The F/V Courageous is officially en route to Bristol Bay! The guys ended up leaving on June 21st around 8am.
The original plan was to leave the 15th. Then, it got pushed to the 19th because there were more projects than expected. Then the 21st, because there were 25 boats waiting in Williamsport to get hauled across the road. They can only haul 12 or so boats per day, so Mike figured he would rather wait in Homer than tied up in Williamsport in a line. He was one of the last boats to leave Homer, so he knew there wouldn't be many more adding to the line.
If I've lost you already, let me explain. The route to Bristol Bay is a challenging one. Depending on your timing and the weather, it could take 3-10 days.
The first step is to cross Cook Inlet, heading towards Williamsport, for around 80 miles. That takes about 12 hours in our boat. Once in Williamsport, they wait in Iliamna Bay with other gillnetters to get pulled out of the water with a truck. Then, they're hauled down a 15 mile road, to Iliamna Lake at Pile Bay, where they put the boat back into the water.
Photo by Molly Dischner, KDLG Radio Dillingham
Iliamna Lake is massive. It's 80 miles long and it's up to 25 miles wide in some places. It's known for bad weather.
After crossing the lake, they will have to navigate down the braids of the Kvichak River, a task that must be done with either a guide, or a buddy, in case you need to be pulled out. It's very shallow in some places. Fortunately, we've heard there's lots of water in the river this year, so hopefully it won't be as treacherous.
After all that, you arrive in Naknek, which is around 40 miles from Egegik, where we spend the majority of our season.
Sure enough, Mike only had to wait half a day to get hauled across the road. That timing was good. The not so great news is that now he's in Pile Bay, ready to cross Iliamna Lake, and the forecast is calling for 60 knot winds and 12 foot seas. No weather for crossing the lake.
It's hard. Everyone is eager to get to the Bay. Fish have started showing up and every day waiting is a fishing period missed. But the fishing is still slow, and it's still early. In this case, the risk is too great for the reward, and the crew will stay put until the weather calms down.
The weather is also terrible in Bristol Bay. A friend of ours is fishing in the Ugashik district, and the forecast is calling for 20 foot seas today. No one can fish in this weather.
So we wait. I have trouble sleeping, wishing the were fishing and worried about their safety, but they are soaking up the forced downtime. They need it- it's been a tough preseason. They are safely anchored in a protected area of the lake. Hopefully they will be able to travel tomorrow (Thursday) and will arrive to Naknek on Friday.
The trip from Homer to Naknek is a bucket list item for many folks in Alaska. Here are a couple accounts that go into more depth about the journey. They're both great reads! Ninilchik is about 40 miles north of Homer (crossing the Inlet in a skiff is just crazy!)
AK: The journey to Bristol Bay’s fishing grounds
The little boat that could: 21-foot setnet skiff makes the trip from Ninilchik to Naknek via Cook Inlet and Iliamna Lake
One perk to the late departure was getting to spend Father's Day with Mike. We've never spent the day together, and it was nice to have him home, even though he spent most of the day on the boat, and slept when he wasn't on the boat.
Hopefully the next time I write, I'll be reporting a deck load of sparkling sockeye salmon!
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The time has come when sleep comes in two hour chunks and the deck of the Courageous is filled with fish. The crew is working around the clock, harvesting the world's best wild Alaska sockeye salmon to fill your freezers.
The F/V Courageous is currently in the Nushagak fishing district with about 650 other boats, waiting for the sockeye salmon to strike.
We've been super busy with preseason tasks the past few weeks, and now the F/V Courageous and its crew are on their way to Bristol Bay.