I'm in the Anchorage airport. My favorite hideout here if you are ever looking for me is the Observation Deck and Native Art gallery up the stairs across from Chili's. It always seems to be under construction, but there is wireless, outlets, comfy chairs and a wide vista of airplanes coming and going.

I apologize for no new entries. I arrived home from Anchorage on Wednesday and went for a cleansing walk with Paul. It was about 10 degrees and felt wonderful to be out with the clean new snow hiding the grunge.

On Thursday, I spent the day planning and delivering a math course on eLive. It's free to anyone who wants to audit. Check my other blog "activemiddlemath.blogspot.com" for a schedule of topics and how to sign on. The first session on brain research was kinda boring, but the next 6 are all focused on hands-on activities organized by standard.

My sister and brother in-law from California have been visiting from Friday until today. We had a relaxing weekend....chat and chew, my two favorite pastimes.

We talked a little about fishing since they are having a house built on the Kenai River. Paul always says that fishing isn't about catching fish, but he was singing a different tune when we commercial fished.

We bought the boat in 1985 when Ben was 2 and Erin was 8. The Jerry B had a foc's'le with 3 small bunks and a galley large enough for everyone to sit around the table. The boat was clean, but had a gas engine. We had about $1000 alloted to pay for the expenses of bringing up the boat from Ballard to Haines. We were going to have to get the compass set, a depth sounder, radar buy the food and raingear we needed and use any remaining money for nautical charts.

The boat, a 40 ft. double-ender was set up for trolling and we had a hand troll permit. The mast was as tall as the boat was long- 40 ft. and had large poles that would cant 45 degrees when fishing or to balance in bad weather. The lines were cranked in from the back of the boat. The hold cover was exactly centered in the back or (stern) end of the boat. The boat was painted blue/gray and brown at first, but as the bleeders (rust lines) got worse, it was painted darker.

The first time we took the boat out with the former owner, we cast off the dock and went down to Lake Washington. It was crazy- there were jet skis, sailboats, rowboats, swimmers, water-skiers, etc. Paul and the owner turned over the wheel to me for about 15 minutes making sure I knew vessels with less control (like sails or people power) had the right of way to go down to the engine room. Omigosh! It was scary- I was afraid I would ram someone since this was my first time in a big boat- much less driving one!

We spent about a week, prepping the boat and getting up our nerve. We lived aboard, sleeping in the foc's'le and hanging the diapers out on the mast. When the tour boat went by with it's bullhorn announcing that the fleet was preparing to head out, there was Paul hanging out diapers to dry. Ben had a rope hooked to his lifejacket on one end and the mast on the other. He could go all over the stern and up to the scuppers, but couldn't fall over. We hooked him on whenever he was on deck. We all wore float coats or life jackets whenever we were out on deck. I went up to the top of the wheelhouse to wire the radar- Paul's color blindedness made him useless for matching up the color-coded wires.

The day finally came and we were pretty excited about heading out. We had to go through the locks. When the locks are open to your side, you sidle up and loop your lines along the cleats. While the water goes up or down, leveling you for Lake Washington or Puget Sound, you let out or take in the lines so that you don't end up hanging on the wall. Out in the Sound! It was a beautiful day! Why was that boat in the radar behind us? We'd put it on backwards (and fixed it the first night out).

We headed north up to the San Juan Islands- beautiful, expensive, yuppie settlements on little islands. We got on the wrong side of an island and really didn't know where we were until we asked a passing sailboat and found ourselves. Our navigation system was mostly dead reckoning, but we had Loran (a triangulation locator) in the areas where we had Loran
maps.

Everyday of the two week trip was an adventure and we really learned some valuable lessons. Ben and Erin liked to sit up in the bow and bounce around or sit on the back deck on the cooler. We waved to all the other boats- the other fishing boats were steaming North non-stop to get there for fishing, but we took our time. One night we anchored up in Secret Harbor. It was full of sailboats and yachts. Some of the crews took their shore skiffs to a restaurant to pick up carry outs. We used our Coleman stove to cook and eat out on deck. We had a little solar shower (that never even broke a sweat) and took quick showers by standing in the hold with the bag dripping icy water down upon us. At night, there was a brisk wind and a sailboat slowly slid by dragging anchor, Paul had to convince the crewman who was gesticulating at him that anchors don't drag "upwind" and that he was actually the one moving.

We had to run the rapids in 3 places. We had the Coast Pilot, our bible, to tell us about the currents and tides and hung out in a wide spot waiting for slack tide before running the rapids. We finally got up our nerve and followed some boats through- when your boat only goes 7 knots, you don't want the currents to go faster in the other direction. Exhilarating!

Lots more boat adventures. Stay tuned...I'm going to get ready to board the plane for Bethel.