My Uncle, who is a commercial fisherman and also has his own net making business often contacts me from Alaska with pretty good stories. However, this one tops all of the previous ones by far (there are actually two, one bird related, and one kinda bird related), and I thought some of you might like to hear it.
Now when I first saw the email title, "stow away", I was thinking who in their right mind wants to stow away into the Bering Sea during Winter. I will let you find out what really went on 
. Please excuse the lengthy story, he likes to write. 
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The continuing updates will be posted as their own individual posts in this thread.
Part 1: This post
Part 2: Post #7 Page #1
Part 3: Post #10 Page #1
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Hello Evan,
We departed Dutch for the yellowfin grounds yesterday evening around
seven. We have arrived at the grounds but Loren, the captain, is
looking around for decent fish sign. We are ready to set the net when
he gives the word.
Two unusual things happened while we were in town:
When we come into Dutch Harbor we usually tie up the boat at a
facility called Off Shore Incorporated (OSI). OSI consists of several
docks and steel storage sheds, a gear yard and fresh water resivour
located up a hill from the docks, and lots of heavy equipment such at
front end loaders, fork lifts and mobile cranes. There is also a yard
that at any one time can stage hundreds of freezer vans stacked up to
four high. The vans are loaded with frozen fish from factory
processor boats and then later loaded onto trampers which deliver the
fish to Seattle and elsewhere. OSI is located in a bay about five
miles outside of town.
There are a lot of bald eagles that nest in the cliffs above OSI. When
we pull up to the docks the eagles come down to pick through our nets
and codends for any fish we did not remove on the way into town.
During the colder months the picking is pretty good for the eagles
because we are more lax about getting all of the fish off the deck
than during the summer months since maggots and the stench of decaying
fish are not a problem when it is cold. It is not uncommon to have
fifteen to twenty eagles on deck while we are in town. The eagles
squabble a bit when it is just them on the boat but things get more
interesting when the ravens show up. Because the eagles are larger
than ravens an eagle can drive a single raven away. Usually though the
ravens work together with one or more ravens rushing an eagle while
another grabs the best fish and flies off with it. The ravens seem
fearless and are tireless and give the eagles the fits. Often when the
ravens show up the eagles eventually give up and just fly off.
Seagulls also come down to the boat when we are in town and when we
are at sea, are almost always near by. When the eagles are around
though the gulls stay clear or keep a watchful eye on the eagles since
the eagles will attack and eat the gulls if it is convenient for them.
Usually though eagles don't bother with the gulls because although
they can fly faster than the gulls, the gulls have a tighter turning
radius and can easily evade the eagles. This time in town though a
gull must have been distracted because an eagle caught up with it and
was having it for lunch on a bale of netting we have stowed on our
upper deck. Paul, the deck boss, saw it happen but all I saw was the
eagle picking feathers from the gull and then later just a couple of
bloody, mostly featherless gull wings.
OK, Paul just came out for his morning cup of coffee and I asked him
what happened. He said "It was awesome." Apparently the seagull was
flying by the boat, looking down on the deck for fish. The eagle dove
on the gull, caught it mid-air and then landed on the netting to kill
it and eat. I have only seen an eagle catch a gull once, also in the
air, so I assume it's a fairly rare event.
There are a lot of foxes on Unalaska Island. During the winter it is
not uncommon to see tracks in the snow in OSI's gear yard and
occasionally I have seen foxes up there or crossing the dirt road by
the docks, always in winter. I think they go up into the hills when
the weather warms up.
This time in town we woke up in the morning to a fox hiding behind our
port trawl winch on the back (trawl) deck. Apparently during the night
the fox had come down to the docks from the gear yard, made its way up
our gangway to the upper deck, traveled down a set of steps to the
back deck, probably looking for fish, and then could not find its way
back off the boat. Paul and I went about our business working on our
net then went into town for groceries. When we came back we did not
see the fox and figured it had made its way off the boat.
About noon we tossed our tie up lines and tied up alongside the mother
ship, the Seafreeze Alaska, to offload some pallets of the Seafreeze's
food from our hold onto the Seafreeze. The Seafreeze wasn't ready for
us so Paul and I drove back into town to pick up some last minute
things. When we came back the Seafreeze's deck boss was unusually
animated telling us that there was a fox on our back deck. We crossed
over to our boat and went down to the deck. Sure enough, the fox had
made its way back to its hidey hole behind the port trawl winch. Paul
went into the house and came back out with an old sleeping bag, I
guess to throw onto the fox to try to capture it. Every time Paul
approached the fox though, it scurried below the deck boards and Paul
was not able to get to it. I did a google search for the Humane
Society in Dutch Harbor but did not come up with anything.
After standing by for about six hours we finally offloaded the
Seafreeze's food, tossed our lines and headed for the fishing grounds.
After stowing away my lines, I handle the stern lines, I took another
look behind the port trawl winch and caught a glimpse of the fox. I
wrote the fox off as an unfortunate casualty of the fishing industry.
As I was heading into the house though, Mr. 6'4", 280 pounds, long
haired, heavily tattooed, bad attitude deck boss Paul Headington came
back with something in his hand. It was a change from his normal
pattern so I took another look as he went back to the winch. I asked
him what he was doing and he was a little bit embarrassed. "Oh it's
just some old lunch meat I've been wanting to get rid of." I was
thinking, ya right Paul, and when was the last time you cleaned out
the fridge, maybe never?
This morning as I was sitting out in the factory under the heater
writing this email, sarcastic, cynical, politically incorrect Kirk
Hogel, one of the best engineers I have sailed with, passed through
the factory toward the back deck carrying a frozen drum stick. I
didn't even ask. A few minutes later Paul came through with a bowl of
water.
So we have a stow away. I don't give it much of a chance of surviving
the trip but I will keep you updated.
That is all for now.
Love, David
