Better late than Never ?

The summer is over and I haven't done much of anything this year. Oh, I went cod jigging for a little while and enjoyed it, however, I wasn't able to really work. It is amazing what a simple act, like a tree falling over can do to your life. I guess I have to tell the whole story, so that it makes sense.  I was driving home one evening during a local windstorm, which we have all the time, when a big old dead tree fell on the truck I was driving. I went from about 35 mph to 0 mph, was thrown clear up completely off the road and dumped in a ditch.  I woke up laying on a stretcher with a young paramedic telling me I was the luckiest guy on the face of the earth. A trip to the emergency room, cat scans, MRI's,and a bunch of X rays.  They said they couldn't see any thing, so I was sent home to recover. Little by little, my back started to feel different.  I'd go numb in the left foot, then it would feel like someone had stuck a needle all the way down the leg.  Then my back started to hurt all the time.
Off to see a specialist, who had an MRI with dye done and showed me the results.  See right here Mr. Mann, your disc is torn and leaking.  I don't know how they didn't see this in the emergency room.  You have very few options at this point. You can do nothing and hope it heals on its own or you can operate and cut off the torn tissue and seal the disc.  Well, they ended up having to do that operation twice in two years.  I never did recover to the point where I felt I could really do my job, so I let the little maintenance things wait. Sanding , painting, that kind of stuff.  The engineering maintenance had to be done, but it took a long time with long breaks in between projects to let the back settle down. Well now we're at the end of the narrative.  I have just had spinal fusion, because there was no disc left between the vertebrae.  At this point the prognosis looks hopeful. If everything heals as it should and I'm able to rehab once the bone has set up.  I might just be able to fish again next year.  Any way, that's why I haven't been very good at keeping up with events.  I'll try to do better as time progresses.  Man, I am so lucky. That stupid tree would have killed me, had I been going 1/2 a mile an hour slower!

Man, it's cold outside!

I'm stuck in Anchorage, because the weather is just absolutely crappy in Kodiak.  No planes have been allowed in today.  Not even one.  It's not too bad here in Anchorage.  I'm trying to use my phone for this blog update, but so far I can't get it to work.  I have taken a few pictures, but of course I didn't bring my usb to phone connector with me, so I can't upload them to the blog.  I should be in Kodiak in the morning 3/9/2010 @ about 7:30 am if I'm lucky.  My good friend Thor Olsen is going to pick me up, so I'd better take him out for breakfast and catch up.  Here we go with another season and I'm not sure I'm up for this.

The little skiff that could and the brain dead bum who owns it.

Many years ago (1988), when I bought the Alchemist, I also bought a, new to me, power skiff. The size of the new skiff was about right for a 49 ft Delta, 16 ft long x 8 ft wide. The horsepower, alas, was woefully lacking. I limped along with the lack of towing power for a long time, well, until the engine blew up because of water in the fuel. It turns out I bought water for fuel one night at the tender. The young tender Captain turned the wrong valve. It seems he was more interested in boinking his girlfriend than he was in taking care of his fishing boats. Anyway, I got a new engine out of the deal, with a lot more horsepower. I then learned I needed to change the reduction gearing and the size of the propeller so that I could utilize the new horsepower. To do that I had to take the new engine out, cut the propeller shaft housing out, realign the shaft to allow for the bigger prop, glass a new shaft housing in, and rebuild the undercarriage to provide clearance for the bigger prop. When I finished all the upgrades, I was appalled at the amount of money I used to "fix" the skiff after the engine upgrade.
Wow! I couldn't believe how much towing power I now had. It was impressive to say the least. Screw how much money I had to spend, this was awesome! But I now had to be careful. If I towed too hard the stern sat down so far it didn't leave a lot of free-board. Rats, it's always something. Well, that's not as safe as I would have it, so this winter I raised the bulwarks of the skiff about a foot. Just like before, I now have a whole slew of modifications, expensive ones I might add, needed to bring the skiff up to speed with the new bulwarks. Sometimes I wish I could just leave things alone!

Bottom Trawling is a "dirty" fishery.

This actually happened last summer in Kodiak. A local dragger picked up about 40,000 lbs. of Tanner Crab in one tow off of Kodiak Island while he was dragging for "Flats". As much as the dragging industry would have us believe this is an isolated incident, it is not. Unfortunately it happens far too often. As much as I hate to say it, I think it is way past time we instituted full time observer coverage on all draggers operating in Alaska's waters. It is my understanding British Columbia has 100% observer coverage and this type of wanton waste very rarely occurs.

Boats!

Now that I'm home and life has done it's annual end of season realignment, it's time to start looking at next years needs. Even though the boat and equipment are winterized and stored, the maintenance program never stops. When tendering in the Bay, I couldn't get enough buoy coverage on the side of the boat. So I had a set of "pipe rails" welded to the aluminum "cap rails" on both sides of the boat. Now I can tie as many buoys as I want, wherever I want, to protect the side of the boat from nicks and dings. You can "never" have enough buoys when you're tendering. The pipe rails should work great!

I think I'm home?

Wow, it's October already. It's time to settle in for the winter season. The 2009 Cod, Salmon tendering, and Salmon fishing season is in the books. Done! It was a good season. There were no injuries, there was a fair amount of fish to catch, the equipment performed well and I brought home a nice batch of Coho for us to peddle. There weren't a lot of Coho in Kodiak this year, but the ones that did show up were beautiful.

Time moves FAST!

June , July, and August just flew by. Salmon is all over except for Cohos. We are just finishing up the "09" salmon season. For some strange reason I am able to get a wireless signal on my navigation computer and an update is long overdue. Tendering in Bristol Bay this year was all done in the Egegik River and was over before we got used to the new company (more later). Salmon was pretty good to us this year. We were blessed with a good run and terrific tender service (more later). We have quite a few stories to tell and pictures to show. I should be home in a few weeks and that is when I will sit down at my computer and update this blog properly. See you in a few.