Oh Canada

I'm still here in Seattle for awhile waiting to debrief and move on with my life, but I'm having fun while I'm waiting. This last weekend I went to Vancouver with my fun-sized asian friend Tri. We rode up on the greyhound bus friday night and stayed at a cool (and cheap) hostel in downtown Vancouver. The next day we wondered around the city and ended up going to Grouse mountain on a whim. Since we went all the way up there we decided to get half day lift passes and get some runs in. Since I was wearing jeans I wisely chose skiing, Tri tried snowboarding for the first time and got really wet and sore. The views from the mountain were amazing though, you could see all of vancouver once it cleared up. Skiing was a lot of fun too, it took me a few runs to get back in the groove, but I was back to form after a bit. We explored some more on sunday and then came back. Unfortunately I had forgotten my camera in Anchorage, but I called the bunkhouse and they have it, so I should get it back. I stole a few pictures from Tri's camera.

Seattle, we meet once again

I'm back in the lower 48 for some debriefing. I might be home really soon. There's not much else to say about that subject.

Return to Anchorage

Yep, I'm back in Anchorage for debriefing already. That was a good run: 3 boats in 3 weeks. I might be sent back out to work next month or be sent home. Good grief, how annoying is this job. Even though I liked being on boats and the job, I'm about ready to say f this and come home for the season. Maybe I'll work up here again when it's more steady. I'd really like to come up here in summer, so maybe that will happen sometime. 

Anyways, I had a fun time today in Anchorage, a few of us rented a car and went out into the wild. Our rented mini van couldn't make it all the way up the arctic valley mountain in Chugiak reserve, but we did find an awesome sled route. We'd drop some of us off at the top of the hill and then they'd sled down the trail which was maybe a mile or so and get picked up at the bottom. A lot of fun, indeed. We then went to the town of Palmer maybe a half hour north of Anchorage. There's not much there but it was good to get out of Anchorage, if even for a little while. 

Anyways, might be coming home soon (again) but I'll be here for the week at least.

Sailing Along

I've been back in Kodiak for a day or two now, and am leaving again tomorrow on another new boat. The last boat I was on, Pacific Ram was pretty cool. Similar to the first boat, no crazy stories yet, but there's time. It's been colder as of late and it even snowed today. I was hoping to hike the mountain behind our bunkhouse today, but the weather made it infeasible. Oh well. I do enjoy Kodiak though, it's a small town about 2 or 3 thousand people, I found a little coffee shop that's really great.

There's been more uncertainty surrounding the future of this job. With the pollock season ending, it seems there is once again an abundance of observers here. A couple of observers were sent back to anchorage to debrief, my time could be coming up. But I'm still here for now, so I'll take it one boat at a time.

Back in Alaska, Back from a boat

I have not posted in awhile, but I was called back to Alaska a few days ago. I spent a day in Seattle, about 4 hours in Anchorage another 4 or so in Kodiak and then got on my first boat, the Cape Kiwanda.

It was a pretty interesting experience. I was actually on 3 trips back to back to back on the same boat. I got seasick, which is the worst feeling ever, but got over it quickly, had some clear days and some rough days. Overall, it's a pretty tough job, but it's manageable and it's beautiful here. My 90 day contract feels like a very long time, but I think it will be a worthwhile experience. I'm enjoying my weekend in Kodiak, back on land but I'll be back at sea soon enough.