watched Chico investigating and imagined the world through his eyes, watched dusk fall on the Bering Sea. I love taking pictures but once in awhile it's good to relax and let life happen - know what I mean? Because the raven and the moon never did line up just right . . . . . .
Fishing vessels are zipping through the East Channel at all hours of the day and night now - when I walked Chico after work along Illiuliuk Bay I could see 10 boats either arriving or departing. Our pollock guys haven't quite come to an accord on price yet but the crab boats have and should be leaving for the grounds by Tuesday or Wednesday.
I know I post a lot of pictures of the Russian Orthodox Church on here but it is a part of my "place", and I find it riveting. It's just a block away and I walk by it a couple times a day on dog walks, or drive by it on the way to the Dutch Harbor side or the road to Summers Bay. Eagles love to perch on the crosses - if you look closely you may be able to see the white heads of the two that are perched in this photo.
We're having one humdinger of a storm out here, it started this morning and shows no sign of letting up. They were calling for 50 to 80 mph winds, not sure if we've got that high but I do know at noon I was walking on an icy parking lot towards the beach with the wind at my back and I didn't have to move my feet - the wind just blew me along at a normal walking pace, sliding across the ice. Along with the wind and rain are warm temps so the snow is going fast. All our Mariner fleet is done with pot cod and are switching their gear out for opilio. We do have a couple boats doing trawl cod this season as well, and the pollock fishery opens in a few days so we're all busy with last minute projects both on the boats and in the plant.
The eagle on the rock in the foreground has its wings spread, trying to dry them out a bit after a wet snow. Goldfish and I saw what happens when a soaking wet eagle - especially an immature on with more wing mass - tries to fly this afternoon. There was a bald eagle sitting on our neighbor's car and as we approached it took off. It tried desperately to gain altitude but couldn't clear the three story building next door and had to perform a very un-eagle-like maneuver at the last minute, completely losing any appearance of dignity and crashing to the ground in the process. We last saw it walking to the top of a snowbank, looking very confused and embarrassed.
Here are a couple photos from our snowshoe session on Ballyhoo after work last night - you can see the conditions were just amazing with clear skies, 28 degrees and no wind. This is the view from where we park, looking towards Dutch Harbor. In the foreground is the world famous Dutch Harbor Airport runway - look closely in the middle of the bottom photo and you can see a plane in front of the terminal building. When I first flew out here in 2002, Alaska Airlines was still flying jets into Dutch and the runway had the distinction of being the 2nd shortest jet runway in the world - there was one in Norway that was a few inches shorter. It's always pretty exciting flying in, even with the turboprops they use now. Well, except for you Zack . . . . . .
In a post last July I photographed the Greenpeace vessel Esperanza parked in Iliuliauk Bay in front on my place, here in Dutch Harbor as part of their Bering Witness voyage. We have BBC as our homepage and an article today mentioned the Esperanza was currently engaged in a high speed game of chess with Japanese whaling vessels in the South Pacific near Antartica. Greenpeace and I don't always see eye to eye but I do appreciate all the work and research they do to protect the oceans all over the world - and I loved seeing their Zodiac chaser boats whizzing by the plant last summer!
The road up Captain's Bay I have deliberately explored infrequently, to keep part of the road system a bit mysterious. I spent some time up there 5 years ago on a visit to the island but I haven't been there much since I moved here. Come to think of it, I didn't even bring ack out there when he visited. There is a cool shipwreck up there you can barely make out to the left of the island in the picture - I'll try to get a better shot sometime when the light is better.
So, Jen tagged me for this one. I'm not going to pass it on to seven people because I don't read 7 blogs regularly, I read maybe 5, most of whom are tagged by Jen already . . . . we're lucky that way . . . .
They allocated the cod quota a little differently this year, splitting it almost evenly between the A and B seasons. That, combined with very good fishing, is making for a fairly short cod season. The boats are coming back with good loads and not having to burn too much diesel; the dock price is also excellent.
A new diner opened down the street, the Crab Pot Deli, and we walked down there for supper tonight after work. I had the crab and avocado club sandwich - quality control you understand as the diner owner buys her crab from my work, usually from me as we sell it through the engineering office - and Goldfish had the daily special which was an excellent soup and sandwich for an astounding bargain price of $4.95. Both were excellent and I think we have a new favorite place to eat when we're in the mood to skip the galley.
There is lots of flat light out here in the winter where the snow, the ice and the sky all blend together, you can barely tell where one ends and the other begins and the eye searches for a break in the monochrome landscape, searching out the dark spots - the water, the odd rock rising above the snow, or a stove-in skiff on the shore of Captain's Bay. You almost have to include something dark in the frame to give substance and scale to the scene . . . .
F/V Bering Sea went through the East Channel today at lunch and I snapped a few shots. You can see the three guys up near the bow for scale - and you can also see they have beat the ice off the rigging as high as they can reach.
Winter is definitely here to stay and Goldfish and I are embracing the season by breaking out the snowshoes and getting our workouts in after a quick supper. We went to Ballyhoo tonight, snowshoeing up to our fall whale watching spot. Our dieting has gained a new focus - we're in a pool with a few others at work where whomever loses the most in the next three months gets $600. Time to get serious!
With our first delivery of cod today the season has officially started and I switched to my in-season work hours of 7 AM to 6 PM, seven days a week. My next day off will be sometime around the middle of April after our last delivery of opilio. Let the games begin!
Maybe the North American is fishing cod - they went by the house today on the way to the Unisea dock and it looked like they were loaded. It's nice to have the season underway and have more boat activity in the East Channel.
As you can see our little foot bridge over the Iliuliuk River is lit up for the holidays. The river is right across the street from my place and I walk the dog along the bank every night before bed.
The winter is so mild out here compared to other places I've lived in Alaska I was beginning to wonder if it ever came but after a couple weeks of continuous snow coverage and the beginnings of ice on Summers Lake it appears it may have arrived. It is, of course, the wind and waves that make the weather so remarkable out here and I have seen plenty of both . . . just in time for opilio season!
The town put on a pretty decent fireworks display and the viewing conditions were about perfect (unlike the 4th of July when all the action happened in the low hanging clouds) so I dragged Goldfish and Chico up Haystack for the best seat in the house and took a few pictures (okay, I took a lot of pictures, all of which came out like crap until I got smart and laid in the snowbank to brace the camera for the timed exposure needed to capture the shot). Chico hates fireworks so we figured he be happier with us than alone at home. Having lived in Alaska almost 20 years now, I can say there is no better back drop for a fireworks display than a snow covered mountain - and having a historic Russian Orthodox church in the foreground works pretty well too . . . . happy new year everyone, I hope everyone is safe and well. I'll post reflections and goals maybe tonight - Cheers, Steve
