I put Owen on a plane last Friday to meet Mike in Dillingham to join the F/V Courageous crew. He was a little nervous about flying solo, but got on the plane without hesitating. Success!
Fishing as a family is our goal. It's years in the making, but this feels like a big step.
As you can imagine, Mike was so excited to see him after a month away. The crew was happy to have some new energy on board.
They started fishing immediately, and Owen's helping. Mike's paying him a share of the catch- he'll get 1%, not a bad start! Crew is always paid a percentage of the catch value.
He is still wearing the same shirt that I sent him in last Friday and his hair hasn't been brushed once. I think he's probably more excited about no one hassling him to change clothes or groom himself than he is about the money. Mike did confirm he's brushing his teeth, so I'll take that as a win.
Fishing is really winding down out there. The last delivery was around 2,500 lbs., which isn't bad, but the marine weather forecast isn't great for the next week, and the seals keep eating fish out of the net. Randy reports they're driving Mike crazy! It often happens late season, and it's super frustrating. Sometimes they'll eat the entire fish out of the net, other times they just eat the heads off. It's a wild world out there, ya'll.
Here's Owen in action! His job is to get those fish into the refrigerated sea water asap. Keeping them cold keeps the quality high.
Linden and Markham are currently on their way back to Homer aboard another boat in Mike's radio group. The slow fishing means we don't need as much crew, and they were happy call it a season. They both worked super hard. They'll grab their extra gear and their cowboy boots from Homer, then head home to Waco, Texas.
We're so grateful for such a committed crew and their positive attitudes. This makes ALL the difference.
Here's Owen, asleep next to Mike's feet as he operates the boat from the flybridge.
Now that they're a group of three, the guys have a little more room on the boat. Owen has a bunk to sleep in, instead of sleeping under the galley table. They even have an open bunk to put all their stuff on aka a "junk bunk." Every bit of space is valuable on a 32-foot boat!
One well-rested, excited little crew member, ready for action!
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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.