Ketchikan

Yet another Alaska story. This is the week for them I guess. While in Alaska, I also had the opportunity to work in Ketchikan for a short while at another fish processing plant. It was the first time I ever worked at one in a city and it was awesome. I had only been married for a few months and it was a honeymoon of sorts for us. We were transferred there after the end of the season at another cannery. When we arrived in Ketchikan it was the end of the cruise ship season, shops were still open and the weather was still fairly decent. We very rarely had to work, so we had plenty of time to explore. Our place was above a mini-mart that sold "Chester-Fried Chicken". We could hear the timer go off occasionally and then a waft of oil & fried chicken. Good times.

So, I was reading Newsweek. I love Newsweek. Especially "My Turn". It usually has quite interesting essays. Here is the link to the essay that I was reading.

It was about the "Bridge to Nowwhere". This proposed bridge was for the city of Ketchikan. The city really is only a few blocks wide in some areas, it is...odd. You can only get to Ketchikan by boat or plane. There are no roads in or out of town. This town really could use that bridge, it literally has nowhere to grow (go). I know what some of you are thinking. We just got through with the elections....please no more politics....STOP & DESIST NOW!

Guess what? I'm not. I just thought the essay brought to light the other side of the argument. Things are rarely black and white. Especially Ketchikan. It is mostly gray. I think the Cullens would like it there.

Alaska

There was a story in the newspaper last week about a fishing boat that sank and half of the crew lost their lives. Here is a link to that story. As I have mentioned before, I worked in the fishing industry in Alaska quite a bit. One of my jobs was working on a boat in the Bering Sea. Whenever I hear about these stories, I am always grateful that my experience was mostly positive and nothing truly bad happened.

Our boat was huge compared to other boats that you hear about in the news. Our boat was well over 300 feet long and was called a catcher/processor or factory/vessel. We caught the fish and then we processed them right there. We had a crew of over a 100 people. The boat I was reading about was over 100 feet long and had a crew of 11.

We worked 15 hour days, 7 days a week, which compared to cannery hours was a piece of cake! My husband and I were thankfully able to work together. Not that that meant much. We really couldn't talk because it was so loud. We did get to look at each other however. We didn't eat meals together. We didn't even get to sleep in the same room. Forget about trying to sleep in the same bed, it was a twin. We spent our first anniversary working on that boat.

It was a very different experience for me, after having worked several summers at a cannery. I remember the sobering experience of having to practice putting on a survival suit and hoping that I would never have to use that skill. Part of it felt like a school-time fire drill, the other part felt scary. We were very sheltered on the boat and we weren't allowed to go out on the deck very often. Several times we had the opportunity to go and see the captain and his view. Nauseating. The waves really freaked me out.

I only remember one time having to stop working because the weather was really bad, but that didn't mean much. We worked in treacherous conditions. We ate in them. We slept in them. Trying to take a shower was fun as well. Let's put it this way, I did not shave. There were railings everywhere and on everything. In the hall, in the shower, on your bed, at your table....for the longest time after working on the boat I would make jerking & grabbing motions if something was too close to the edge of the table.

Another sobering thing was realizing what the value of your life was worth. Once, a worker in the freezer area of the boat was blasted with something, I think it was freon. I just remember whatever it was was not a good thing. I remember watching as they tried to keep him conscious and alive, while everyone else kept right on working. That boat wasn't going to turn around for him. We heard many other stories of similar incidents, where the captain would only go as far as to meet a ship that was going back to land to save someone's appendage or life. Terrifying.

I have nothing but sadness for the families of those men and for others who risked their lives and lost them.