The Importance of Competency (on and off a boat)

My husband left on Easter Day this Spring. For the fishing grounds.

Life at home is messy. It always gets messy. One parent, two kids (albeit that one of the kids is now an adult), four cats and a dog.

The cats are spending much more time outdoors now. No one here is crazy about cleaning the cat litter boxes. My husband cleaned them during the off-season, for which the rest of the family is very, very grateful.

For the record, my husband is not crazy about cleaning cat litter boxes out, either.

Our elderly cat, often misses the box these days, hitting the floor. It is a full-time job making sure the cat potty things are sanitary enough for her increasingly sensitive nose.

Cats sunning on the south-facing cedar deck. Getting fresh air. Also, simultaneously saving their humans time and energy spent on cleaning cat litter boxes. Makes me smile.

The flies have shown up.

That happens when the garbage does not get removed from the utility room soon enough, and it starts to get warm as the calendar approaches Summer.

My husband mostly takes care of the garbage, too, during the off-season. For which the entire family is very, very grateful.

Then there is the stack of mail in the passenger seat of the mini-van.

Yep. You guessed it. My husband takes care of the mail, well, he helps take care of the mail. When he is home during the off-season.

Seasonal single-parenting.

It is kind of a rush.

Sights, sounds and smells occur that don’t usually exist in our fairly conventional home life. The one we lead during the off-season, when my husband is home.

The family is very grateful that a mouse which one of the cats brought inside the other day, did not hide behind a piece of heavy furniture.

That happened one year when my husband was away fishing. An abandoned mouse.

The putrid, dead mouse smell became stronger by the day. It was the middle of summer. The house temperature reached above the 80’s. Virtually stewing the mouse in its own juices.

Our family, eventually, had to eat on the other side of the house. We had NO IDEA where the mouse had run to. Eventually, the smell was so bad that we were able to track it behind a filing cabinet. The mouse was found flat, decomposing.

That was then, this is now.

The laundry. Yay, Is clean! Just not exactly put away. Each person is responsible for doing that themselves.

On paper anyway.

The truth is, we are all in a new routine. We do this twice a year. Transitioning. Husband/Dad gone, Husband/Dad home.

It will take a while to smooth into the new routine.

Just as it will take a while for our fishing boat, the Saint Jude, to get into a rhythm with our new crewman. There will be a learning curve.

As the last few flies buzz behind my head (the rest have been mercilessly smashed by a fly swatter), I contemplate this life.

Now I am off to pick up school kids, my son and his buddy.

Yep. You guessed it. My husband does that too, most of the time. During the off-season! Picks up the kid, the one not yet old enough to drive.

Break

I just got back from the grocery store. Got in the store, almost. Noticed I had left a grocery list in the mini-van. Walked back to the mini-van and noticed my clothes were much too warm for heat of the day.

Also, noticed an oil spot running out from under the mini-van. I quickly scanned my mental mini-van diagnostic skills. I decided to move the mini-van to a different parking spot. One without oil puddles.

Somewhat anxiously, I did the grocery shopping. Coincidentally, the man behind me in the check-out line said to no one in particular, “Men actually do some things”. I think he meant grocery shopping.

I had an audience, then, and took the opportunity

“My husband is away commercial fishing”, I said.

“I have been noticing for the past couple of  weeks just how much he did around the house when he was home”.

I talked about the cat litter box issue until I noticed that random strangers in line started to look uncomfortable.

Groceries bagged and paid for, I pushed the grocery cart back to the mini-van. A quick glance under the vehicle reassured me, somewhat, that the mini-van was not the cause of the oil leak earlier.

Traditionally, my husband is in charge of the oil changes in our vehicles. Lately though, I have been.

It is important to be able to know how to do many things. Cooking, grocery shopping, oil changes, laundry, banking, … life skills.

Men and women can both be competent in these areas. On dry land.

Just as men and women can both be competent in many areas on a boat. If they choose to be.

In my earlier years, I spent a lot of time commercial fishing. It is very physically demanding at times, that particular career choice. No more, though, and no less than “seasonally single-parenting” children and running a household at home.

It is just a different kind of work.

Circa 1990. Back during the 24-hour long-line halibut openers in SE Alaska. My husband and I became adept at participating in long-line openers – without a crew. Just he and I landed this 300 + lb halibut, along with the rest of the fish on that opener. I am 24-years-old in this photo. Yakutat, Alaska. Photo credit – Allan Richardson

Did the fish photo grab your attention?

Yeah, it is a big fish. Care to guess how large gonads are in a halibut that size? Think coconut. Each one. You’ll be in the ball park.

That big halibut is definitely cool, way cooler than talking about running households and cleaning cat boxes.

So it is when I contemplate my life.

The coolest thing I have ever done is to raise kids. It is also cool to be a commercial fisherman. Both jobs are tough!

This year, one or both of our kids may be aboard the Saint Jude. Commercially fishing.

I expect other fishermen to cut my husband some slack when he has the kids on the boat. They may or may not. It is a competitive industry.

He will neither be the greatest dad, when the kids are on the boat, nor will he be the greatest commercial fisherman. Both jobs require an intense amount of work and focus.

The best a fishing boat captain/dad can do is to try and  find a good balance.

It is the very same for me as a mother.

Finding a balance. Instilling a work ethic in our kids. Staying focused on commercial fishing. Just like any other set of parents in  any other career field.

Sometimes my  life is routine, rather boring.

Sometimes big fish bite!

Finding the balance is where it is at.

Being a commercial fishing family – it’s cool!

 

You can learn more about our fishing family business at http://www.freshfrozenfish.net

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gut Feelings, Salt Water and The Port Angeles Fishing Fleet (past and present)

Pink petals from the ornamental plum tree floated by on a Southwest breeze outside the window, catching the eye of the fisherman’s wife inside. The grass was still damp, water droplets on the ends of the waving emerald grass blades glistening in the sun.

The fisherman had already left for the marina, dropping the boy off at school on the way. He was busy tracking down the reason for why the generator, freshly rewound, was producing too much voltage. The cell phone was a constant companion.

The generator issue would get sorted. The fisherman’s wife knew that. She knew to focus on mowing the lawn. Focus on keeping home life stable for the family.

It was transition time.

The fisherman expected to be starting the season in about two weeks. He’d be gone from home then. For possibly weeks at a time. He’d be away from the family, mostly, til the boy was out of school for the summer and able to go fishing. The fisherman’s wife expected to be back on the boat then also. The daughter was now an adult. Old enough to take care of herself either on the boat or at home on land. It was her responsibility to choose where to spend her time.

The boat haul-out had gone well.

All the troubles from a SE Alaska grounding in Icy Bay, a number of fishing seasons before, had finally been completely resolved over the past few Springs in the boat yard.

It was a relief, to the fisherman and his wife, that things were back to the way they should be.

A quick haul-out.

A new stern bearing zinc and fresh blue bottom paint. The red boot stripe giving a nod to the past.

The master welder in the Port of Port Angeles Boatyard had been enlisted to repair a hole in the hull. The one which had happened in a head-on collision, in fog, in California two summers before. The new aluminum pole work brightly reflected the sun. Holes in the generator exhaust pipe had been found in the engine room.

Serious business. Life-threatening.

Holes in exhaust pipe, especially in an engine room, are very bad. Potentially deadly. A local fisherman that the fishing couple had known years before, had died due to carbon monoxide poisoning in an enclosed wheelhouse of a boat. It was why a carbon monoxide detector had been installed on their boat.

The fisherman’s wife had known, earlier that year, that the boat needed to be home for Spring boat work. A gut feeling. She did not know why until she saw the holes in the old exhaust pipe.

Those gut feelings. Any fisherman, any parent, any master craftsman responsible for repairing a working boat – pays attention to them.

In the commercial fishing industry, gut feelings are often the difference between life and death.

After the exhaust pipe had been replaced, there had been a very short impromptu meeting in the boatyard the day that the fisherman and his wife watched their boat being re-launched. For the fisherman, it would be the 45th consecutive Spring that he had been involved in putting a commercial fishing boat in the water. As for his wife, she did not know any different. She had been raised in the fleet.

The master welder was at the small gathering. Also, a newer commercial fisherman that made most of his money in a white collar trade. The new guy had just hauled his boat and was getting ready to pressure hose the bottom. His coding partner was there too.

It was the coding partner that the fisherman’s wife had the most respect for when it came to trolling. He was one of the last. One of the last commercial salmon trollers left in the Port Angeles fleet. He said so himself. He was also one of the last to get into fishing having started as a partner with a brother, and also learning the trade as a deckhand.

It was a near impossible task anymore.

Good boats and permits had become too expensive for most young folks to break into the trade. He had done it the hard way, the old way, the traditional way. That is why the fisherman’s wife respected him so much.

He had crewed for one of the greatest salmon trolling highliners that the West Coast would ever produce. His former captain was one of the “Royal Family”. At 91-years-old, this skipper had passed away just a few weeks before.

The “Royal Family” of the West Coast troll fleet.

The last one of the foursome still living, out of the four highliners in the West Coast troll fleet that comprised “The Royal Family”, was the main subject during that mucky muck meeting in the Port Angeles Boatyard that day. He was an icon, this now 93-year-old master fisherman, all agreed.

The best of the best.

There was no one in the Port Angeles fishing fleet, past or present, that did not look up to him. No one.

A week before the fisherman’s wife made it a point to go with her man and her young son, to meet him, where he was currently residing in a nursing home.

To thank him.

She did not have much of a chance, to extend gratitude. The wise mentor was still teaching. Without missing a beat from their last visit,  the retired master fisherman  asked her husband what he did when he wasn’t working on the boat.  He talked about how he himself had cleared property for a Girl Scout camp out at Lake Sutherland because his two daughters were Girl Scouts.

The mentor said, “You can’t work on the boat every day”.

In that moment, the fisherman’s wife had a strong gut feeling that she and her husband would grow old together.

Moving forward a week, back into the boat yard. A plan was made, in the Port Angeles Boatyard that day, to visit the retired fleet elder. How to support his wife. As often as possible. All agreed, there was a need to give back.

A copy of the historical West Coast trolling documentary, “Coming Home Was Easy”, was handed to the new guy in the fleet, now getting ready for his third fishing season. A Jimmi Hendrix hoochie along with it.

Another copy of the commercial fishing  documentary would be put on the hatch cover of a 47′ wood troller tied up in the Port Angeles boat basin within the next few days. For the fellow that fished the boat. One of the best salmon trollers that the West Coast fishing fleet would likely ever produce. His former skipper was interviewed in that documentary.

The title of that West Coast fishing documentary, “Coming Home Was Easy”, were words that belonged to the father of the fisherman’s wife.

She typed on the laptop keyboard the Oregon State University web-address of where the video could be purchased:

http://seagrant.oregonstate.edu/sgpubs/coming-home-was-easy-video

In the video, she knew, was video footage of a cherry tree. It represented the cherry tree in the backyard of the Port Angeles home where she grew up.

The fisherman’s wife looked out the window. The breeze had backed off and the blossoms from the plum tree in the backyard had quit falling. The grass was drying and she needed to mow the lawn.

She hoped her daughter would fish with her husband that upcoming season. At least for a trip. Everyone in the boatyard agreed, that would be good. Living on the boat would come back to her first-born. The fisherman’s wife felt that in her gut. She knew. The fishing couple had taken their  daughter up the Inside Passage, from Port Angeles, when she was an 8-month-old baby.  Their girl would fish the entire season with them that year, in SE Alaska for 5 1/2 months, away from their house in Sequim, WA.

The fisherman’s wife hoped her son would have a chance to fish a boat on his own before the Port Angeles fishing fleet disappeared entirely. She hoped it never would. Disappear entirely. That future, however, was not for her to know.

My husband and son with an ocean-caught King Salmon aboard the Saint Jude. Fishing Season 2013.

She had kids to think about. Boat kids.

Fishing is in the blood. Once a boat kid, always a boat kid.

The fisherman’s wife had that very conversation with the master welder that had fixed the boat. He had been a fisherman in Canada, near the Yukultas, decades before. A salmon troller. His boys had spent time fishing on his boat when they were very young. Once again, the trust the fisherman and his wife had placed in him to make the boat right, would quite possibly mean the difference between a good fishing season and a poor fishing season. His work, the difference between life and death.

The master welder, too, had been given a copy of “Coming Home Was Easy”.

Salt Water

As she observed the last remaining shimmering water drops on the green blades of grass outside, tears sprang into the eyes of the fisherman’s wife. The hue of her tears held exactly the same rainbow colors, reflecting in the light, as that on the scales of a fresh ocean-caught King Salmon.