LUCKY TO BE ALIVE

  My wife and I watched as the big blow hit town. The weather service was calling for 40 knot blows out on the ocean. "Should have the commercial fleet scurrying to town," I commented

Little did we know the drama that was unfolding at that time on the ocean just a short 20 miles from our comfortable house.

  One of my friends who charters, dives, and dabbles in commercial trolling was, at that very time fighting for his life.

  Stonie (we call him Mac) and his deck hand, 19 year old Ryan were trolling off Cape Edgecumbe when the weather blew up. They knew the forecast, but due to some problems with the troll gear delayed their run

to town. Once they got things squared away the wind was pushing some large waves into their path to town.

  They were fishing out of Macs 28 foot bow picker aluminum boat, the Kaitlin Rae.

  As the wind pushed the rollers into breakers, they battled their way into the growing sea. They took a big wave over the bow filling the front to the house in an instant.

The boat started foundering only to be hit in the stern by another huge wave. The boat rolled over before they could get a Mayday call on the radio. They tried getting their survival suits out but the boat

sank out from under them. It was about 1:00 pm Friday.

  One of the fish totes from the boat floated by and the two men swam to it. Mac helped Ryan get into the tote but could not get himself up over the three foot side himself. He found a tote lid nearby and clung to that

Then a fortunate stroke of fate happened, one of the survival suits became dislodged from the sunken boat and floated to the surface near Mac. He was able to swim over and retrieve it.

  As the waves reached 8 foot in height, and the wind howled, the two became separated. As they drifted apart Ryan shouted to Mac, "We're not going to die here!"

  Mac was able to get into the survival suit in the water, not an easy task in a calm swimming pool, let alone a raging ocean with wind tossed waves.

  The long drift had begun. No one was aware of their problems until they did not return home that evening. At midnight the families declared an emergency and called the coast guard. A rescue helicopter was dispatched to the general area the men were supposed to be fishing. They could be anywhere.

  Daylight Saturday a massive hunt was underway. Sitka's search and rescue was called upon, troopers were out as well as the fishing fleet and the coast guard in their choppers.

  I received a call from my friend, Scott, saying Mac was in trouble. I turned on my radio and we listened for hours as the search continued.

  Our thoughts were that no one could survive that long in the water. If they made it to the beach they might have a chance, if there were no hungry bears getting to them first.

  After 24 hours a trooper boat spotted someone on the beach waving his arms. Mac! He had drifted from the corner of the cape to Point Amelia, about 12 nautical miles.

  Some 26 hours after the boat went down one of the fishing boat happened upon a floating fish tote. The captain of the Nerka motored up to it with high hopes only to find it empty. He scanned the sea again to see another fish tote floating... this one had a young man waving frantically from inside it! The captain contacted the coast guard chopper and they swooped over to pluck a freezing Ryan up to safety.

Ryan had drifted about 17 nautical miles straining to keep the tote floating upright in the raging waves. His hands were blistered and he could hardly straighten his legs from the long strain.

  I am so thankful these two good men survived.

  Living on the ocean is fraught with danger. We all face it on a daily basis. One can never take the ocean for granted. You must respect its raging power.

  A happy ending to a harrowing ordeal.

  We all breathed a, "thank you Lord", when we heard the chopper pilot radio com center Juneau with the report, "Roger Juneau, we have the survivor on board and are heading to Sitka Air station."

Drop By Visitors

  It seems rude nowadays to perform a drop by visit on someone, as used to be common in days gone by. Now one must call, e-mail, or text to obtain "permission" to stop by and see someone. Kind of sad, in my opinion, as those used to be some of the best visits one could have.

  Things are very different on the ocean. Drop by visits are common, and most of the time welcome. The interesting part of the drop by visits is that you never know who or what your visitor will be.

  I was sitting here trying to think of all the visitors we had around the boat this summer. Of course, the big whales come to mind first. They seem to get your attention by bellowing out a monstrous plume of air and water... hard to ignore. Killer Whales are not as boisterous, but also get your attention right away. When you see a six foot tall fin cut through the wave, you tend to take notice.

Sea Lions seem to be constant visitors, but they are certainly not a welcome guest, as they are looking for something on your hook they can steal for an easy meal.

  We had a little seal pup come around the boat for a curious look, but he did not give us time to film him before heading back to his hiding place in the kelp.

  Then there are the birds. Each day I drop the hook to anchor for halibut the birds come. Sometimes it will be one lonely bird, but most of the time they swarm around the boat hoping for scraps and kibbles to eat. The clients and I really enjoy these drop by visitors. We have the usual gulls, terns, one day a frigate bird, murres, storm petrels, shearwaters, fulmars, and the graceful flying albatross.

  I must say the albatross is one of my favorite visitors. They are a friendly bird and come right next to the boat.

When an albatross takes flight off the ocean he must run on the water to gain speed. It looks like a big B52 bomber lumbering down a runway gaining air speed to fly.

Once the albatross is in the air it transform into the most graceful glider you have ever seen. The spread their long wings and skim the ocean surface with a wing tip

just caressing its surface. Even in rough ocean these wonderful birds can skim the surface and never crash into a steep cresting wave.

Albatross are some of the worst begging birds in the ocean. They will sit at the back of the boat for hours on end hoping for a scrap of fish meat.

The albatross will not eat the guts of fish. I have tossed them out into the ocean and the big birds lunge on them, sample them, then spit them out. They always

then wash their beaks out in the ocean as if to say,"yuck, why did you toss that stuff out!"

  Albatross are meat eaters. They can eat a floating rock fish in no time at all. the big beak rips meat apart in a hurry.

  One day this summer we had our usual gathering of birds doing their drop in visits, when a client commented, "Hey look, one of these big birds has a band on his leg."

  sure enough an albatross was wearing a bright band on his leg. I grabbed my camera and snapped a few photos trying to get a close up to read the band number.

I'm sure the birds are banded on the nesting grounds north of us for some type of research.

  As we watched the banded bird we soon realized that he was banded on both legs.

  I snapped a few more pictures and then it was back to fishing.

  I am always thankful for the drop by visitors on the ocean, but when I really think about it, I am more thankful for the drop by, unannounced visits from friends. It  does not bother me at all. If we are too busy to take time for friends, then we really need to reorganize our lives and make room for a friendly visit every once in a while.

A SPLASH OF COLOR

                Rain. It seemed this summer was made of rain. Each day started with pouring rain, but ususally settled into a mist or just a drizzle.
Soggy attitudes seemed to develop among the guides as days of rain turned into months.
  Out on the ocean there are only three colors during the rain, sky gray, mountain gray, and ocean gray. Each has a little different shade of gray.
  It is now August and still the rain continues. The clients and I finish a good morning of salmon fishing and I drop the hook (anchor) for halibut.
I quickly clean the slamon, using the salmon guts and gills for halibut bait.
  Each client drops a baited hook to the bottom in hopes of a halbut.
  I am inside the cabin filling out the log book for the morning salmon fishing when I hear a client exclaim, "Look at this bird!"
I glance out the window and there is a beautiful splash of color bobbing on the ocean behind the boat.
  "It's a Puffin," I exclaim.
  The little puffin is very close to the boat diving for the needle fish I had washed out the scuppers when I cleaned the salmon.
We all race for our cameras and click away. The little puffin seems to know he is the star of the show.
The rain is now forgotton as we ooh and ahh over his majestic head color.
  It always amazes me how one little splash of color can turn a drippy seeming summer into something bright.
  The clients and I chat about the little bird all the way back to the dock.
  If your world seems three shades of grey, look around for that one little splash of color. It sure can brighten your life.