Northeast 30 to 40

I'm safe and sound back at the Pruitt house on Island Lake in Kodiak, Alaska. It'll be hard to put into words what a great experience going out on the boat was in the space available here, but I'll give it a go. The ride out to the Captain Kidd took fourteen hours. It was supposed to take five, but we ended up extemporaneously circumnavigating the island (Sitkalidak, not Kodiak) before heading back north to the spot where Dale was working aboard the Captain Kidd.

By the time we arrived, it was past midnight and Dale and the rest of the crew of the Captain Kidd were happily sleeping aboard their boat after a long day of salmon seining. We pulled up alongside the 58 foot seiner in our 107 foot vessel with lights and engines blaring, and not one of them woke up. So I grabbed the giant duffel bag that Mindy packed for me and jumped aboard in the night. Entering the cabin, I didn't want to wake any cranky, tired fisherman. So I curled up on a bench and slept until Dale tripped over me on his way to the head at 2 in the morning. He showed me the way to my stateroom (that's right, they saved the stateroom for me!) which was exactly two feet away from where I was sleeping away on my bench.

I slept three more hours (total of about four) before the crew woke up to start fishing. I wiped my crusty eyes and got up to join them. What a day it was for me! They might disagree since the fishing wasn't great, but I got what I was after; a firsthand view of salmon seining. Luckily, the weather was beautiful and calm seas prevailed. I've included some pictures and one video so I hope you enjoy them.

Surely, the weather here will make many of my desert friends envious right now. It is 55 degrees and raining. Yesterday morning, a beautifully eerie fog rolled in over Island Lake as I was sitting in front of the window drinking my coffee. Perfect conditions for writing, so I pecked out two or three new pages of the book. The ending is all I have left in terms of the first draft so I'm getting there. The trip has been beyond all of my expectations in terms of research and fun. I have fallen in love with this area and am fascinated by the salmon fishing that they do here.

Early tomorrow morning Dale will head back out to sea aboard the Captain Kidd so we'll say our goodbyes for another year tonight. I will then spend the day with the Pruitt girls. The highlight of the day will be watching Calista lead cheers for the Kodiak Bears at their football game. Home games are a big deal in this small community. Visiting teams either fly or take a 13 hour ferry ride to get here. It should be fun.

Well I have to sign off since we're getting ready to head out for more adventure. I hope to make one more post before I jump back on the plane on Sunday. It's been a trip to remember, but I miss Traci, Calvin, Natalie, and Sarah back home so I'll be ready. Thanks for taking the time to read the blog. I hope you enjoyed it.

Kodiak Alaska

There are no clouds in the sky and the air is perfectly still this morning in Kodiak, Alaska. Last night Mindy, Mitchell and I sat around the fire pit in front of their house and caught up. Here I am now in the empty Pruitt home and miraculously this morning my computer is online. I was unable to get logged in last night so I couldn't post.

Yesterday began with a three hour nap in the Anchorage airport waiting for my 6:00 AM flight to Kodiak. Mindy picked me up upon my arrival and we spent the morning searching for bears, catching a loose bird in the house (yes it's true!), and talking about the sinking of the Magnum. It's been great to see Mindy, Mitchell, and Calista again. They are special people. I haven't seen Dale yet since he's out catching salmon on board a boat called the Captain Kidd.

Today I am leaving at noon to go spend some time with him on the boat out there. I will go down to a cannerey here in town and hop onto a tender. A tender is a larger boat that ferries fish back and forth from the canneries to the the smaller boats out on the fishing grounds. Using this system, salmon fishermen can spend more time fishing and less time running into to Kodiak and back. The tender called the F/V Pacific Venture will take me on about a six hour run to Dale's boat where I'll get a first person salmon seining experience.

One of the most difficult tasks in writing the first draft of From the Wing to the Wedge has been to describe the fishing they were doing out there without ever having seen it personally. I'll use this experience to enhance those parts of the book and hopefully do a better job of describing what they do out here.

My next post may a few days away since I'm not sure when I'll come back in, but it should include some good pictures. I am posting a picture today of me standing next to the Cornelia Marie of Deadliest Catch fame. It is moored in the large boat harbor here. If you zoom WAY in, you'll see a salty old fisherman standing in front of it. OK, so I'm not salty yet, but just give me a couple hours!

Thanks to those that have signed up as followers to this blog. If you haven't done so yet, please do. I'm not sure exactly what the advantages are of following this blog, but it is kind of cool to see seven followers on there. Also feel free to post comments at the bottom of each blog. Finally, I'll remind again that if you're new to the blog it might be helpful to scroll down and read them in order. Until next time....

-Anchors Aweigh

Raining in Lancaster

It was raining this morning in Lancaster. I woke up at 5:47 with a bit of a headache and threw the last of my belongings into my giant, black suitcase. I have two cameras, some books, three copies of the rough draft, this computer, two giant maps of Alaska rolled up, and my fortune from Panda Express (it said 'don't let unexpected situations throw you', so I decided to bring it along). I also brought multiple pairs of socks, my snazzy new boots, and a bunch of sweat shirts. Packing to go fishing in the Shelikof Strait when it's 101 degrees out is a challenge; especially for a guy who prides himself in packing in under 5 minutes.


Today's post will be short since I'm sitting in Burbank waiting to board for my first leg to Seattle. From there it will be on to Anchorage where I will layover from 1 until 5:30 tomorrow morning. I had grand plans to include pictures and video from Sarah's soccer game this morning, but it looks like that will have to wait since people are beginning to rush the gate here. I'm getting a little nervous!


I talked to my friend Jim this morning and he said this new blog of mine is confusing him. So if you're just jumping in now make sure to go back to the first post and read through to find out what I'm up to. Hopefully that will help. Gotta go catch my flight. More to come tomorrow.

One Day and Counting

Five or six months ago I asked my dad, Bruce, to help me with this project. It had been over one year since my first visit to Kodiak and several months since I had written anything. I was a little stuck. So I asked him. Dad has been writing for over sixty years. His career dates back to Whittier College in the late 40's where he was sports editor of the school newspaper. Now, six decades later he's helping me write my book. How cool is that?

Back in Cheney, Bruce was what we called a 'gym rat'. Thirty or forty years of daily basketball kept his mind alert and his body fit. It also magnanimously earned him the moniker, Doc. Thousands of EWU gym rats will certainly remember an old hooper named Doc. Noon ball was a religion for Dad; noon ball and writing. Growing up he would stay up writing for hours after my sisters and I were in bed.

When Doc came aboard for this project, the first thing we did was to spend two nights camping at Lake Casitas near Ojai, California. We lived in my 1977 Class C motor home affectionately known as, The Leprechaun. Together, we read through the whole book (about 100 pages at the time) out loud. We added some things and subtracted others and by the time we finished there I was revitalized and ready to get back to it. A big thanks to Pops for all the help with this book.

Next came the summer: Three cheers for teacher hours! Over the summer, I've been able to add another 100 or so pages and just have the final chapter left to write.

This trip will be the culminating event of a very productive summer, but I'm glum that my partner won't be joining me. We worked on doing this trip together, but for various reasons, I will be going solo.

I have one more day here in sunny southern California. The air temperature here in the high desert is 101 degrees. The water temperature in the pool is about 82 degrees. That's 35 degrees or so warmer than it was in the Shelikof Strait in June of 2007. I think I'll jump in this nice warm pool one last time for good measure.

To those here in the lower 48, I'll see you soon. The next several days in Kodiak are projected to be in the high 50's. This desert dweller cannot wait!


-Anchors Aweigh

My Return to Kodiak

Hello out there. This is the first post of my first Blog here so bear with me. I thought it might be fun to document the final stages of my writing project. You may or may not be aware that I've spent the better part of two years pecking away at my first novel (OK there's that half-finished one from a few years back, but we're not going to count that one.) At least it looks likely that I'll finish this one so that's the good news I suppose. I hope to have the book completed by the end of 2009.


The picture above is the Kodiak Small Boat Harbor. It's near where the story began on June 18th, 2007 with Skipper Dale Pruitt shoving off for a three to seven day, commercial salmon fishing run aboard the leased vessel F/V Magnum. Dale's three person crew consisted of his niece Cally Rose Pruitt, his son Mitchell, and his daughter Calista. His wife, Mindy had a strange feeling that day as she watched her family pull away from the dock. Similar thoughts raced through Cally Rose's mind aboard the Magnum as she looked from the boat back at the waving Mindy. At the time, they had no way of knowing the peril that awaited them. They would cheat death, and the experience would change their lives; most likely forever.



Alaskan fishing families often tend to be on the superstitious side. But utilitarian needs usually trump creepy feelings when there is money to be made and bills to be paid . Mindy turned to head back to work while Cally Rose and the crew settled in for a fourteen hour deadhead to the fishing grounds.



Dale and Mindy Pruitt are friends of mine from way back at Eastern Washington University in the mid-80's. We hadn't seen each other for twenty years when Mindy contacted me to tell me what had happened to them. This harrowing story of adventure and survival reconnected our friendship when they asked me to partner with them by writing a book about the voyage of the F/V Magnum.



I've thoroughly enjoyed the time spent in pursuit of the goal of publishing my first book. I'm not there yet, but I'm working on it. I am leaving at 6:40 P.M. on Saturday, August 22nd for my second visit to Kodiak. On the first visit I interviewed dozens of people involved in the story and then returned home to write. Now here 21 months or so later I return. In my hand I will carry a 95% completed rough draft.



The book is nonfiction narrative, so on this trip I will sit down with some of the main characters and read through portions of first draft together. I will also go out on a commercial salmon seiner for a couple days (hopefully I won't be too sick!) Finally, I will interview a few more people and do some writing as well. I'll try to blog daily while I'm there so that anyone who's interested can follow along. With any luck in a few months you can look here to find out how to get your very own copy of, From the Wing to the Wedge.



Thanks for reading and look here tomorrow for the next update. Chances are it will be titled, The Day Before the Big Trip or something like that.



-anchor's aweigh