Vacation!

After a fairly successful week scalloping, the guys have decided that they wanted to spend some time with their families. So I've got 3 days in Homer with absolutely no agenda!

I put a few more pictures up on the same link above. Note this especially cute one Captain Malcolm took of me and my Chionecterian friend:

There are a bunch of pics of our deckhand Ryan who left to go back to Maine last night. I decided to be the designated picture-taker (I AM my mother's daughter...) and document his summer experience for him.

So this was the record for no bathing...9 days! It wasn't THAT bad since we moved out of the district with all the mud but by the end of the trip I was starting to get a bit itchy. Literally. And my craving for attention and affection was this time directed at the crabs...yes I know they don't LOOK cuddly or cute but they sort of have the same reaction a dog does when you blow in it's nose so that's kind of fun.
On this trip I saw whales nearly every day, but of course I thought that would be a boring picture so I didn't take any. One morning, Nick (a member of the crew) told me to come out on deck and see the Pacific Dolphins frolicking around the boat. It was a HUGE pod, must have been 30-50 of them in the water. Those of you who know me well know that I generally snub my nose at elitist animals such as marine mammals but even grumpy old me was moved by the sheer number of these guys. They were just laughing and playing all over the place, it reminded me of looking at a schoolyard at recess.

I still love the boat and the crew more than ever and am a bit sad that this will be our last trip most likely. After that, I might try and do a short contract on Kodiak island before heading back down to sunny southern CA, where I think I've got another observing job in the swordfish gill-seine fishery that starts at the end of September. Hopefully since that's closer to home I can pick up some more contract work and start saving money like mad. I am bound and determined to make it to Thailand (SOMEHOW, by jove!) to meet up with my friends Laura and Juan and see another IHF center. Part of me just wants to buy lottery tickets but I know there's a plan for me somewhere if it's meant to be.

Scallop queen (and so modest!)

I've got some down-time in Kodiak so here's some pics I was able to post:

http://picasaweb.google.com/passionflower24/Kilkenny

Fishing has been great. The first week we started out in an area closer to Homer called the Shelikof strait. That Sunday, we came back and sold scallops directly to the public off the boat. It was so cool; very grass-roots and authentic and neat to witness a resource being harvested, processed, and then sold direct to the consumer. There's something very fulfilling about seeing the process.
The Shelikof area closed due to crab bycatch (based on numbers I and other observers were collecting) so we had to move further out this last week, closer to Kodiak. Selling scallops here hasn't been quite as successful, but it was really nice to get a break and a shower and visit with other observers at the bunkhouse. We're headed out tonight to fish and will be back in Homer next weekend.
Au revior!

Homer-bound

Well, tomorrow is the day I head off to Homer, AK. I'll spend a couple nights at a local hostel http://www.homerhostel.com/ before boarding my boat on Sunday and heading off to the Shelikof strait to dredge for scallops. Wahoo!

Yesterday I spent all day at the Alaska Native Heritage Center, which was really really cool:

http://www.alaskanative.net/

I first showed up and caught some of the young people demonstrating traditional native games. They were non-team strength based exercises. Here, they're trying to kick a target with one foot while holding their other foot. It was pretty amazing.

Me by a Tlingit totem pole

A scaled-down Tlingit lodge house

As usual, I had a grand old time at the museum. I could spend another day there as I didn't get a chance to see everything.