I flew down to Petersburg with Chris yesterday. My first trip there since Paul’s passing. I asked some of Paul’s other friends if they needed anything from Juneau. Steve ordered 2 quarter pounders. I picked those up on the way to the airport, along with a couple large fries.

We got to Petersburg about 230 pm and went right to the boat. Chris owns the Marson’s, a wooden seiner about 50 feet long with a friend Kurt in Petersburg. Kurt told me he went to school with Nina and Nevette, and that Paul had been his favorite teacher. Kurt uses the boat to seine for salmon in the summer, and Chris does some longlining and crabbing with the boat. He also does an annual deer hunt from the boat with his fishing crew and friends and family.

Kurt had installed a new digital compass and other items for the autopilot, and the two of them spent an hour fine tuning it out in Wrangell Narrows. The boat was parked just down the slip from the Cisco, Paul’s boat, which was in its usual shrink wrap for the winter. The girls are going to hang on to it for the time being, and Steve will look after it.

We dropped Kurt back at the dock and headed out to Frederick sound after 4 pm. It was right at dock, and several boats that had been out fishing or hunting were making their way back to the harbor as we departed.

The boat has big sodium lights for seeing out in front of the boat. Sara was concerned we were traveling at night and there might be icebergs like the one Larry and I encountered a couple years ago bringing his boat back from Wrangell. The lights gave us good forward vision for ice bergs and other obstacles, and I felt safe.

Chris and I chatted about his fish business and the state of the fish markets that had been soured for Alaska fish by Russian harvests and by higher interest rates for purchasing fish to process and sell. We also talked about his late dad Eric, who alongside Chris, helped me buy my power troller Dutchmaster, and then Eric helped me rig it and showed me how to troll.

Luckily, I brought food – bagels, some cheese from Portugal, pickled rhubarb, and a pint of my jarred smoked king salmon. Chris had brought coffee. The cupboards were absolutely bare in the boat switch out. Chris really liked the pickled rhubarb and cheese, and said the rhubarb really complimented the smoked salmon.

We yakked til about midnight, when Chris said one of us should take a nap. I said he could, as I felt pretty good. He laid down on the bunk next to the captain’s chair in the wheelhouse while I took the helm.

We steamed up Stephens Passage in the pitch black, with lots of rain and some tailwind chop. You just stare out into the scope of your floodlights, just like driving a car at night, I guess. We seemed to be going past lots of birds – seagulls, murrellettes, grebes, etc. It seemed like an unrandom event that we could be 5 or 10 miles from the shore and these birds just happened to be out in front of us here and there. Maybe feed is attracted to the surface by our lights, and the birds know this.

We passed a single boat just as we entered Frederick Sound from the Wrangell Narrows. Then just one more boat – I think a tug and barge – up Stephens Passage. I also saw a boat with lots of lights tied up in Taku Harbor at the dock. Otherwise, it was about as unscenic a trip as you can make, running a boat all night in the dark with no moon or starlight.

I figured Chris would get up about 4 am on his fishermen’s clock, and he’d told me to wake him for wheel watch. But he was still fast asleep at 430, and I just let him sleep. He’s got a lot more on his plate in life than I do, and I’m guessing maybe this was one of his rare chances for a good snooze.

He finally woke about 530 am as we started around Douglas Island for Auke Bay. He went down and grabbed a cup of coffee, and we swapped places. I was asleep in minutes. I got up, very chilled for some reason, as we were steaming into Auke Bay just after 7 am.

When we got to the dock, I tossed over the starbard bumper buoys. Chris maneuvered the big boat to the lee side of the dock in a stiff wind, and I threw the midships tie up line to one of Chris’s fishing crew waiting for us on the dock. He got a bite on the dock bullrail with the line. Chris then ran forward on the pivot line to get the boat closer to the bullrail, and his crew member and I secured the bow and stern tie up lines. The crewmember, who also happened to run the private marina where we moor the tug, took me to the shop where I’d left my car. We talked about the marina, and it was good to now know the manager now for future moorage.

I threw my sea bag in the car, and headed for home. I stopped at the Breeze Inn for an apple fritter and a coffee. I jumped in bed straightaway when I got home, and by 1130 am, was up and ready for the day.

Today, my slope training really paid off. I wanted to change the starting battery for the tug. I wrote down the specs from the battery there, and went to Costco to get a new one. There they were at Costco. The monster 8D battery. Same as I had on the Dutch Master.

I had to lift the 100+ pound battery into the car, then from the car to the collapsible pull cart, which I towed to the boat. The battery came out with ease, except I let the terminals touch after they were off the battery, which I didn’t realize would short things out since the wiring also goes to links with the house batteries. The FM radio went out briefly during the sparks, but came back on. Hopefully, no damage done.

I got the old battery with the case it was in up from the engine room to the helm floor so I could swap the old for the new. I looked at my new 8 D battery, and thought- that looks a tad bigger than the one I’m taking out. Sure enough, it was. So it wouldn’t fit in the specially made battery box.

I took measurements of the footprint available where the battery box was. I called Napa, who had a box, and determined from their measurements that a new box for the new 8D battery should still fit in foot print.

I got to Napa, and saw the box they had waiting for me. I did not think it was gonna work, because the top was wide to accommodate the battery wires, and it would not fit in the footprint because the engine hoses were there.

I asked the clerk if he had any other 8D batteries I could look at, and he took me back to the battery room. Just as he pointed to the 8D battery choices, I looked on the floor and saw the battery that was the same size as the one I was taking out of the boat. He said “Oh, you mean the 4D batteries?”. 4D battery?  Never heard of it. But that’s what I had and what I needed!  They are a tad narrower and (I think) shorter in length that the 8D.

So, now I needed to buy this 4D battery that weighed close to 100 lbs, take it back to the boat, install it. Then return the 4D used battery to Napa for the core charge. Then return the 8D battery to Costco, who luckily said they would take it back. Lots of moving around 100 lbs of deadweight. My back was feeling it by the end of the day.

The new battery was installed in about 15 minutes. I started the engine, and the alternator looked to be working so hopefully I didn’t fry it when the terminals crossed earlier.

So, I took an hour job and made it last all day. Just like we did on slope. I was trained for this…

Sunday, Nov 12

I got up before first light, and it looked dry but with a breeze out there. I put coffee on, and decided to spray foam around the windows. I could feel the wind coming through during the storms, and now that the humidity had lowered outside, I thought it was a good time to do it.

Headed to the spot I have taken the most deer about 9 am. It was a dry morning for a change, with a little wind from the southeast.

I arrived at the anchorage about 10 am. I saw another boat across the bay I thought might be anchored and hunting the area, but as I approached, the boat took off. I think they were beach hunting. Then I saw a deer!  On the beach, right where I was heading. From the way it was nosing the ground and size, I thought surely it’s a buck. When I got the binoculars on it, I could see no horns. Not sure I could have got to the beach to take a shot if it was, anyway, but already – I’d seen a deer.

This was the spot I’d tided the boat with Marc, so wanted to be sure to be well offshore on a solid anchorage. I put the boat in the kelp, put the anchor over into the kelp, backed down on the anchor, and called it good. I was much too far to run my anchor line to the beach, so I just had to cross my fingers the boat would stay where it was.

I launched the punt. Then put my hunting pack, ditch bag, gun in waterproof case, milk crate seat, boat cushion to go on the milk crate, and kayak paddle into the punt. I put my phone in my front pocket of my overalls in the zipper pocket, then put on my life jacket.   It was maybe 50 yards to the beach. Kind of far, but the water was calm and I felt okay paddling that far.

Just before I got to the beach, I saw there was a swell pushing up the beach. I took a left stroke on the paddle, which moved the bow to the right. And then the swell hit the bow, turned me sideways, and the next swell tipped me and everything in the boat into the drink.

I was only in a couple feet of water, but the swell grabbed the gear and instead of floating it further up the beach as you might expect, it instead grabbed it and took it off the beach. I focused on keeping the overturned boat in hand so as not to lose that. I was able to grab my gun floating in it’s case, and the dry bag. I put the gun and bag above the beach, and tied off the punt. I looked for my pack, and saw it floating offshore about 10 yards….next to the paddle!  I had to have the paddle, I thought. Later I realized I could have used the gun in the case for a paddle maybe, if I had to.

I was already soaked head to toe, and waded out with my life jacket still on. I was able to grab the pack, but the paddle was a bit further off the beach. I went to zero gravity mode, in deeper water with my head above water and my toes touching the bottom only every so often. I got the paddle and headed back to the pack, then back to the beach. Whew!  The milk crate was further off shore. I let that go.

I actually wasn’t that cold. The sun was shining and it was probably 40 degrees or so. I kicked off my boots, and turned them over to drain against the log I was sitting on. Then I stripped down and put my wet clothes over branches on a spruce tree overhanging the beach. Then I opened the dry ditch bag. I had just packed it the day before, and purposefully packed the clothes in the order I would put them on. Underwear on top. Then long sleeve poly pro shirt. Then wool overalls. Then socks and hat.

I decided to put my wet fleece socks back on, since my boots were already wet. I wrung the socks, and put them back on. I put my damp boots on and now felt good. I thought at that moment about how much working with the scout troop and as a hunter ed instructor had helped me be prepared by practicing what we taught. I had worn my life jacket. I had a ditch bag with dry clothes. I was okay.

When I first overturned, all I could think about was getting back to the boat and going home. Now I thought- It’s a great day. I’ve already seen a deer on the beach. I’ll go up and hunt at least the first calling spot, about a 10 minute climb across a creek and up the hill. Before I left, I took out my compass and got my return bearing – west by north west.

I saw a small deer near the creek on the way up the hill. It took off and I wouldn’t have harvested it if it hadn’t. When I got up to the little draw, I ever so slowly worked my way through the salal, a few steps at a time, down to a spot to call. That’s when I saw it – I locked eyes with a deer across the little valley. Like the deer on the beach, it looked big and maybe a buck. But it was a doe. Eventually, she put her head down and walked away. She didn’t seem concerned.

I got settled in. I called for about an hour. The doe didn’t come back, nor did any other deer. When I looked at my phone, it was off. Likely dead. I thought – well, at least I have the sat phone. It was dead, too. I’d taken it out of the water proof case Bob keeps it in and put it in a zip lock bag to save on space and weight. Now I wish I hadn’t. I think only one of the zip lock bags in my hunting pack had not let water in. Most of them looked like the zipper wasn’t pulled all the way across. Another lesson to pass on.

But again, my training of others paid off. I’d taken my compass bearing at the beach. I pulled out the compass, got my bearing, and headed for the beach. I went straighter to the beach than I do when I use the gps on my phone. However, what I didn’t like was the fact that I didn’t want to hunt further up the hill without my phone gps. I have become dependent on the gps, whether I want to admit it or not. I also didn’t know what time it was, since I use the clock on my phone, too.

When I got back to the punt, the boat was riding high in the kelp patch. The tide had started to go out and the swell wasn’t as bad on the beach as when I arrived.   I pushed the boat out into the swell and got in. When the swell went out, I was on the bottom. When it came in under me again, I pushed out a bit, then on the bottom again. Next swell, I broke free and paddled out to the boat.

There were some small waves out by the boat that caused me a little trouble getting out of the punt and into the boat, but I just took my time. I transferred all the gear from the punt to the boat. Turned over onto my knees in the punt, then stood up holding onto the boat, with the bow line of the punt in my hand, and got one leg over the boat gunwale, and then the other. I was in.

The ride home was into the wind and a little lumpy, but the air seats on the boat make the ride a lot more comfortable. Near town I saw a couple in a lund that looked like they were paddling and their outboard was out, but when I got near them then said they were all fine.

When I got to the launch. the wind was ripping across the dock. It took me a couple tries to motor the boat up to the dock, put the engine in neutral, get out of the boat cabin, and get a line around a cleat before I got blown off the dock again.

I got the boat loaded, and headed for Klawock for fuel. The boat took a little over $300 and the truck a little over $100. Plus I’m out a cell phone and sat phone. As Bob Bue used to say, hunting is all about the free meat.

When I got home, I parked the boat like I wouldn’t be going out again. I thought maybe I’ve had enough deer hunting for awhile.   I put the saltwater soaked clothes and pack in the washing machine. I got out my saltwater rust stained gun, put some oil on it, and scrubbed off the rust with some steel wool, then coated it with oil again inside and out.

The container seems warmer already with the windows sealed.

Alls well that ends well.