We arrived back in town on schedule a couple of days ago. We are so blessed to have friendly neighbors catch our dock lines and worry about us while we were out sailing around. Interestingly enough while we were getting to know the great folks in Old Harbor Kodiak we were told Kodiak town was experiencing 100 knot winds! Wow! We’re glad we were not so lucky, haha.
On the motor to town we checked weather for our passage to Homer and started thinking about tropical environments as we watched the snowy peaks go by. Alaska Airlines allows a free companion fare once a year, basically buy one and get one free, and we booked February 19th flights for Hawaii and bought Rockfish at Island Seafood 😂 so Wade could get his fill of fried fish.
The kindness of Kodiak is always astounding. We have our truck stored with a friend behind a gate, so we don’t have our vehicle for last minute errands. Sara messaged our friends Jessica and Jerry and they had no problems getting out of the house on this beautiful blue bird sky day to run Sara around to different places so she could figure out how to preserve Wade’s buck he shot in Olga Bay. (Which we learned his buck was within a few inches of winning the big buck contest that also ended 12/15/18).
Sara first called Big Rays to find a Kodiak Taxidermist and they said they didn’t know of one but Ben might be able to help. Sara talked to Ben and on a Sunday he met with her to look at the hide. As it has been over two weeks since the hide had only been sitting in the cockpit in 30 to 40 degree temperatures. The deer hide had started letting loose of the hair. Ben referred us to Coral, a native Alaska artist because once the hair started to let loose from the hide it can only become buckskin. All of her art is from things she finds in nature animals, fish, shells, fishermen leftovers from Kodiak to create her art. She teaches classes about how to create pottery from actual clay found in the wild. We can go on and on. Ben didn’t have Coral’s number so Sara found her on Facebook Messenger and she immediately reached out to us. Sara took the hide to her store, again on a Sunday spent the next hour or so teaching her to flesh a hide on the street, lol only in Kodiak can you drive down a road and see a girl fleshing the hide of a deer!
Cheers,
Wade and Sara
