ALASKA PHOTO ALBUM

A Fishing Story - 1989 the f/v My Colleen
by C. C. Crow photos by author

Late fall 1988 and winter of 1989 I helped my nextdoor neighbor Les Meredith build the f/v My Colleen, a 35 foot, 11 ft. beam, gillnet (sockeye salmon) fishing vessel licensed in Cook Inlet, Kenai, Alaska.

Les, a high school biology teacher at the time, would pick me up after school and we would drive to Stanwood, 40 miles north, and we'd work till 10 or so each night. It was a "kit" boat. The factory, Lindell Boat Works, laid the fiberglass haul and cabin, and placed the motor, a Cat 3208 diesel, and we did the rest. They provided all the materials, tools and we the labor. Les concentrated on the interior details while I worked on the electrical.

In a short 12 weeks the boat was ready to launch. Fitting continued at the Wards Cove dock on Lake Union and we prepared for departure as soon as Les was finished with school. As a reward for my help I was invited along on the trip and took full advantage of the opportunity, placing my BMW motorcycle in the fish hold.

As the June 14th departure came closer and closer we raced around to make sure all was aboard and ready. Back and forth, here and there. This in stark contrast to what lay ahead: 1500 miles in an 11 by 35 ft. platform that goes 12 mph! Good thing we brought that cribbage board.

Les's daughter Lori and deckhand Rob finished up the crew as we traveled up The Inside Passage, stopping in Nanaimo, Bella Bella, Prince Rupert, Ketchikan, Wrangell, Baranof. All winter Les had talked about these places and many more, such as Juneau, Sitka, Glacier Bay, but as time became reality the captain's focus narrowed on opening day and missing those 10-dollar bills (an average Sockeye). I started thinking, "what kind of cruise ship is these?" On the brink of mutiny Les realized even if we pushed all day and night we would not make the first opening so we relaxed and went on vacation spending two nights in Glacier Bay, one of the most spectacular stops on our journey.

The wide-open waters of the Pacific, crossing the Gulf of Alaska, was our next challenge. Anchored in remote Elfin Cove, we departed Icy Straight early morning, following the coast northward. Poor weather and choppy seas made us seek shelter in Yakutat Bay midway on June 25th, my birthday. We were not too excited about leaving the next day but fair weather and calm seas greeted us as we continued north to enter Prince William Sound the following morning. On March 24th of that year the Exxon Valdez ran aground spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil. The pristine beauty of the place is unsurpassed, akin to what the Puget Sound must have been before white men arrived if you can imagine. As we departed the west end of the sound we passed an oil spill cleanup crew, in everything from ocean-going barges, tugs and fishing boats, down to skiffs and individual men on their hands and knees scrubbing rocks one by one by hand, this on about one quarter mile of beach out of the 1200 miles of contaminated shoreline.

Our next stop was Seward, in Resurrection Bay, where we unloaded my motorcycle. I'd pick it up later after a train trip to Denali Park, and travel back home solo by a combination of road and ferry. Finally, we arrived in Kenai at the Wards Cove cannery only to find the season on hold due to the oil spill. We passed time anchored in Snug Harbor hunting bears, 21 grizzles with our cameras, catching buckets full of razor clams, fishing, playing cards, reading and sightseeing.

This is perhaps the all time hard-luck fishing story of working all winter to build a fishing boat, risking life and limb (they don't call it Yukatat for nothing) to get there, only to find the season was on hold due to oil contamination in the fish. Les joined the class-action suit which was initially rewarded $5 billion in punitive damages, now cut in half to $2.5 billion, of which Exxon has yet to pay a dime 18 years later. Exxon's profits for 2006 were 39 billion dollars. Big Oil at it's greasiest!

Les and crew waited another two weeks while I flew to Anchorage and caught the train to Denali National Park then back down to Seward to pick up my motorcycle and the trip back home, taking about three very enjoyable weeks, stopping in Haines, Skagway, Sitka, Juneau, Ketchikan, Prince Rupert and Vancouver Island. 30 miles from home I hit a dog on I-5 at about 65 mph. It was not a pleasant experience for both of us. Still, it was one of the greatest trips of my life, none of it possible without my friend and neighbor Captain Les.

Fishing with Les - 1996

This story always seemed incomplete as I never got to see the f/v My Colleen in action, fishing, so when Les asked what I was doing in the summer of 1996, if I'd deckhand for him, I said yes. The promise of quick riches was gone. We were paid 95 cents per pound for sockeye that was $3.50/lb pre-oil spill. While you would think there would be a bounty of fish after not catching any in 1989 the effect was just the opposite. With so many fish upstream there wasn't enough food to go around for their offspring so the returning fish were fewer and less healthy than if they had been harvested. I think it would have been better if we were allowed to fish using them for non-human consumption, fertilizer, or whatever. While you want to think they are wild fish- with man's hand in there they are not at a natural balance. It is a controlled fishery. At any rate, years later, the fishery had still not recovered fully. Still, it was a wonderful experience to see fish in the hold. And it is an incredibly beautiful place to work and play.

Clint Crow, Mukilteo, Washington

 E-mail: Clint Crow

The photo album is broken up into three main sections: 1989 building the boat and sailing up The Inside Passage to Kenai; my solo motorcycle trip back home; and then my return in 1996 as a deckhand for Les on the f/v My Colleen.

Click on the titles below.