A Life Wasted

The North Wind

Before going home I walked to the North Wind and gave her a final inspection. She was too small for Alaskan fishing and too small to accommodate a crew for a week at sea. The Perkins diesel engine would have to be completely rebuilt and the boat would need all new electronics: marine radio, radar, depth finder, fish finder, loran (what we used to navigate before GPS) and even new lights. It would also need a generator, a cook stove, heater, hydraulics line-hauler, seven miles of ground line and thousands of size 10 fish hooks, and a dozen other things. It would take money and hard work to make the North Wind a seaworthy fishing boat. On the positive side she would be safe, slow but she'd bring me home. The North Wind was the ugliest commercial fishing boat in the northern Pacific Ocean, but I loved her. After discussing it with Mary I bought the North Wind.

The engine would take three weeks to rebuild so I used the time to drive to a computer job in Chicago. While in Chicago Larry flew home for a short visit and decided to take his son Jamie to Alaska with him. I drove to Ohio and picked them up so the three of us drove the Alaska Highway together. That trip would be my seventh time up or down the Alaska Highway.

The engine was complete when I returned. It took me another week to set it up for fishing. There were many things the boat lacked, like a GenSet and heat stove, but I was low on money and needed to get started. The boat was moored in Seward so I used it as my home port. For a crew I hired Larry's son Jamie. I'd known Jamie since he was ten, but he was now eighteen and a strong man with a good work ethic. I also hired a guy I knew on the Kenai. Jamie was the perfect guy to crew a fishing boat, but the other guy was a mistake. He had many faults but the one that affected me the most was that he was terrified of the sea.

Seward sits at the back of Resurrection Bay, which is twenty-six miles long and averages a mile or less wide providing natural protection from the brutal Gulf of Alaska. The first few trips were uneventful and unprofitable. On my first run out of Seward I saw what looked like small killer whales shooting straight at my bow. It was dark (it was winter so it was nearly always dark) but I could see bright white patches maneuvering off my bow. I gave Jamie the wheel and went to the bow for a look. It was a pod of dolphins. On TV dolphins are always grey, but in Alaska they have a brilliant black and white pattern, very much like a miniature killer whale. I'd noticed this same type of dolphin in northern Atlantic waters from the Coast Guard ice breaker. I assume this type of dolphin is a cold water variety. What I do know is they are playful and a threat to watch. I laid on the deck with my head over the bow and watched the dolphins play tag with the North Wind. One would position herself near the bow, touch it with her back then jet off to be replaced by another. They would play this game until they tired of it. I loved to watch them play.

The Gulf of Alaska seas were always brutal, but some times they were worse. Our third trip was one of those times. The one crew member was terrified of the sea, which came to a head when he got Jamie to take his side in demanding I take them home immediately. Immediately didn't work for me. We had words with threats of violence. They backed down, but I did return as soon as it was feasible. This was life changing for me because I'd threatened my best friend's son. I loved Jamie like a son and as a man I considered him my friend. We tried to patch things up, Jamie, his dad and I, but our relationship would never be the same. I will always regret this.

I needed a new crew so I searched the bars and restaurants of Seward without success. I spent an entire day and night in a bar frequented by fisherman until I found my first experienced crew member: Billy Bear, a Native American, a true Alaskan. Billy learned to fish long-line from his father and at thirty-one it was the only work he'd ever done. The only reason I was able to hire a fisherman with his experience was that Billy Bear's personal life was a mess because he was an unrepentant alcoholic.