Another Fantastic Day on the Water

Friday afternoon we head out to sea leaving the boat harbor in Homer heading 265˚ while running about 16 knots.  The fishin’ area we wanted was 26 nautical miles from Homer in the direction of Augustine Volcano which we could see in the distance with a plume of steam rising out of the top.

 

The "Ring of Fire" (map) is an arc stretching from New Zealand, along the eastern edge of Asia, north across the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, and south along the coast of North and South America. The Ring of Fire is composed over 75% of the world's active and dormant volcanoes.

This huge ring of volcanic and seismic (earthquake) activity was noticed and described before the invention of the theory of plate tectonics theory. We now know that the Ring of Fire is located at the borders of the Pacific Plate and other major tectonic plates. 

Alaska has many active volcanoes ranging across the Cook Inlet from Anchorage winding its way down along the Aleutian chain.  Many have varying degrees of activity as the Redoubt Volcano erupted all spring bringing with it ash fall over much of the land.

We arrived over our ‘spot’ after high tide so we were not expecting to catch any large halibut.  The tide book showed this weekend as having large tidal changes over 31 feet between high and low tides some of the largest of the year.  The current was moving pretty strong by the time we lowered our lines in the 240 feet of water with a large 2 pound weight to hold our bait on the bottom. 

It was not long before I caught my first fish a 25 pound ‘chicken’ halibut.  The best eating size fish are between 30 to 75 pounds as the meat is firm and does not become mushy if frozen for a season before being eaten as the larger fish do.

We continued to fish for about two hours and were able to limit out with two fish apiece.  While we were in between each catch we cooked tanner crab which Lance and Shawn had pulled up earlier in the day from his two pots before I arrived.  We ate crab to the point we worried we would not eat our dinner which we had decided to wait until we returned to the crab pots before grillin’ out.  It was wonderful but I did start my “D’s camping potatoes” on the grill as we caught our last two fish. 

We headed back in towards Seldovia where we were going to do our “Deadliest Catch” impersonation and pull our crab pots.  We had hoped to make it to our cove in Tukak Bay by Yukon Island before dark but as we headed back we watched the sun sink slowly below the horizon just to the right of Augustine Volcano.

It became dark pretty quickly away from any electrical lights with the only ‘light’ from the many stars overhead.  We navigated our way several miles into the cove where we looked for our buoys marking our crab pots.  One was orange and the other yellow and was hard to see in the darkness.  Once we found the orange buoy we had drifted over the line so we stopped the engines and cleared the line from the bow planes so we could pull the pots and then grill the steaks.

We pulled the pot from the 450 foot depths and it had several nice crabs in the pot with about 10 that were undersize so we threw them back in to grow for another day’s pot. 

Once we reset the pot and lowered it back into the water we noticed a fog layer had appeared in the cove so we decided not to look for the other pot and made our way over to where we would anchor up for the night.

We finally started the grill and realized it was 10 pm so by the time we ate our dinner it was around eleven.  We put on a movie but we were all wore out and headed off to bed around midnight. 

I went down below deck to my cabin which had a queen size bed.  It was comfortable and with the gentle sounds of the water lapping against the hull I drifted off to sleep pretty quickly.  There is also a master bedroom with a king size bed with its own bathroom and a smaller cabin with bunk beds in it. The boat can easily sleep about 10 people between the cabins and the living room sofa bed and long couch on the flying bridge.  There is plenty of room for everyone onboard.

I awoke early and made coffee and wrote for a bit but everyone slowly started to stir so I made breakfast as we prepared to hit the crab pots once again before heading out to fish.  We made our way out of the cove for phone reception so we could make our calls and hook up with another friend who had driven down last night but stayed in the Best Western since they did not think they could find us in the darkness.  Where is that GPS when you need it or that Garmin telling you to turn this way or that to get you to your destination?

We were able to hook up with Roman and pull and reset the pots getting another 8 to 10 crabs. 

Lance wanted to head to Seldovia to fill up our tanks with fresh water since he had not filled the tanks in a couple of days. 

Seldovia is a nice village across the bay from Homer which has many artist type people who live there.  The weather today was perfect and totally uncommon this late in the season.  Temperatures were in the mid sixties, calm seas since there was no wind and the water looked like glass it was so smooth with only the seagulls landing and paddling against the current to break the smooth surface. 

Both boats headed out to the fishin’ spot where we had plenty of time before and after tide change to fish.  Roman anchored his boat while we decided to drift with the current.  Once we had dropped our line we immediately had hits on our lines and it was less than five minutes before we had our first fish on the line.  I ended up with the largest fish of the day at 40 pounds but with the massive tide change we felt lucky to catch anything.  We caught several salmon sharks today . . .

We fished all afternoon and everyone limited so we left to return to the cove once again to pull and reset the pots before anchoring up in the cove for another night.

We made spaghetti and fresh crab for dinner and watched a movie, “State of Play” before heading off to sleep.  I stayed up for about a half hour after everyone drifted away so I went outside on the bow to watch the stars for a bit.  It was amazing as there was no moon out but you could almost see your shadow from the starlight.  The Milky Way and other clusters were visible to the naked eye and using binoculars brought much detail to some of the visible objects.  I could see a faint aurora on the horizon to the north but it was not down over our area enough to feel the true impact of the lights.  While I looked to the Heavens I saw two shooting stars which signaled me it was time for bed.  There were a few high scattered clouds above but hardly enough to notice.

The peaceful swaying of the boat as the soft sounds of water lapping along the sides of the boat lulled me to sleep quickly.  It was a great night of comfortable, peaceful sleep.  Homer does that to me as I always enjoy my time in this area.

I awoke before daybreak hearing a light popping sound on the deck above me as I realized it was raining lightly outside.  It was soothing lying there listening to the sounds, like popcorn being made on the stove.  Everyone seemed to sleep in as Roman’s boat tied to ours seemed to be dancing in unison with the Discovery.  The light wind gently moved the two boats in a semicircle around the anchor point as Roman and his father in law slept on our boat up on the flying bridge. 

Slowly things changed as the darkness gave way to first light then the grayness of the sky took over the visible horizon.  Gone was the beautiful view down Tukak Bay across the turquoise water with the white snow capped Iliamna Volcano in the distance. 

There is still beauty in this cove as the rustic nature of the few cabins that are scattered about with such awesome views takes ones breath away.  The sea otters that seem to be everywhere lazily floating on their backs cracking and eating the clams or small fish make you want to snap picture after picture in hopes of getting that sly smile that seems to be on many of their faces.

Coffee was on and I started cooking sausage which seemed to bring everyone to life as they slowly made an entrance to the living room part of the boat.  Two descended from the flying bridge and two came up from the staterooms below deck but everyone was ready for coffee and a great meal.

After breakfast everyone was involved with some maintenance aspect on the boat.  Two worked on the deck getting everything stashed away while Roman and I worked on the two ‘heads’ (toilets) to make them function better.  What else should plumbers be doing except what we know best.  Dishes washed and put away as we readied ourselves for one more crab run pulling and resetting pots giving them a long soak all week until Lance returns on Thursday.  A few more crab were pulled in the rain and we decided after checking the weather that it would be blowing strongly outside this cove so we headed back to Homer boat harbor after Roman disconnected his boat and zoomed off to go back to Anchorage.

It was windy as we made our way past Yukon Island and across the bay to Homer.  The tide was high and the gangways leading to shore from the boat slips were almost horizontal with maybe 5 degrees of fall to the dock.  Normally during most tides and especially low tide they drop at about a 45 degree angle.  This was one of the highest tides of the year.

I took my halibut to be processed at Coal Point Trading and they were ready for pickup in about 45 minutes.  The 27 pounds of filets were cut into about 2 pound packages and vacuum sealed so they will stay fresh in the freezer.

It was just after six pm when I headed up the hill leaving Homer for my four hour ride back to Anchorage.  It was another nice time listening to my music and enjoying the scenery of fall colors, a few sightings of wildlife, and driving through the mountains in the darkness and rain.

I arrived home tired but it was another great weekend of fishin’, friends, and the quiet time alone.  The long drive each way gave me time to clear my thoughts enjoy music and continue my personal search for Alaska.

Changes are coming as we started getting snow on the mountaintops above Anchorage (Wednesday) and tonight (Thursday) we may get snow in town.  I do not think it will stick on the streets yet as they are still to warm but there may be white stuff on the yards.  Winter is knocking on the door as the darkness of the season continues to roll in.

It will not be long before the Time Bandit will leave Homer for Dutch Harbor and the crab fishermen head back out into the Bering Sea for another great season of Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel so tune in.

Ice