CatchCon 2011: Part One- Sailing, Sailing!

 CatchCon!

Well, I'm finally posting about Seattle where another round of Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch convention, CatchCon took place. Like the previous CatchCons, it was full overrun with fans and fishermen alike! Of course, my experience is usually a bit deviated from the norm at these events, and this year was no exception.

The flight into Seattle was the standard cross country adventure, nothing to write home about... or blog about for that matter. The ride home however was a terror-filled, white-knuckled panic fest, but I'm getting ahead of myself. After landing, I met up with my fabulous friend, the wonderful Cindi, since she was landing only a half-hour after I did. Together, we grabbed our bags, headed outside and met up with our friend Lynn and two of his friends Brianna and Danielle, who were good enough to come pick us up from the airport. Lynn and Cindi are pretty much bff, and he's just a great guy all around.

 Me, Brianna, Cindi, Keith, Danielle, and Lynn at The Market Arms... good times!

We ended up in Ballard at a little establishment called the Market Arms, just outside of PacFish, where we met up with Keith, Monte, Lenny, Gary, and a few of other people. It was a fun night of swapping stories, playing a few darts, and  making new friends and catching up with old ones. However, it was getting late, heading towards the 2 A.M. mark, and we all had an early morning coming at us hard, so we turned it in for the night. The morning would bring us back to PacFish for our annual visit to the F/V Wizard!

Once the lines were untied, we started off pretty quickly. Unfortunately, Monte and the new greenhorn Danny were still standing on the deck of the Pinnacle! However, Keith maneuvered the boat close enough for them to hop aboard, no man left behind on the Wizard!

 Lynn! He's becoming a seasoned vet of the CatchCon shindiggery now.

 Craig Terrill was kind enough to pose for a pic with Jackie and me.

We had a huge crowd on the Wizard this year for the morning crossing. Craig Terrill from the Seattle Seahawks, several people from Discovery Channel, friends and family of the crew, Peter Moran from Rezin Marketing, who does a great job for the Wizard, and then there was us! It was a gorgeous morning for a boat ride.

Norwegians!

 Of course, the F/V Northwestern was gearing up for the ride over as well... 

...Complete with camera crew!

Captain Sig Hansen. Sig wasn't on the boat by the time we arrived at the Locks. I'm not sure if he hopped aboard or drove over to the pier actually. All I know is that he showed up at some point after the boats docked.

We make this same face and take this same picture at every single event we attend together. We're awesome. 

 Here's a shot of a lot of the folks with us for the day on the bow of the boat. Discovery, business partners, deckhands, and a Seahawk or two are all enjoying the ride. Still, I think Jax and I had the best seats in the house.

Riding high! Jackie and I get a great view from the top of the F/V Wizard's Wheelhouse.

We had a stowaway or two make their way to the deck as well! It seemed a few ravens wanted to take the ride from the terminal to the pier! 

Beautiful!

I thought this was a nice shot of Gary Soper. Soper's a cool guy, quiet, but with a great sense of humor. It's always nice to get to see him when I'm around for one of the functions. You'll probably recognize him from the cover of Season 6's DVD box! 

I always love sailing in and seeing the city appear in the distance. The grey, cloud-filled sky just screams "Seattle!"

And, what ride into Seattle would be complete without a picture of the Space Needle?

As we were sailing in, a Coast Guard chopper seemed to appear out of nowhere and fly directly over the boat! I've only seen them two other times, once at a previous CatchCon during a rescue demonstration, and again in Panama City, FL after a very tragic double red flag day when they were out searching for several bodies. The memories are chilling, one for what could happen, the other, for what did.

Thank you, US Coast Guard, for all you do!

 There it is, The Bell Harbor Conference Center, and the pier I've come to know so well. The next day will be a long one...

And, as always, I'm loving every minute of it! Next up, docking the boat, "hey, look, it's Edgar," and other shenanigans.

Sailing in Seattle...F/V North American Style!

At last post, I had just boarded my plane at the Fairbanks airport. The flight was uneventful I assume, given that I passed out like a narcoleptic on Ambien as soon as I settled into my seat. I woke up as we hit the tarmac in Seattle. My face was pressed into the window, my contacts were glued to my sleep-crusted eyes, and I'm pretty sure I might have drooled a little.  This was also the start of day three without a shower, and make-up was but a distant memory.

I was looking good.

Anyway, I had a brief layover in Seattle, long enough to do breakfast with a friend, but not much else. Long story short, he wasn't able to meet up early thanks to (lamely) injuring himself. It was quickly looking like my back-up plan of falling asleep on my backpack like a hobo at the bus station was going to come to fruition. However, he called me back shortly thereafter and told me to go get a later flight so that we could still hang.

I was unaware I could do this.

He told me being the bum that he is, he often misses his flights and just asks for another one. At worst, they charge him about seventy five bucks. My next flight was actually slightly delayed so they let me change it without any trouble. Awesome.

After various rigmaroles, we ended up meeting under the Troll bridge.

 He is...an Enchanter. There are those that call him...Trav.

I regretted the fact that I didn't have a fanciful hat to accompany his...or even a shrubbery, but well, what can you do? Me. I jumped in his Corvette and we took off towards the Fisherman's Terminal. In addition to being skilled in the ways of humor and haberdashery, Trav is a crab fisherman...you might have seen him on Deadliest Catch Season 4. He also has a fantastic book out about his experiences fishing and aboard the F/V North American:

Buy it on Amazon.com

You should buy it.

Today the aforementioned F/V North American was due for sea trials. Basically, we were (by we, I mean the crew and not me) checking the boat out to make sure it was seaworthy.

This was not my first time on a crab boat. I work for Keith Colburn, Capt. of the F/V Wizard, running his website along with my friend Mystic. I've also done some t-shirt work for the Wizard and North American, logo design for the Sea Star and Deadliest Deckhands...with a little more in the works now. If you're a fan of the show, you'll recognize some of these boats.

Here's the Wiz, Pinnacle (HUGE!) and the Arctic Fury.

...and a little side view action.

The Early Dawn. 

It was a beautiful day, but it was hot. Stupidly hot. It was the kind of hot that makes you angry at the fact that the sun exists. If I recall, the temperature was 105 with a heat index of August in Hell. So, while the guys were outside prepping the boat for sailing, I ducked into Trav's cool, dark room and passed out on his bunk for about two hours. It was wonderful. I woke up to us getting underway for the Ballard Locks. I always enjoy a trip through the locks...well, when it isn't packed. There are always people on the sides waving and snapping pics and today was no exception.

 

 Going through the Ballard Locks

 

Trav giving the ladies on the yacht behind us an eyeful...or Trav getting an eyeful of the ladies on the yacht.

Finally, we hit some open water.

Trav and I goofed around for a bit before the serious business of running a boat had to take over for a while.

Everything was going pretty smoothly, except the anchor. There were some problems with the wench and the line, or so they tell me. All I know is it didn't sound good. It didn't sound good at all. Hank and Trav are working on releasing the line here or guiding it or something else equally nautical.

John Skarr keeping his eyes on the anchor and the wench.

You know that part in Dumb and Dumber that goes a little something like this:



 Yeah, well, that's what a screeching anchor wench sounds like. This went on for...I don't know, about 30 minutes or 900 hours. One of those.

No offense Capt. Earling, but I really don't think that's going to cut it.

 Eventually, they hoisted the heathen and we started sailing back to Ballard.

During the return trip, I took a few more shots around the interior. For a crab boat, the NA is actually a fairly nice ride. Here's a quick little tour:

  

The wheelhouse. 

I think this is the Captain's Bunk, so either Earling's or Sten's depending who's aboard at the time.

 

The Captain's dining area. It's not really a galley, since all the food prep areas are downstairs...but still, swankified. I don't recall any of the other boats having two 'dining rooms'.

The deck was pretty open given that it isn't stacked with crab pots. You can see the coiler, block, and launcher in front of Travis, the crane to his left, and Hank walking on top of what I'm calling the shelter deck. Obviously, those NA guys really like their dining options. Here we've got a third, 'al fresco' seating choice.

 That's the motto of many a Bering Sea crab boat Captain. 

Finally, we passed back through the Locks, headed into Pacfish, docked the boat, and tried to decide what to do with the rest of the day. We all would have loved to have jumped into the water for a bit to cool off, but well, you don't really do that in a ship yard...

unless you want to play BP and the oil spill.

Eventually, Trav and I headed down to the Sea Star  so he could drop off some files and discuss a little business. I wandered around and browsed in the shop. I grabbed a shirt with my logo on it...gratis of course! Per contractual agreement on this artwork, payment consisted of specific sum, a shirt with the printed logo, and a sandwich of my choosing with the stipulation of extra cheese. So far, I'm still waiting on that sandwich...Travis.

The crab on the final version is red but I don't have that file with me and I don't care enough at the moment to find it.

After the Sea Star, Trav and I left to have dinner with his family and then hook up with some friends of his out in Seattle...but we had to go to Costco first at the request of his mom...which was exciting for me because I'd never been to one. Sad, I know. Still, I love the fact that you can buy orange juice, a mattress, and a pair of jeans in the same isle. Two gallons of milk and a pack of Swedish Fish later, we hit the Seattle Center  hoping to catch a laser show. Sadly, it was already over by the time we got there, but I'd never been to the top of the Space Needle, so that's what we did instead...

But first we played on some public art.

The night-scape of the city was really lovely from the top. We hung out for a few minutes eating Swedish Fish and laughing about something I no longer remember. However, this trip, as all good things must, had to end, and like Cinderella, my coach (seat) was leaving at Midnight. So, once again, I was off to the airport...more hugs, more goodbyes, more lines at security. By this point, I really was utterly exhausted. All I remember was that I got on the plane, and woke up as we landed...got on another plane and woke up as we landed, and finally, got on another plane and woke up as we landed...and then drove to work.

DROVE. TO. WORK.

And that's the real world for you. (At least there's a shower at the gym!)