Took the little brother of my high school classmate and his wife whale watching and fishing on the tug today. They split their time between Florida and Montana, where the wife is from. Had a great time hearing their life stories. They are on a tour of Alaska, and spent over a week touring the rainy, cold railbelt, then got to Juneau on our first rain in weeks. It was lightly raining in the morning, but by afternoon, the rain stopped and we got some sun.
We saw lots of whales on our way, and then fished Pt Retreat down to Cordwood, then made a couple passes at Cordwood, and then back to Retreat. We caught 3 coho and only one pink. And not many pinks jumping. This was a far cry from a week ago, when we didn’t go 15 minutes it seemed without a pink on. Hard to believe the pink run peaked that fast and is over. It was good while it lasted. The coho were decent sized, but not much in their stomachs.
I’d adjusted the stuffing box nut in the tug, and moved the bilge pump to a location deeper than the float switch. Now instead of the bilge pump going off every hour, the less dripping and more efficient pump location only triggered it once all day. Another tug system learned.
The couple only wanted enough fish to eat for dinner tonight, so we dropped the rest of the fish off to the Conteh’s. The wife had been to Sierra Leone through her church during the Civil War time and so was glad to meet the Sierra Leoneons.
A great day all around and glad to meet some good people.