Day 1

Went to Thorne bay to get another washer as the one I got here wasn’t working right. It would start but then randomly quit for some reason. The kid there was moving to another place and needed to get rid of this one. He said it worked. $50. Real nice guy. Brian knew him of course. Then when I got there he helped me load it and wouldn’t take any money!

The guy was in his 30s I’d guess. He was the water treatment plant operator for the city. Said he’d grown up there, moved outside as a Marine, and when he saw what other parts of the country had to offer, realized his town was where he wanted to be, so he got his water treatment certifications and has a good job at home.

He’d got a deer a few days earlier, but had hiked 8 miles the day before yesterday and not seen anything. About same as me on that day. So made me feel like it’s not just me not seeing any deer.

On the hour drive home, I saw a truck with a four wheeler in the bed and a fork horn on the back of the four wheeler. Good for them.

When I got home, this washer did same thing as the first one! So now I think it’s the GFI outlet it’s plugged into. So I swapped outlets. And I think that IS it. I think low voltage or something since the shed is just powered by the extension cord. It worked after that, I think. I am going to unplug the freezer when running laundry, too. I think I’m narrowing the washer problem down, anyway. And eventually they do finish washing and it’s so worth it.

The clothes dry overnight hung in front of the heat pump and makes the place smell good as a bonus. Running the dehumidifier full time helps them dry, and has stopped dripping from the windows, too.

Day 2

Did some tidying up in shed. Ordered some high quality ear plugs to use instead of the ear muffs.

Day 3

Hunted a new island with Brian and Steve. Set a halibut skate on the way out. Pouring rain and not much wind.

They dropped me off and Steve gave me a rundown of what to expect. I hiked a mile up the hill to a beautiful muskeg on the ridge. Called for about 45 minutes and saw nothing. No rubs, either.

Headed back down the hill and got to the beach at 1 pm pick up time. I took my phone off so not disturb and see the boys changed pickup to 130.

I was soaked from outside in and inside out. I changed out to dry clothes from the ditch bag left on the beach. Ahhhhh. That’s better. I sat there warm and dry in the wilderness considering how lucky I am, deer or no deer.

Tonight was siblings zoom hour. I haven’t participated in a month or two, and had enough signal to jump on. I was only on for about a minute when Brian and Steve came around the point to get me. But the boat kept going. I thought then maybe it was my friend Mike who has a similar boat. Nope. They both just forgot where they dropped me. I was waving my orange dry bag the whole time and finally Steve saw it, as Brian is color blind. I signed off the zoom meeting and moved down to the waters edge for pickup.

We ran some beaches on the way back to the skate and didn’t see any deer. But oh, the whales. Humpback whales everywhere. And I was wrong about them. They aren’t on their way to Hawaii but most stay here according to the boys, who would know better than I.

We got one dogfish on the skate and that was it. We got back to the harbor and mercifully there was no rain. We dropped Steve at his house, then the skies let loose, with heavy rain and some hail mixed in, all the way to my house.

I took my wet clothes and learned another lesson about washers. The drain hose has to be elevated above the machine, or it just drains out as fast as it fills! It was not a power issue, but simply that! As as soon as I elevated the drain hose, the washer ran like it should – filling up, and then to the wash cycle. More tuition paid. And now I have two working washers.

My sister in law just called me to come over for dinner. Also said she saw a spike in my driveway today while I was out seeing nothing. That’s funny.

Smoked salmon chowder for dinner was fantastic. I’ll sleep well tonight.

Day 4

Drove across the island to a muskeg at the top of a hill. Only I never could find it. But good to get out of the container for awhile as the storm approaches.

Day 5

Storm is here. Supposed to blow 45 and gusts to 60 this evening. I took some little ladles to the thrift store, and saw our good friend Vic there. Then stopped to talk to Chet about an outboard, then to the grocery store and hardware store.

I dismantled my hunting pack to remove the internal flat bars, then ran it through the washer. I bought quick connects at the hardware store so I can easily change the garden hose from one washer to the other. The front loader will work better for big items like to the pack, and the top loader for regular clothes. The pack looked like brand new when I took it from the washer.

I did a load of regular laundry after switching the water. Later, I put a piece of left over electric conduit out the building, then put the drain hoses from both washers in the other end, at height. When I leave for Juneau, I can just pull the drains out and lower them and that should drain the washers so they don’t freeze.

Storm is cranking up. Likely a few days before I can hunt again.

Day 6

Blow came for real. Surely seemed like 60 kt winds and might have been higher. Power went out just before 8 pm. At 5 am, I got another heavy blanket as the container was getting cold. 630 am I put some water on to boil on the propane stove, and dressed in long underwear and heavy Carhartts and fleece socks. 7 am the power returned.

I walked around to survey any damage. Joyfully, not a drip around the windows. The welded frames seem watertight.

Outside, the ladder leaning against the shed luckily fell harmlessly to the right, and not the left where it would have landed on the hood or windshield of the truck.

The cell antenna had spun around to the opposite direction.

The punt blew out of the skiff, but luckily I had the bow of it tied off to the gunnel rail in the skiff so it lay beside the skiff and there was no damage to the punt.

The back canvas wall of the skiff had pulled away from the wheel house frame in a few places and the zipper pulled out a bit.

Got tools, screws, and wire ties together and started in on the repairs one by one. Took less than an hour to take care of everything, except did not tackle sewing the zipper.

Brother in law called to go deer hunting, and off we went on a side by side atv. We stopped at a muskeg on the way to where my nephew in law and his buddy got deer last year.

Brian called several times on his call. Then I blasted a call from mine. And here comes a doe. She hung around while we waited but no bucks with her.

We continued to where we thought the nephew’s spot was. When we thought we found it, there was a big problem. The muskegs were down some steep terrain. Maybe a spot two 30 somethings would want to pack out a deer. But not two 60 somethings, each with a bad hip.

We got off the ATV and walked aways to see if we could find some country to hunt. Too steep uphill one side of the road, and too steep downhill on the other.

On the walk back, I had trouble negotiating a small creek, and went down right on my elbow and forearm. Like falling in ice. Lots of pain. And gun slammed down next to me. It’s going to need to be sighted in again.

I got up in a lot of pain, and sort of shock. I tried it out. I could bend the elbow. I could rotate my forearm. Looks like just a bruise. It hurt like hell for the next 30 minutes or so, but finally the pain eased.

We rode back in pouring rain. I got home to a warm room and so grateful for a hot shower. Then ice on the forearm, with a cup of coffee and banana bread.
Went to Jen and Bill’s for dinner. Brian, their boys, and I peeled shrimp for half an hour. Then Brian got to deep frying them. I brought jarred smoked salmon, kelp relish, pickled peppers and onions, and crackers I put out for horsderves. The youngest son had worked up the Berners River sampling coho salmon, a trip of a lifetime I was lucky enough to do twice during my career. The wives and girlfriend showed up and the food was all ready to eat. Lots of leftover shrimp, and I got a bag. Tomorrow’s storm starting tonight.

Scout dad Marc was in town from Juneau on business and stayed an extra day to go deer hunting.

I saved my honey hole for him, and didn’t hunt there til today. On the turn to the spot, there were about a dozen humpback whales.

It was another beautiful day. We offloaded our gear. Since the wind was calm and the tide near low, I just put the anchor on the bow, pushed the boat out, and pulled off the anchor.

We hiked all day – 4+ miles – and hunted some of the nicest country I’ve ever hunted, and didn’t call up a single deer until we got full circle back to the first muskeg we started in, and Marc called up a doe.

I staggered well behind Marc back to the beach. When I could see the beach, I could see the boat was beached. An onshore breeze came up, and although we got back in time for the boat to be floating in it’s original anchored position, the fine gravel bottom didn’t hold the anchor. We got back about an hour too late.

I immediately texted my neighbor the situation so he would not come looking for us. We were gonna be here awhile. I should have anchored the boat well offshore in the large kelp patch to be sure we’d have a floating boat upon our return. Pilot error.

I changed out from my wet clothes to the dry ones in the ditch bag. Then took an inventory of food. A jar of smoked salmon, two granola bars, tea bags and coffee, and almost 3 quarts of water, along with the coffee left in the thermos from the ride out today.

Low tide wasn’t for another 3 hours. Marc took a beach walk with his gun, as we had another hour til sunset.

He returned at sundown, and the temperature quickly dropped to about freezing. We put on more clothes as we needed them. The famous boat heater is out of commission til I get a new controller switch from Amazon. Of course it is.

We talked and listened to some podcasts from Marc’s phone. At low tide, I took the anchor all the way out to the waters edge and buried it, then tied the anchor rode tight to the bow eye shackle. I wanted maximum holding power so when the tide came back in, it would not push the boat further up the beach. In theory, we could pull ourselves out to the anchor once the tide refloated us.

Seven hours later, we floated and pulled ourselves out to the anchor. We went the long way home as I was worried about running into the whales at the entrance to the channel. The big moonlight on the water allowed us to see quite well looking out for logs and kelp. Like running somewhere at dawn.

We arrived at the boat ramp a little after midnight. Another misadventure for the memory book.

Arrival day – got to our flat in Porto. It’s a block or two up from the Duoro River. Really cool place. There’s a non-descript (to me, anyway) door on this line of shops at street level. You enter the door code to get into the building. Then a staircase and a little elevator that goes up 5 floors. When we got to the 4th floor, our room was the only one, right out of the elevator. We entered the door code and in we came to a cool apartment. One bedroom, one bath, a nice compact kitchen alongside a living room with a couch and TV. We had a very narrow veranda out the window doors looking down the hill and could see the river at the end of the narrow street. I think the verandas are made for people to smoke on, as not really wide enough to even put a chair out there, but maybe. The place reminds of one of my favorite shows,Doc Marten, on PBS.

Day 1. Walked across the river to the Port district. Had tapas for lunch there. Walked back. I think about 2.8 miles total walk.

Day 2. Went to Afruada fishing village. Had great dorado and robalo fish, grilled over charcoal. These are either different species, or much smaller ages than dorado and robalo in the Pacific. Nice museum there of the history of the place. The town was a bunch of apartment buildings that were about 3 stories. Women of the village still wear a type of apron as a sort of everyday uniform while walking around their town. We walked from there back to Port district. About 3.5 miles. Then took an uber home.

Day 3. Walked up to the market in the middle of town. Had the 8 canned seafood sampler on crackers. Great idea for a Juneau business. We put in almost 7 miles today walking!  Didn’t seem like it. And maybe wasn’t. Not sure if the GPS tracker works exactly right for measuring distance.

Day 4. Walked up to our new hotel, where we met  another state senators and his spouse. Sara and the wife went walking around while I yakked with the senator until our rooms were ready for occupation. Eventually the third member of the state delegation – another senator – and his wife arrived. When Sara returned, our room was ready and we napped til dinner. Dinner was at a high end place a couple blocks from the hotel. I had a Portuguese dish called a francesinha, which is sort of a sandwich of cured meats encased in cheese with a weak tomato sauce and an egg on top. Very disappointing. I didn’t finish half of it, which never happens with me. The appetizers of octopus salad and a sort of shrimp cake were good, so not like I went away hungry. I think I was expecting the francesinha to be more savory or sweet or spicy or something, but it was very bland. Even the cheese was bland.  I was going to order my old standby of fried cod, but thought I better try the local dish.

Day 5. Toured a family owned fish processor Soguima in Guimaraes, Portugal. They do lots of products with salt cod and octopus, and also do some products with Alaska pollock and other species. After the tour, they fed us a pile of different dishes with their products. They have a chef on staff that works in a food laboratory as far as I could tell. Then an hour and a half ride to the sea again to Vigo. Only saw one bird at the fish plant, and just chickens near houses otherwise, along the way. Not sure why, as there’s lots of trees and vegetation?  Just another pleasant day here.

Interesting hearing the marketing staff talk about the current poor market conditions for Alaska salmon from the “glut” of wild salmon on the market, and issues with Russia salmon and China processing. When I mentioned that much of our fish went to China for processing, I was told it was just pink and chum salmon because those two species didn’t command a price on the market to justify paying for processing in Alaska. It made me realize we are still marketing what we catch, instead of catching for the market. Pink salmon, in particular, can garner good retail prices if it’s handled to achieve high quality, instead of high quantity. We proved that when we were selling pink fillets, and Yakobi Fisheries is proving it again now with their high quality pink salmon fillet sales. The fishing mentality of catching as many fish as possible at some baseline acceptable quality standard for which the fish can be made into some low value product works some years and others it doesn’t, based on catches by similar methods of the same species in other parts of the Pacific and other market forces. If fishermen caught the fish to meet a quality standard that would garner a higher price point, they could earn more money on fewer fish, but that will never happen. It’s just not in most fishermen’s wheelhouse to do more than catch.  And it’s why the market – especially the US domestic market – is wide open for fishermen and processors that do want to produce high quality pink salmon fillets and direct market them to niche markets.

Day 6. Attended the big seafood show CONXEMAR in Vigo, Spain.  I felt a little under dressed in my brand new green coveralls with green Carhart shirt until a sophisticated woman I’d guess was in her early 60’s – apparently well known in the cod seafood market and dressed to the nines like she could be attending the academy awards – stopped in to the ASMI booth. An ASMI rep introduced us, and she commented on how great my “look” was. That made my whole day. I learned a lot at the show, seeing all the products represented, and listening to the ASMI executives talk to other seafood representatives about issues in the salmon market, in particular, about things I’d never think about, such as increased bank interest rates.

Late in the afternoon we visited a surimi plant, Pescanova, in town. Great tour. The plant produces crab stick, baby eels, and a breaded “crab claw” from surimi, and sells most of it’s product solely in Spain. They use surimi made from Alaska pollock for much of their production. We sampled some surimi “noodles” that were like fettuchini noodles, along with some “baby eel” and both were very good. Later in the week, though, Sara ordered an octopus dish that both of us agreed was not octopus, but surimi, and it was very average.

Day 7. Toured a shellfish farm and processor in Galacia owned by four generations of a family, Jose Mª Daporta Leiro e Hijos S.L. in Cambados, Spain. They do their oyster culture by gluing 3 oysters on spot on ropes, and unlike anything I’ve seen anywhere in Alaska. Interesting. Then we had a 12 course meal at a restaurant run by the oyster plant family relatives. Fantastic shellfish, fish, and one chicken dish. Global warming is slowing killing the oysters on the farms, and causing the farmers to move more towards mussels. Higher ocean temperatures combined with increased rains causing a higher influx of freshwater to the inlet are a one-two punch in killing the oysters.

Day 8. Had a multi-course dinner again today after touring Santiago. Just as we were to sit down, Tom and Sarah Morgan stuck their head in the window!  I’d given up hope we’d actually find each other in Santiago, but there we were. They came in and ate with us. The dinner included oysters, shrimp, mussels, roast octopus, fish, gooseneck barnacles, and tuna. I may have forgotten one or two others.

Day 9. Headed from Vigo back to Porto. Stopped at Gimares for a tour with Manuel from the company that starts with S that we toured earlier in the week. Another huge lunch with so many different plates of seafood. His sister Zita joined us. She is 7 years younger than her brother, and we had an interesting conversation about her time spent in Mozambique working for the company business there. They raise crocodiles and cattle. The leather of the crocs is shipped to Europe and the meat is sold locally. We never got to talking about the cattle.

Rest of trip: Took train to Lisbon for a few days. Lots of spectacular sculptures and old buildings at this very strategic location. Not my thing really, but very impressive in person, I must say. Took train back to Porto and stayed at the city centre Holiday Inn overnight. Very nice staff, but hotel rooms somewhat noisy through the walls from doors closing, etc. Another major first world problem to fix.

The hotel is located on a cool pedestrian strip with restaurants and a little shopping mall with a nice grocery store. We had dinner at the first restaurant we came to a block away because the smell coming from it was so good. I had pork ribs and Sara pork tenderloins. Bock stout is a very good beer.

We spent the night at the Heathrow airport hotel. Most comfortable bed of the trip. Had I not been with Sara, I’d have slept in the airport and had a miserable overnight like I always do.

So, lasting impressions of Portugal and Spain were lots of tatoos, mostly on the younger folks. Cigarette smoking is still a thing over all ages. The “Mediterranean Diet”, if that’s what it is, of cured meats and cheese and seafood and olives and olive oil and fruits and wine seems to work. As I observed in my only other trip to Europe (to Iceland), I noticed a lot less obesity here than in the US (or my household………).

I did the physical therapy exercises faithfully each day for my hip bursitis. I might go to bed with a sore hip in the evening, but each morning I would wake up and have it a little better than the day before.   Almost a new lease on life, as they say. I was getting pretty scared it would never get back to good for hunting and firewood cutting and other labors of love.

My Keen boots finally gave up the ghost. My right foot started hurting a few days into the trip. I couldn’t figure out why. I’d hiked miles and miles in these boots, and so that didn’t strike me as the problem at first. Seemed like the foot neuroma was coming back, and I remembered that it was caused by a cramped toe box on my cross country ski boots. The only other foot ware I had with me were my Crocs. I switched to wearing them full time and determined my boots WERE the problem. So, many miles in Crocs and black socks later, the neuroma turned around. I left the boots on the step of the hotel at the Lisbon train station in case someone with size 16s and narrower feet needed a fresh pair of wheels, as the boots were still in decent shape.   With all the miles we walked on the trip – and alot of it uphill – I’m itching to get down to Craig for deer hunting and salal berry picking.

We’ll also remember the Hamas attacks in Israel and know that, like Afghanistan and Iraq,  this is not going to end well. There can be no military solution there. It would have happened already if there were.

Traveling back from these trips, I reflect with gratitude how lucky I am to get to do them. I don’t feel like I’ve “earned it” or “deserve it”. Most people will never get to do these things, simply because they were born in a less prosperous country or different life or health or family situation here in the states. We’re also luckier than so many of our friends, who because of genetics or their environment or being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or just plain fate, didn’t live to older age and retirement and have the time they always looked forward to to do these things.

Jesse was in town for 3 days of fishing. A perfect trip length I think, although we can’t run down to Tenakee. Jesse was my last out of town guest for the summer.

We caught seven coho the first day, and five the second. And none today, the third!  My first fish skunk day this summer. And we fished for miles and miles. Had several hits that released the line from the downrigger, but no fish. Only saw about 3 fish caught all day by the many boats we passed.

This was the third straight trip (and fourth trip overall as the first trainee was Jesse’s wife Hanni) of training the crew on the first few fish caught how to properly bleed them in water, clean the fish, then chill and later fillet them. I then turned them loose to take care of their fish the rest of the trip. Wow, has that been a good move. I can see the crew improve with each day, gain confidence in their fish butchering skills, and increasingly understand the importance of all the simple, but necessary, steps to make great fish for themselves.

We spent both nights at the Funter Bay dock. The first night a Prince of Wales Islander couple offered us some cooked dungeness crab. They must know I can’t catch legal crabs. These looked kinda small and feminine, but how can you be sure when they are already cooked.

Jesse took the punt to the beach on the second night to check out the remains of some buildings. A sailboat I recognized from Harris Harbor in Juneau tied up to us later that night, operated by a couple more elderly than me. When I got up in the middle of the night, I saw their bow was pointed into the bay, with only the stern tied up. I wasn’t sure if they did this on purpose to take the numerous cruise ship wakes head on, or if they had just not tied up their boat properly. Later when I got up to go again, the boat was along the dock again, so I thought maybe I was seeing things. The next time I got up to go – yes, I have an appointment with the urologist next week – the boat was pointed out again, and the lone late-20’s something guy in the small sailboat in front of us was coming down the dock in bare feet and pulling the couple’s sailboat back alongside the dock. This is when I realized it wasn’t tied up right, and I jumped out in my bare feet and helped him tie up their boat. The couple never roused. Maybe the comforts of old age like poor hearing are something to look forward to.

I set the halibut skate three times. Once with “can’t miss” octopus, which did miss and bait was gone. The other two times the skate was baited with fish heads. Our honey hole has soured, so time to find a new set.

We used the salmon remains after filleting to really load up the crab pot. I finally got a full day+ soak, instead of just overnight, and most of the pots in the bay that were there earlier in the summer were gone. When we pulled the pot this morning, we had a keeper!  And a second that was a 1/16 inch too small, but at least it was a male. And a couple females that looked remarkably similar to the crab offered us by the Prince of Waler. That single keeper was our only keeper of any kind for the day, and ended up being our highlight reel!

Today, we fished the mouth of Funter Bay for nothing. Then steamed north and fished Cordwood Creek almost to Point Retreat for nothing. Then fished Hand Trollers Cove for nothing. Thank goodness for one dungeness crab in the morning!

I’ll hope to take the West Africans and Ukranians for a trip or two before the cohos run out, which I hope hasn’t happened already. Funny how one day of catching nothing sends all kinds of gloom and doom prognostications into your conversations, only to be replaced by it’s the best run ever the next day when the fish come to the net one after another. I do love this place.