Cruising to Southeast Alaska – 2011 – M/V Royal Sounder
Capt. Linda Lewis - www.privateboatinginstruction.com and Capt. David Parker
10 – Petersburg – A Fishing Town (June 22, 2011)
We favor staying
in the North
Harbor in
Petersburg,
because we love
to watch all the
fishing activity.
Here is the
Harbormaster’s
Office.
Just below it is
the Tidal Grid – at
low water.
Here’s how the
grid works: When
the water is high,
you drive your
boat up onto the
timbers and tie it
well.
When the tide
goes down, you
hurry and fix,
scrape, or paint.
Dave caught the
Harbormaster,
Glorianne, and I
going over the
plans for the refurbishing of the
North Harbor.
She’s a really
capable and
personable
woman. And, yes,
she was on the
Petersburg High
School’s Viking
Wrestling team.
When the tide comes back up – you better be done and ready to leave.
The bergie bits in Wrangell Narrows were a surprise for me, but not for the Harbormaster who told us that it is not
uncommon to find them just outside Petersburg. These chunks of ice are spewed out by the Le Conte glacier, north
of Petersburg. Their presence has played a unique role in Petersburg’s history.
You need ice to pack the fish you catch. There it was, floating right in the channel.
I turned to a new book I have onboard to educate myself about the importance of
this natural source of ice in Petersburg: Sailing in Search of the Real Southeast
Alaska - Glaciers, Bears and Totems, by Elsie Hulsizer.
In 1897, a Norwegian entrepreneur, Peter Buschmann, realized that the ice, the
fish, and the supply route to Seattle combined to make a thriving fish processing
business. Thus was Petersburg founded and it is still called Little Norway.
In a previous cruising year we were here for their yearly mid-May Norwegian
festival. Seeing a viking marching in the town parade proves the heritage point to
me.
The town’s history is irrevocably tied to fishing and the Norwegians who settled
here. This installment will be all about fishing; the next one will be a walking tour
of the town of Petersburg.
For some reason,
I woke up at 3:30
AM on the
longest day of
the year. It was
more than light
enough to see
the water.
This picture is
not in great
focus, but then
neither was I at
that hour of the
day. (It didn’t get
dark the night
before until 10:30
PM.)
However, there
are other people
up at this hour.
We have been
awakened every
morning at 4:15
AM by fishermen
who are getting a
start on the day,
at brisk speeds.
It is, after all, a working fishing town.
At 6:30 AM, a
beautiful purse
seiner was
entering the
harbor.
It’s the F/V Signe
Lynn. She is
returning home
after a stint of
fishing and an
all-night run to
her home port.
Which slip? Right
next to us.
After an expert entry, the Captain monitors the work of
the line handlers.
He leisurely watches his crew as he works on his coffee.
The Signe Lynn is a beautiful, 58’ purse seiner that has been well cared for.
Big crane.
Big hydraulic
winch.
Big skiff and nets.
It turns out we’re practically
neighbors with the Captain.
Bob is from Petersburg, but he
and his wife live in Edmonds
WA. We live in nearby Bothell.
He was kind enough to give me
a full tour of the boat so I can
share this with you.
Here’s the galley. It seems he
wasn’t finished having coffee
after all.
This traditional fishing-vessel stove uses Diesel # 1 fuel.
The engine room boasts a 365 hp Caterpillar engine.
The crew quarters include this space. Oops – stumbled
on a few guys catching up on their sleep.
This is one of three generators used for keeping the fish
holds cold.
This is a sophisticated system for handling the
seawater for the fish holds.
Tour or not, it’s time to start the oil change – while it’s still
hot.
Dave wants to see the engine room, too – the easy
way. No climbing.
My favorite place is always the Pilothouse. I’m curious
about what electronics people use.
Sonar, radar, autopilot, and electronic charting:
Nobeltec.
What is that?
An old, but faithful Wood Freeman autopilot.
He turns the knob on the top to set the heading.
I asked if he uses AIS (Automatic Identification System). He said yes – but receive only. He doesn’t transmit his
location because he doesn’t want others to know where he is fishing. Typical fisherman!
We learned that Bob is a volume-oriented fisherman. So he looks mostly for a type of salmon called humpies. Those
eventually get processed into canned salmon. He also sometimes acts as a tender for other fisherman. That means
he packs their fish onboard his vessel and takes the haul to a processing location – like Petersburg.
Here are some new slang terms he taught us. Other fishermen call purse seiners “Crick Robbers.” Gilnetters are
called “Cobwebbers.” He also helped me understand what the float-like devices are on the back of trollers. He calls
them “float boards.” They are placed on the outer two (of the four) trolling lines and help to prevent line tangling.
Each of those lines has lots of hooks on it.
While we chatted with Bob, Dave mentioned that he loved Sushi. Bob exclaimed: Oh no. You eat bait!
Of course, everyone wants to see Dave’s Green Devil.
Bob was no different. Here he is with the ever-present
cup of coffee in his hand.
Did you notice Island Girl on our other side?
Here she is as she was coming in to the slip – thankfully
missing the Green Devil we had side tied.
The crew got busy dressing a King Salmon.
He offered us the roe (eggs), but we declined.
Here’s how they later cooked their salmon.
Now let me show you how the processing plant handles the fish. We saw this tender come in for a delivery.
The tender pulls up close to the dock and the fish boxes are
hauled out by the black crane.
Dave managed to slip into the sorting line to
take these pictures.
The box slides down.
Tips…
And the fish are on their way to you.
--end--
The fish get sorted…
…into various boxes.