The Fish-Buyer’s Tale

Being an account of a season operating a tender, sort of a fish-buyer/mothership, taking care of fishermen in remote locations, with lots of digressions..

The Night Before

Fishermen’s Terminal, Seattle, June 3, 1983:

All is ready, but unlike my pregnant wife, Mary Lou, beside me, I cannot sleep. Tomorrow early we will slip our lines, pass through the locks into the salt water of Puget Sound to travel up the almost 1000 mile Inside Passage to begin our six month Alaska salmon mothership season. We will buy fish in remote areas, transporting them to a cannery many hours away in the refrigerated sea water of our 70’ boat.

Yesterday we loaded 13 shopping carts of groceries into the deckhouse on our stern, then the 500 pound meat order into the double deep freezers up on the flying bridge. Some are for us, but most are for our fishermen, who spend months in remote waters, but depend on us for groceries, fuel and water.

I’ve gone over the charts, the tide book, the light list - no GPS then, so its navigation the old fashioned way. Checked over the engine, the refrigeration, as we will be usually distant from any help. But still, we have a year’s pay to make in a few short months and much can go wrong. So sleep comes hard.

For more great stories check out Joe’s Alaska Story Map at alaskamaps.com

EJ crew, June 1982: Joe Upton, Mary Lou Upton, Eric Bergstrom, and Bob Perkins, guest along for the ride up the Inside Passage.