Have you ever been in a situation where you seriously thought you were going to die? That was me today when we were many miles out in the Prince William Sound and the swells were around 7 feet high and the boat we were in was smashing up and down as we sped toward my impending death.
All for the sake of a freaking fish !!
Back track to the macho man I have come to live with and his mountain man son. These guys are awesome and if I were ever to be stranded in the wilderness there is no one I would rather have with me. They could survive in just about any situation, unlike poor Get who got lost in a paper bag and couldn't fine the kitchen in his own house no less survive on his own in the wild.
But there is a price to pay when dealing with "macho" men. They MUST always seek the next adventure no matter if it be bear or moose hunting or fishing for Halibut in Alaska. Fishing does not seem nearly as dangerous as hunting a bear unless you decide to go after said fish in typhoon like conditions.
This whole trip to Alaska centers around the damn fish. We travel a week to get here in order to fish. I would be just as happy paying $42 a pound for a piece of Halibut in Publix but the men NEED to CATCH the fish themselves so they can brag about it for the following year. And so we traveled to Valdez with the plan that we would fish for 3 days with DJ on his boat that we trailered from Haines AK to Fairbanks two years ago. The boat is a decent size, 26 foot Osprey but it is NOT the QE2. I have come to realize that from this point on I will NOT sail any where on anything less than an ocean liner. Today totally did me in !!
Since we are only here 3 days the men MUST get out on the boat as much as possible, weather be damned. So today when the weather forecast was for high winds, rain and very high seas resulting in small craft warnings no second thought was given to NOT GOING out on the boat that is in fact A SMALL CRAFT!. We are here to fish and so we WILL fish even if we die in the effort.
The man was up at 4:30 this morning waiting for me to wake up. Rene came and picked us up at 5:30 and down to the harbor we went where we met DJ and off we went ready to sail God knows how far out into the sound to get to the "best" fishing spot for halibut. No matter that with each passing hour traveling West out of Valdez harbor the weather got worse and worse and worse. The seas bot bigger and the clouds got darker and the wind got stronger. It was noted that there were NO other boats out today . . . DUH . . . so lucky us would get ALL the fish. Well the reason there were no other boats out was because we were the only ones stupid enough to go out in these conditions.
I kept mentioning that we were out there alone, that the wind was getting stronger, that the waves were getting higher but all this fell on deaf ears. The men were focused on THE HUNT for the allusive fish. (The last time I went fishing with these 2 idiots we caught so many halibut we didn't have room to put them in the boat, These fish are huge !) So naturally the men thinK that this will happen every time regardless of weather.
We drove 3 hours west in rough seas but the closer we got to the end of land the rougher it got. By now I was almost on my knees praying that God would make my death quick and painless. Maybe I would be eaten by sharks before I drowned in this freezing cold water. I was praying non stop that some one would come to their senses and turn this freaking boat around when all of a sudden a school of porpoise came right up next to the boat and were swimming right along with us, crashing through the waves. I took them to be a sign from God because at that exact moment DJ decided we needed to turn back. As soon as we turned around the porpoises were gone and the seas got a little calmer.
We did stay out another agonizing 7 hours trying spot after spot and not catching a single halibut. I was the only one to catch anything besides as cold. I caught a "Yellow Eye" / Rock fish that was really cool but I think that just pissed the boys off more.
By the time we got back it was still raining like hell and foggy. I was wet and freezing and tired and fully determined that I WILL NEVER EVER get on that boat again.
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