A Day in the Life of a Deckhand

Posted on June 11, 2011 by acarnivalindaylight

or

I Go to Sea as a Sailor because of the Wholesome Exercise and Pure Air

The job of a deckhand is really being the Jack-of-all-Trades of the ship. We are CPR/First Aid certified, we have run all the Coast Guard safety drills, we are also responsible for the less glamorous aspects of boat maintenance including scrubbing engine rooms and the like as well as cleaning the heads twice daily.

The day starts with boat washing. We hose off the outside decks and scrub the windows. Then, precariously balanced on the narrow walks on the side of the boat with one hand desperately grasping on to the side railing we squeegee the windows with our free hand.

Then we clean the inside of the boat. The inside windows gleaming, the buffet sparkling, the tables and chairs perfectly arranged, the bathrooms (heads) are restocked as we prepare to board.

We take boarding photos, check tickets, greet passengers and direct them to their seats, we answer (sometimes inane) questions about the impending trip.

We put on life jackets, jump off the boat to untie lines, we pull each other back on to the boat before we motor away.

We make safety announcements, we plead with passengers to take precautions if they fear motion sickness, we tell them to please, please regurgitate their recently enjoyed meals off the stern…and aim for distance.

We serve drinks and the all-you-can-eat salmon and prime rib buffet.

We keep an eye out for sick people, we pass out ginger candy and puke bags, we run defense on those pale, nauseated souls and lead them (briskly) away from the heads and out onto the deck, we clean up vomit. We clean up vomit. We clean up vomit. We make sure people are as comfortable as possible. We get them crackers and ginger ale. We assure them the tour is nearly half over.

We tell kids not to run. We tell adults not to stand on the benches. We point out black bears high up the mountain. We answer (sometimes inane) questions about the animals. We run to the decks to watch the humpbacks, the orcas, the porpoises, the sea otters, and the sea lions.

We take people’s pictures, we talk to them about their vacation and we hope they have a good time on our boat.

We get to the sweetest part of our trip, the all-you-can-eat dessert buffet. We are no longer astounded as we watch the woman we just saw “near death” lying with her head hanging limply against the table surrounded by puke bags which form a halo around her skull wolf down 5 pieces of cake.

We pull back into the docks, we hop off the boat and retie the lines. We thank the people for taking the trip with us. We hope they tip and tip well.

We read their comment cards. We clean and vacuum and prepare for the next day. We cart the day’s trash back on land and toss it. We sign out and enjoy Alaska’s midnight sun.

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America!

Posted on May 31, 2011 by acarnivalindaylight


In Seward we are lucky enough to have all 5 types of salmon run in our waters. The king (chinook), sockeye (red), coho (silver), pink (humpback), chum (dog) salmon all run up rivers in the area to spawn and therefore almost all summer long its possible to fish for and catch plenty of them (6 per day with license).
In honor of Memorial Day we had an Alaskan style barbeque. A fisherman friend of ours brought nearly 20 pounds of ling cod and tender juicy halibut. A few people in the bunkhouse went fishing and caught 17 gorgeous sockeyes and we had a delicious feast. America!

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A Symbol is Conceived

Posted on May 28, 2011 by acarnivalindaylight

The bald eagle, haliaeetus leucocephalus, our nation’s most recognized symbol is considered by many to be the living embodiment of the core values of our country, strength, freedom, pride and nobility. These large birds of prey are incredibly common in Seward and are often seen soaring about majestically as they do, fighting with ravens for fish scraps outside of the fishery or bullying the seagulls into submission near the docks.

A few days ago I had the pleasure of watching the bald eagle’s mating ritual. It starts with loud chirping screams as one eagle circles and approaches the other eagle (perched on a power line). The eagle lands and they begin to elaborately call to one another, sometimes it sounds like a car alarm at other times a furious banshee. They ruffle their tail feathers, stretch their wings, inch in close to one another and stumble back away again, flirting like shy middle school kids at their first dance.

Suddenly, one eagle flies off, up and up in a spiral and out of sight. The other follows, shrieking and pursuing. They soar around, swooping towards and away from each other, slowly the distance between them closes. Then, it appears that they stop in mid-air, their wings outstretched, their talons aimed at one another. Suddenly, they embrace, entangle, lock talons and tumble in a chaotic cartwheeling heap towards the ground. (In this case landing with a loud thunk as they crash to earth). Then the dance is over, they fly off in opposite directions, silent and soaring.

Posted in Alaska, Wildlife | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Sea Steak

Posted on May 25, 2011 by acarnivalindaylight

Forget seal clubbing in New Zealand, in Alaska you eat them. My co-worker Sean had the honor of accompanying a native family this winter on a seal hunt. He registered for an observer pass and took off with the family in a fleet of kayaks. Seals have seen the natives riding along in canoes hunting them for centuries, so they are pretty hip to the to the dangers of humans in boats. As such, the kayakers must maneuver deftly through the icy waters and the family member who has the best shot takes full advantage when the time is right. Sean was given a club, in case efforts to kill the seal weren’t as successful as desired.

His kayaking partner pulled out .40 caliber and felled the seal in two well-placed successive shots. The seal floated down into the icy water and the family waited until it was dead and floated back to the top. As a gift he was given a sizeable chunk of the seal’s meat for his participation in this Alaskan tradition.

Sean brought the seal meat to the bunk house so that we could all try it. He used a hibachi filled with wood. He hacked off chunks of meat and stuck them on to skewers and advised us to dip the meat in Worcestershire sauce before and after grilling. The odor of the meat is wonderfully pungent, an aromatic mix of nori and lard, it’s incredibly oily and very dark. There are huge pockets of blubber, which when placed over a fire send flames shooting skyward as the fat sizzles and burns with a pop.

It has a distinctly seaweed taste and steak texture, sea steak, if you will. It’s chewy and the taste lingers in your mouth well after the last bite. Were seal ever to come to a fancy restaurant near you I would imagine it paired with a spicy seaweed salad and fava bean and morel risotto. However, dipped in Worcestershire sauce and thrown over an open flame isn’t bad either.

Posted in Alaska, Exotic Food | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Cruising Along

Posted on May 17, 2011 by acarnivalindaylight

My first experience at Major Marine in Seward was as a passenger aboard the Glacier Express. During the 5-hour tour we saw the gamut of Alaskan wildlife, the seas were calm, the sun shining and the experience was incredible. Right now as I’m sitting down to describe it, I don’t even know where to start, so I’ll just share some of the photographic highlights.

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steller sea lions, black legged kittiwakes, orcas, and humpbacks….oh my!

More to come…

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Arrivals

Posted on May 13, 2011 by acarnivalindaylight

Generally, before I go somewhere new I like to go headfirst, with a mind full of limitless possibilities and very little actual knowledge (like, for example, the year I went to New Zealand without a raincoat). By quelling my racing imagination, raging expectations and bottomless hopes I find I am always pleasantly surprised by what greets me once I arrive.

My summer in Alaska has started out exactly like that. The flight from Seattle to Anchorage was chock full of tourists excitedly chattering about their vacation plans. The men sitting behind me regaled each other with rough and gruff hyperbolic tales of the enormous fish they had snagged, the fierce animals they had tagged and stories of life and limb, the ones in which they always narrowly escaped in tact. The kind of stories that are just too insane not to be, at least mostly, true. After an hour of eavesdropping I had surges of that uncomfortable feeling, the one you feel before you make the leap, those hollow pangs of realization, that maybe you are in too deep. Two words. Bear repellent. BEAR REPELLENT!

The plane passed over vast snowfields, jagged mountains pushed through the earth like shards of glass in gravel, their peaks painted a glaring white and harshly contrasted against their granite bottoms. Precipitous cliffs met the deep green blue oceans dotted with sprinkles of amorphous white waves. The landscape is harshly beautiful and coldly comforting. Alaska, from 30,000 feet seems not for the faint of heart.

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