Jos's
written fishing diary
is from the early summer of '94 with captain Perry on the Dolly B
out of Seward.
(I can't find a picture of the Dolly B.)
His audio recollections describe the later part of the summer with captains Brad and Mac whose boats worked out of Homer. Alongside is a picture of Brad's boat, the Omega. Below is a picture of Mac's boat, the Anna Maria.
It's an understatement to say that an ocean fisherman's life has times of great stress. On the first 30 minutes of the tape, Jos tells us how Brad and Mac were very different kinds of captains and how he dealt with life on their boats.
The audio tape he left us begins abruptly; it seems some introduction might be lost. Jos is describing the process that salmon seiners use to close up the net. His job "plunging" is to make a lot of noise in the gap through which the fish could escape. First words on the tape are, "The salmon jump a lot...."
It sounds like good fun, but I recall a conversation with Jos where he said he didn't mind the work being repetitive but he didn't like finding himself rethinking the same thoughts as they repeated the same work. To make better use of his mental time, he asked us to mail him a book from which he could learn Icelandic language. (We sent him the book but he found it too hard.)
Not on the tape is another vignette: As the boat winches in the net, someone in rain gear (Jos) stands beneath the incoming net in a drizzle of salt water pulling out jelly fish, seaweed, and hopefully some salmon.
These boat pictures look idyllic in this calm water.
Real life is another story altogether.
Dutch Harbor is at the left end of the map.
Visualize Mac's little boat far out in the Pacific
beyond the major islands of the Aleutian chain
where they caught their
big fish.
Jos was quite proud of his "Dutch Harbor" sweatshirt above. That's a place very few tourists get to see. But it's the major harbor for ship haven, supply, and repair in the central North Pacific.
On the last 20 minutes
of the audio tape,
Jos tells us of his tourguiding life at
the historic Kennecott Mine
in McCarthy, Alaska.
"Thoughts on Tape"
Jos streaming in MP3 format
Other Jos Alaska links: Fishing diary. Big fish. Audio tape diary. Election campaign. American Country Magazine. Mine guiding. Home video