After making a post on April 18th that my 3 week vacation and cruise to Japan, Russia and Alaska was about to begin, I joked that I would keep an eye out for the guys on the show The Deadliest Catch which features rough and tumble men risking their lives on the Bering Sea to bring you and I some of the best crab in the world, Alaskan King Crab. FlamingO posted a link with her reply for a site where you could post your close encounters with the show's crew.
After 12 days in Japan, Russia and rough days in the Bering Sea, we arrived in Kodiak Island, Alaska on May 4th. The land of Kodiak bears, Bald Eagles and abundant fishing was pouring rain and cold but we had only one day there so we decided to make the best of it.
We went to the local Visitor's Center, local museum and walked around a boat harbor that was all but deserted except for three soaking wet bald eagles sitting atop boat masts.
It was tough to take pictures because the rain was coming down so hard but I managed to take a few before I got tired of trying to stay dry and warm. We soon headed back to the Visitor's Center to see about a tour.
We were told that on occasion a guy and his van pull into the parking lot to offer private 3 hour tours and as luck would have it, our timing was perfect, he had just pulled up to the center.
The guy's name was Dake and his warm, roomy van was brand new and had huge picture windows which he managed to keep clean despite the weather.
Once Dake started the van, he handed us a basket of snacks and drinks in case we were hungry and told us our wish was his command. Any place we wanted to go, any thing we wanted to see, he would take us. If we didn't have a clue about Kodiak Island, he would be our guide.
He was quite knowledgeable about the island and took us places I'm certain no commercial tour guide would have gone. If we made a sound like "oh" or "darn", he'd push the brakes and ask if we wanted him to back up or stop so we could take pictures.
The guy was just a saint, so I thought I'd test him one more time. I told him I had been kind of challenged by a gal on the internet to find one of the Deadliest Catch guys. Did he know where the boat might be? He said he loved a challenge and, "not only do I know of it, I will take you to it if it's in port." So he drove us off to a small harbor. We got out to take a look and sure enough, there she was, down a long dock, the turquoise blue Cornelia Marie. I was grinning ear to ear.
Below are photos I took during that adventure. The first one is a stack of crab pots, the baskets they drop into the wild Bering Sea to pluck the crabs for the ocean floor. That is followed by the long pier where the Cornelia Marie (CM) was docked. Then a nice photo of Dake and me and a couple fisherman headed for the CM. As we turned to walk away from the CM, there was a huge, as in 4 ft across the shoulder Stellar Seal in the water about 15 ft from us. Looking up, we saw a water-logged Bald Eagle snacking on a fish. Here he has just raised his head up so I got a pretty clear shot of him despite the heavy raindrop that were falling quicker than I could clean my camera lens.
So that's our adventure...all started by a comment Flamey made in a old post of mine. Thanks featherbutt, you make for great adventure! :-)
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Jodi-
Here is a link that might be useful: The Cornelia Marie
diane_sw_mich
cherbo
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