Yep we’re still in Dutch Harbor. We just couldnt leave, haha. We have been in t-shirts until less than a week ago. Blue skys and sun. Its hard to leave. We have picked more blueberries. Hiked. Fished.
We finally learned to catch halibut. We have to give a huge shout out to our new friend Tyler. He took us out on his boat and showed us his rigs and taught us a few tricks to keep the halibut on the hook. You see in normal fishing you want to set the hook by jerking the pole or start reeling it in right away, but with a halibut it seems you let them take the bait for a long time. Once you feel a nibble you have to just sit there and watch your pole jiggle. This can drive a person crazy when they are excited. Whats wild is you let them take the bait so much they start swimming with the bait. Sometimes they swallow the whole lure. They are so stubborn to let go of bait that once on deck you cant get the bait out of their mouth because they just wont let go.
We were lucky to catch the silvers running near Unalaska Bay. While we were trying to catch the silver salmon we accidentally caught 43 pinks, 5 silvers, 2 male dogs, and 1 female dog salmon plus one Dungeness crab in our gill net. We canned and smoked so many fish. We were up until 2 am for two days processing it all. Needless to say underneath the entire salon table are jars of so much goodness. The female dog salmon is known for its caviar so Sara made homemade salmon caviar (https://letthebakingbegin.com/homemade-salmon-caviar/) Oh my goodness it tasted like eating butter on a cracker.
Inbetween the fishing and berry picking we brain tanned the fur caribou hide and we made brain tanned caribou buck skin. I dont think well be making any fur coats because the caribou sheds hair like crazy but we did get confidence if we hunt goat back on Kodiak well be able to process the hide ourselves. We saved the stretching of the buck skin for when were sailing and dont have much to do but stand watch.
We started going to community events. We learned about types of rocks that can be made for tools. We identified that the rocks we found in Deep Bay Atka were Jasper, just laying in the beach. We took a fish skin leather class, so yep you guessed it we are saving all of our fish skins now. We even went to one capoeira class. Unalaska is full of surprises.
Yesterday Wades mom flew in for her birthday Saturday. Right off the plane we settled into the boat and we grilled her up caribou tenderloin and veggies skewers with a side of red salmon bellies and organic carrots.
Today we ran a few errands before going to an all you can eat Alaskan King Crab, fried shrimp and cod, salmon buffet, haha, at the Grand Aleutian Hotel. We worked off our lunch by taking a three hour tour by boat from our mooring at Expedition Park around Unalaska bay to Carl E Moses marina to hide from the expected high winds coming the northwest this weekend. Along the way we stopped off at the fuel dock and our sweet halibut fishing spot. Within five minutes of the lure touching the ocean floor we had on a 25lbs cod 37 long. We reset the boat so wed drift over our fishing spot again and within 8 minutes had a halibut on the hook. The 4 halibut filets dressed out between 2 and 3 lbs. it took us longer to reel the fish up than to hook the fish.
Cheers,
Sara and Wade
Cheers,
Wade and Sara
Carl E Moses Marina Moored 53 52.201’N, 166 33.130W
No VHF Weather Signal, Great SSB Signal, We have sent the Iridium No Go off for repairs
To find where Wade, Sara, and SV Just Drifting were at noon, type or copy/paste these coordinates 53.8700166666667,-166.5521666667 into Google Maps!
