Jul 03 2012
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Week One

The first week in Ugashik, Alaska have been eventful and a huge learning curve.  One of the main things I learned was how dangerous rope is.  

The first thing that happened to me was get hit by rope. Twice.  The current pulls the net so the  rope snaps back hitting me in the neck then again in the side of the head a few minutes later.  The most dangerous thing that happened was when we were putting the line into a roller.  A roller is something that is used to help you move up and down a line.   We put the line in there causing a lot of tension. The line slipped out of the roller, pushing me overboard.  Everything is fine.  I got out of the water quickly but now I can say that I fell in the Bering Sea.

It has been hard work since I’ve been here and should get harder.  I have new respect for fisherman.  It is not easy.  Before we start each day, we need to know when the day “opens”.  What that means is the authorities tell us what time and how long we can fish for.  They keep count of how many salmon make it up stream and need to hit a quota.  The openings have been really early this past week.  They have been 4:30, 5:30, 6:30, and 7:30 openings with 8-10 hour days.  These are the times we’re allowed to put the nets in the water so we prepare beforehand.  

Fishing has been decent for early in the season.  we been averaging around 1400 pounds a day.  When we are in the middle of the season, we should be doing 10-20 thousand pounds with fishing open 24 hours.  This means working around the clock, tons of fish, and possible encounters with bears.

I have really enjoyed what I’ve done and learned this past week.  I’ve done a lot of things I’ve never done before and seen a lot more I’ve never seen before.  There will be lots more new and different experiences to come.

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

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Jun 28 2012
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Ugashik, AK

The idea of me being a fisherman did not cross my mind until a month ago. I had found out that a few of my friends were going to Ugashik to work for a cannery. It has never really crossed my mind that I wanted to work for a cannery but knowing they were going made it easy to decide to join them there.

Initially, I was just going to process the fish. This was fine by me as I wanted to do something completely different than I’m used to but a sudden change of events has put me on the boat. This was just the adventure I have been looking for with a bonus of it being in Alaska.

The trip here took roughly 24 hours, all of which was daylight. I went from Atlanta to Denver to Seattle to Anchorage. I slept at the Anchorage airport among many other people. Almost all benches and seats were taken up by people sleeping. From there I took a small plane King Salmon. At King Salmon, I took an even smaller plane to Pilot Point and Ugashik. This plane fit me, the pilot, and another passenger plus our bags. Because there are so few flights to Pilot Point and Ugashik, the plane carried each town’s mail. The flights from Seattle to Ugashik were gorgeous. It’s not like anything I’ve seen before. The mountains, volcanoes, rivers/streams, bays, and wetlands.

Finally, after six flights, I arrive in Ugashik. This place is tiny. The whole town is one mile long. The population per the census 2010 was 12. I said my hellos and was put in rain gear. I jumped in the boat and helped put our nets out. After we finished, I could finally settle into my new surroundings. We had to wait for the nets to do its job. After dinner, we went to collect the fish from the nets. It is still a little early in the season so the catch was not large.

So here I am now. Relaxing at 10pm. Still bright outside and ready to pass out but, we still got to go pull the nets in.

By the way, I’ll fill in the posts with pictures when I have a chance, the internetz is limited here. I can only post pictures between 1230 am and 530 am. I don’t think I’ll be able to stay awake that late tonight.

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Jun 20 2012
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Travel

So the Journey Begins

This is where I will write about my travels and really whatever the hell I want.

My tentative itinerary is as follows:

Ugashik, AK, USA

Bangkok -> Ayuthaya, Thailand

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Ho Chi Minh City -> Dalat -> Hoi An -> Hanoi, Vietnam

Luang Prabang -> Luang Nam Tha -> Muang Sing -> Tham Kong Lo, Laos

Chiang Mai -> Pai -> Mae Hong Son -> Sukhothai -> Bangkok, Thailand

Beijing -> Shanghai, China

Taipei, Taiwan

I don’t know the details of what I will be doing in each of these countries so if anyone has any ideas of what I should see when I am in SE Asia, it would be very helpful.  My schedule will be extremely flexible and I am open to anything.

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