Jarrett asked me if I wanted to join him and the rest of the salmon seining crew of the Pamela Rae for the trip from Seattle to Alaska. While I had no idea what that would actually entail, I knew I wanted to go. As the date neared and no job prospects were imminent I reserved my flight from New York to Seattle. Figuring I'd be spending about a week with guys who wouldn't be showering or changing their clothes that often, I took the opportunity to pack light. So with my polkadot rain boots and a small back pack, I left for the west coast.
By June 4th Jarrett was driving me to Ballard where the boat was docked and being prepped for the season, and I met the rest of the crew: Tommy, Jen (yup, a female--pretty badass too), Magnus and Matt (the captain), and also hitching a ride for the fun of it was Matt's lawyer friend Donny. The crew was really great. They all had great senses of humor filled with sarcasm, ridicule, and dirty jokes--I fit right in. Other than some crudeness, they all defied fishermen stereotypes--including that they all hold college degrees. Well, not Magnus. He hasn't graduated from high school yet.
By the evening of the 6th, we were on our way to Alaska. We rode up with the Favorite, an older seining vessel captained by a friend of our crew, and it was a good thing we did as they needed some help on the four-day journey.
It was an awesome trip. We enjoyed some of the best weather and conditions that Matt could remember through the inside passage--I didn't reach for the dramamine once--and the scenery was beautiful. We cruised between the green peaks of islands dotting our path and watched as more of them became snowcapped the further north we went. Most of my time was spent hanging out in the top house laughing and talking with the crew while keeping an eye out for whales, seals, otters, and dolphins all of which we saw.
I helped with different tasks around the ship including driving, learned how to tie a few knots, and was generally educated about a world I'd never seen. I even felt like I was a part of it, but mainly as a mascot. The crew enjoyed having me around, so when they invited me to stay longer and watch them actually fish, I couldn't resist.
Everything happened so quickly on deck with the lines (ropes) and crew all doing different things. And while it seemed chaotic, it was obvious that all the moving parts were working together to haul in the quarter-mile-long net and its catch. I liked being on deck and a part of it whether I was pursing the net or just helping where I could.
I killed some salmon myself--I won't go into the details of how--but felt it was important to do to maintain my philosophy of eating what I personally would or could kill. And we coined the term wild-caught-itarian to describe my dietary habits.
Some dungeness crab fell out of our net, but we're not supposed to keep them, so I can't tell you we ate them or that they were delicious. We did keep and eat the smallest King salmon we caught, which was still a huge fish (13 lbs?) and shared some with the crew of the Favorite. That was probably the most expensive free meal I've ever had.
This crew impresses me daily. They seem able to fix anything, they perform very physical labor for hours and stop fishing at 11 because "that's when it starts to get dark," (Oh, Alaska) and wake up to start again by 3am, not that it's light then. It's a job that, no matter how many times someone explains it, you just won't fully absorb until you live it. To be around such hardworking people with so much expertise and skill is humbling and inspiring. For all their toughness, they spend most of their time joking and laughing. And as with most jobs, it's the people around you that make all the difference.
After seeing one haul dump over a thousand pounds of fish onto the deck and the next haul pour nothing but jellyfish and flounder, I can better understand why some fishermen hold to superstitions; searching for some explanation of or pattern to nature's unpredictability.
I'm happy that my being unemployed (or a "member of the leisure class" as the crew likes to call me) allowed me to accept Jarrett's invitation. And even though, the crew has invited me to stay longer, I think it's time to make my way back east and get my own job... One that lets me sleep normal hours and doesn't make my muscles ache.
