Over the next few weeks, we'll give you a glimpse into what the preseason looks like for us. Follow our boat work, preseason projects, and family chaos as we prepare for a summer at sea.
Our crew has arrived! Bhajan and Jayden both returned to fish with Mike this summer. This will be Bhajan's third year fishing with Mike, and Jayden's second. They are both staying in a schoolbus at the bottom of our property. It's very rustic, and they think it's pretty awesome. It's definitely Alaskan.
Fun fact: Mike moved this bus with his buddy, Eivin Kilcher, from Discovery's "Alaska the Last Frontier."
The main project right now is hanging the nets. We only fish three nets at a time, but we have 14 total. Nets get damaged during the season, and you don't want large holes in your nets, or the fish get through. The guys mend them throughout the season, but when the fishing is really hot, there's not time for that, and you have to use a new net instead. Nets are about $2,000 each, FYI.
If you don't like untying knots, gillnetting might be your worst nightmare. When a ton of fish are in the net, it sometimes becomes a giant knot, made much more complicated by flopping fish.
Mike and Bhajan racking the nets into a brailer bag. These weigh about 250 pounds each.
A needle is used to mend and hang the nets. When you're not in the peak of the season, net mending is meditative.
Each fish is handpicked out of the net. Photo by Chris Miller
While Bhajan hangs nets, Mike and Jayden get items checked off the long list of things to do before the boat launches on the 10th. We joined them for lunch on the F/V Courageous. Boatyard burgers, fries, and milkshakes are hard to beat and the view is pretty cool.
While Mike spends lots of time on boat projects, we have been busy planting the garden, foraging for wild edibles, like fiddlehead ferns, and beach combing during the last low tide set we had in Homer. We hit the seastar jackpot one day and saw hundreds of them! We also escaped for a night to dreamy Halibut Cove to stay at Stillpoint Lodge, a gorgeous retreat that our friends manage during the summer. Eva might like the boat even more than Owen, which I didn't think was possible. Owen has been rallying hard this summer and finds time for naps on the loading cart we use to transport things onto our boat.
This week, the guys will be hanging more nets, organizing food, launching the boat, and loading gear onto the tender - a huge vessel that takes everything to Bristol Bay, so we don't have to travel with a heavy load. The goal is to leave Homer on June 15th for the epic journey to Bristol Bay. More on that journey soon.
We'll leave you with a shot taken from above an "Anchors Aweigh" party we attended last weekend. We boated across the bay for an evening with fellow fishermen and friends to spend time together before leaving for our various fisheries.
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