This is up piling gear on the back deck. Me on corks, Tommy on web, and Sean piling leads. John our skipper brings in the net, and controls how fast we’re going to stack it.
Corks float the net. 250 fathoms worth of web, and the lead line is sinking the net. Halfway through hauling, the purse line comes, this closes off the bottom of the net, so at this point nothing can escape. The process of bringing in this net can look easier than it is.
Here’s a tour of the boat. We were underway in two days. So last minute stages of cleanup. Excuse the mess.
First four day opener of the year. 18 hour days of fishing. Floating five days. We were headed North to Hidden Falls, but we broke our throttle cable to the main engine. Blessing in Disguise. The food this opener was delicious.
Food budget of $5,000 dollars. Shopping at Costco and storing it on the boat. Canlis Restaurant was kind enough to let me use their kitchen and equipment. I was able to buy whole cuts of beef and pork and fabricate portion and kryovac to portions of five.
Before leaving Seattle I ate at Canlis Restaurant, and Willows Inn at Lummi Island. Here are some shots of the food.
On June 21st 2011 we left Seattle, Washington. Four days up the inside passage to Ketchikan, Alaska. Five guys, 58 foot Fishing Vessel, 80 days, $5,000 worth of food, on a mission to catch a million pounds of wild salmon. This is an intense business. I have spent the last eleven years of my life in restaurants, lived in five states all over the country. I feel like I have seen everything. Until this. I am the cook onboard. I am responsible for keeping a $5,000 food budget over the next three months. Feeding five hungry guys four times everyday. Changing in and out of rain gear 15 to 20 times . From piling the quarter mile long net on the stern of the boat, to pulling my bacon out of the oven as it gets crispy for the 25 minutes of piling gear. Food is what I know, it’s what I am comfortable doing. Mix in the most dangerous job in the world every twenty minutes and it is going to be interesting. This is my summer.
catchingalaska 
