Thursday -- Alaska Letters

                Had to get up a little faster this morning because I needed to be at the plant by nine in time for the boat ride with the Westward One.  So I got myself together, got dressed, and hopped in my car by 8:45.  It was silly for me to think that it would take me so long to get there, because I arrived at approximately 8:52.  Cause nothing is far away in this town.

                I got to the plant, and this time did not get lost and was able to successfully get straight to Tim’s office.  He had given me a key in case I got there before he did, but he was in his office when I arrived.  There was some slightly awkward sitting while I watched him do some data entry, and I sorted all of his piles of vessel letterhead so that each boat got its own folder.  I also measured his office to see what kind of space we are looking at related to furniture purchasing.  It’s 125” by 187”.  I initially kind of guess-timated the long one because Tim didn’t hold the measuring tape, and I guessed 190” so I want you all to appreciate how good of a guesser I am.

                Around 9:10 or so we went to listen in on the radio check with each of the boats that are still out, to see how their fishing is going.  I’m learning a lot of the terms which is making this more interesting.  For instance, when they say they have forty on board and 2 eggs in the bag, what they mean is that they have about 40 tons in the tanks already on the boat, and the sensors along the length of the net that tell you how full it is are kind of egg shaped.  They are spaced along the net where approximately 5 or 10 tons (depending on the size of boat/net) would have filled, and when each one goes off, it means your net is at least that full.  So having two eggs in the bag means there are at least 10 or 20 tons respectively in the net already.

                After that, we went back to Tim’s office and went to go check on the Westward One.  Marcus was already down there, and he and Brandon (captain) were talking about satellites or something.  I had taken my Dramamine already, so I was ready to go when they were, but the Harris Electric guy was on board and wanted to finish the light he was fixing before we went for fuel.  After some lazing around in one of the captain’s chairs, Tim and I decided to go back upstairs.  He tried to find a computer I could use, and he really put in a valiant effort, but it didn’t seem all that important to me, and since the Westward One wasn’t leaving for another hour, he went to get breakfast and I used his computer.

                I don’t know what in the hell is all over his key board, but half the letters you can’t even see because they are so grimy.  I’m like dude.  Get the fishmeal powder OFF your hands before you start typing!  And he’s still on Windows XP, which is hilarious, because both Google and Facebook were like, we… haven’t existed as long as this operating system, you’re gonna have to go to the simple version.  If I surfed Facebook on the oldest system, I would die.  It was so lame.  People would be like, THIS is Facebook?

                But eventually Tim came back, and eventually the boat was ready to leave, and so we went down (after I ate a third of a box of Tagalongs.  I’ll bring some home, I forgot how good they are).  I didn’t realize until we were already pulling away from the dock that we had even started moving.  We were doing about one knot, I think, and we had to calculate the difference between nautical miles and regular miles.  The ship had a pretty good roll to it, but it wasn’t too bad.  It seemed like we were plowing along pretty good, but I think the only reason it looked like we were traveling so fast was because there was land nearby to gauge movement.  Otherwise, we were just rolling around in the ocean.

                We only went around a little spit to get around to the Delta Western dock, and it took a whole hour.  I did pretty well, and I officially have been in the Bering Sea.  Marcus took me on deck to walk around, and I did pretty good, although I took these giant swarthy steps everywhere, and sort of stomped around a lot.  My boots were not slipping, which was really great, so it was just me stumbling around.  Marcus took some pictures of me, so hopefully I’ll get those off Facebook (regular Facebook) eventually.  He was hoping that I would get a good spray of water to the face, but me and the ocean have an understanding.  It’s a woman thing.

                I was really impressed with the docking of the boat.  Tim said that sometimes on crowded docks, they will give a ship literally 5 feet on either side to squeeze in.  We just parallel parked like it was nothing.  I was really truly impressed.

                Roy (from dinner last night) took us out for lunch at Amelia’s.  I’m working on my true Alaskan ability to eat tons of food at one time, and I tried.  I had enchiladas suizas, and they were both spicy hot and heat hot, which is sort of the double whammy of food consumption.  It was rough.  But I plowed through, and ate pretty much everything except for the beans (which I never eat anyway).  Then I was overcome with this tiredness that I have never really appreciated before.  I almost fell asleep right there.  I think all the weird hours had collected.

                Roy drove us back to the dock to take the Westward One truck to the plant, but I guess they were still using it to get food or something, so we went back to the plant too.  Round trip, 15 minutes.  I had checked out some Dania furniture for Tim while he was getting breakfast, and I showed him and Marcus some of the options for couches and desks.  Tim kept insisting that he didn’t really need one, but Marcus gave him this very serious look and said, you need a new desk.  So we picked out two desks, and a couch for his office and for his house, (we got him a reclining couch like ours for his house).  I tried to sell him on an ottoman for extra seating, but he was like, meh, which I felt was a very man attitude.

                Eventually Marcus and I left.  We stopped at Carolyn Reed’s gift shop to see if she was in, but she wasn’t.  I called her number, and she said she’d been sick and she hoped it be in later.  So we went to grab coffee on our way to get the Westward One truck from the fuel dock (this time it was there).  I drove that back, and holy crap batman, that thing was a monster.  It took me a five point turn-around and waiting for a Delta Western guy to move his truck, for me to get off the dock.  Then I went around and bought dad something at the Grand Aleutian, and went to find this Island Gypsy consignment shop.

                I have been searching everywhere for a reasonably priced maxi-skirt while this look is still in style.  And I have been foiled at every turn.  And wouldn’t you just know it that they had one all the way in Dutch Harbor, Alaska.  My god.

                So I bought that, and went to see if Carolyn had turned up, which she didn’t.  The Dutch Harbor Mall is across the gravel road from the Harbor View, so I just went back to my room after that.  When I come in my room, I lock the door, throw the extra door lock thing, take off my boots, my pants and my jacket and try to trap the Pollock smell at the door.  So I was instantly in comfortable mode, and I lied in bed and read for a little while, but eventually the powers that be were too strong, and I took a nap.  It was a glorious nap.  I thought I would just sleep for 20 minutes or so, and then get up again, but it was too good, so I extended my nap in 10 minute increments until I eventually got a call from Marcus at 6 to see if I wanted to go see Summer Bay.  By this time I had napped off and on for an hour.  It was good.

                The weather had really become wonderful, and so Marcus and I set out for Summer Bay, which is on the mainland side of the bridge on Unalaska proper.  We headed northeast and I have some absolutely incredible pictures.  The wind was a little stiff, but it was sunny and fairly warm, and it was just a stunning day to be in Dutch.  I saw many ground squirrels, and I was no more than 10 feet – 10 feet!!! – from a bald eagle.  He was hanging out on a piece of an old bridge scoping out the salmon struggling upstream.  He walked around a little, and he was just like an oversized chicken.  The most awkward walk I had ever seen.  Marcus threw a rock near him and he flew off, and that was pretty majestic (not the rock, the bird).  I said that now he was going to go shit on our truck, and we would have to explain to the rental company why there was such a large dent in the cab, and Marcus thought that was funny.

                I was dying to see a little fox, and as we were leaving, I saw one on the quarry pile.  He even held still so I could take his picture.  Cute little foxy.  He was adorable.  We saw one stream that was full of fish who were headed up to leave their eggs among the remains of their friends who had already done so.  It was kind of weird to see them, because there was basically a demonstration of the whole life cycle and decomposition cycle of the whole salmon species, all in one stream.  They are ugly little fish at the best of times.

                It was about 8:30 when we got back from Summer Bay, and we thought it was probably supper time.  The only restaurant I had not yet tried was the bar and grill in the Harbor View, so we went down and I got a pizza.  I really enjoy Marcus’ company, he’s very smart and very interesting.  He’s sort of like Matt in a lot of ways, which I think is probably why I like him so much.  We talked about his wife, and I told him about how Matt and I met (that story always plays well).  We talked about school and learning stuff, and how difficult it is to negotiate building plans and things with the Japanese people who basically run the plant.

                Eventually we headed off to bed around 10, and I took the other half of my pizza and shoved it in the window overnight.  It rained, but the box made it ok, and the pizza is still good.

                So that was my Thursday, I don’t know what I’m doing today, but I’ll probably do some more shopping.  Hopefully Carolyn will open up today and I’ll be able to buy some things there.  I already did some serious window shopping, so I think I know what I want.