TGIF! It’s raining here in Sitka and we are still tied to the dock… the harbor is pretty empty with trollers, seiners and gill netters all out earning there keep. We are (unfortunately) waiting for a part to come in to fix our alternator. We had hoped to leave today, but now it’s looking more like Saturday.

Which is okay. Tradition holds it’s bad luck to leave on a Friday. Although we’ve left on plenty of Fridays, with no ill effects. David maintains that Oscar Dyson (legendary crab skipper) said it was okay to leave on a Friday, as long as you back out of your slip and turn a circle before heading out. We follow that advice, just in case.

What’s up with all these nautical superstitions?  No bananas on the boat, no talking about horses, nothing green, no whistling in the wheelhouse. And the one I won’t even mention, no women on the boat.

I have a theory about superstitions that isn’t that deep. It’s that superstitions help us feel connected to our tribe. And we use them as a form of exclusion, or inclusion, depending on how "in the know" you feel. 

Sure, I looked up some information on superstitions and learned a lot about how many of them are (possibly) rooted in something useful or truthful.  Bananas for instance. I read that sailing vessels selected for lucrative banana deliveries were often the fastest in the fleet - so fast that if you wanted to troll off them you weren’t going to catch anything. Therefore a banana boat never caught any fish. You can see how that works. 

And of course, some superstitions arise out of practicality - like it’s bad luck to leave a hatch cover upside down on deck - I figure that’s so that rain doesn’t collect on the inside, and that it’s as easy to pick up in a rush as possible. Makes sense to me - thinking of it as “bad luck” may help reinforce a behavior better than reason might. 

But, if you’re new to this whole fishing thing, working your way through that stressful greenhorn year, knowing (or not knowing) your superstitions can be part of what dictates the rate of your acceptance. Don’t walk on board with a bunch of bananas in your hand, and even if you love to whistle - don’t!  

I’d like to start some new superstitions. Like it’s totally unlucky not to talk about your dog once a day or that it’s crazy-stupid to leave the harbor without a 4 bottles of red wine. As Friday winds down here in Sitka, I can already feel lady luck looking my way.

Have a great weekend.  

Here’s how the next 7 days would go. Up at 3:30 AM to George Strait crooning “Amarillo by Morning”. Don’t ask, but it’s been our alarm clock for about 5 years. I know that if I hear him lose his saddle in Houston and break his leg in Santa Fe then I have used up my 30 seconds of respite and I’ve got to get out of the bunk. 

Get dressed, make coffee, check our position, set the gear, make breakfast, haul the gear, clean fish, put fish in the freezer, clean the deck. Haul the gear, clean fish, put fish in the freezer, clean the deck. Haul the gear, clean fish, put fish in the freezer, clean the deck. Haul the gear, clean fish, put fish in the freezer, clean the deck. Haul the gear, clean fish, put fish in the freezer, clean the deck. Haul the gear, clean fish, put fish in the freezer, clean the deck. Haul the gear, clean fish, put fish in the freezer, clean the deck. Haul the gear, clean fish, put fish in the freezer, clean the deck. Eat dinner. go to bed. Up at 3:30 AM to George and repeat until that sweet, sweet voice on the radio tells us that “the 2015 summer king salmon opener will end on July 7th at Midnight.”  

We did get a bit of a break on day 3 when we decided to pick up and run after our first two days down south proved to be a bit slow. Luckily we got some good information from a friend that we decided to follow, and we ended up taking about 8 hours to change position - which ultimately was a smart decision and allowed us to rack up our best summer king opener ever!  

What a relief to finally stack the gear 7 days later and head for Goddard hot springs. We spent the night there (11 hours of sweet, sweet sleep) and then spent the bulk of Thursday glazing our fish. A soak in a hot springs never felt so good! 

Then up at 5 AM on Friday to head for the Samson Dock, where we had an easy offload working with our friends Matt and Vincent on the F/V Born Again (although it rained most of the day) and then enjoyed a well-deserved night at the Westmark.

This morning it’s been a lot of dock talk, coffee and catching up with our friends. It sounds like most of our gang had a good opener, with just a few exceptions. The kings were big and plentiful, and the cohos were looking pretty good as well. We’ll take a few days to rest, recoup, deal with some small projects and then head out on our first coho trip of the summer

Hope everyone enjoyed a relaxing 4th of July weekend!