July 4th 2012...  Gwen made it to the town of Craig Alaska, and Rick survived the day.....

Well the day started out like any normal day, there was fog and a sunrise.  Rick got up at 5:10 AM and headed for the harbor.  He completed his morning boat check and created his list of locations for the 20+ boats for the day and was out by 6:20 AM heading north.  By 7:20 AM he was out off the coast of Baker island when he felt the power drop in his engine.  Since there he did not have his back-up kicker (a 9.9 hp trolling motor) he headed for the Pineapple and the Rock pile another fishing spot about a 45 minute drive through open ocean  across the inlet by Cone island and up to Noyes island.  The ride was uneventful but there was a noticeable loss of power in the motor. 

                                                     This is Pineapple Rock, do you think
                                                     is looks like a Pineapple?

About two minutes out from the Pineapple he powered back and stopped the boat to prepare for the first morning shoot of fishing boats.  He decided to check the engine just to see if there was any visible issue with it.  Once he opened the engine compartment he saw the issue.  One of the injector lines had sprung the leak and was spraying diesel fuel all over the engine and into the bilge of the boat. 

So... he shut the engine off and called for help as once the engine was off there was no way to control the boat he was dead in the water.  But he did have his camera and a fishing pole.  However there were no boats to take pictures of so he decided to fish.  Well the limit of Halibut is two and he had that limit in about 30 minutes and the support boat "Double Ott" was about 60 minutes out so he just relaxed and took images of the passing trollers.  So about two hours of mechanics work his boat was up and running and was only about to get half of the images that he normally would get in a day. 

     Looking East from Cape Ulitka on the north side of Noyes Island

Once he returned from his events on a water he gave his fish to the fish cutters and returned to the dock to get his camera equipment and clean up the boat.  On the way back he was talking to a fellow crew member who was repairing the ramp to the dock.  So as normal Rick was talking more and paying attention less to where he was walking.  During the day one of the broken boats was placed at the top of the ramp on a boat cradle.  While talking and not paying attention Rick ran headlong into the boat with his forehead.  Well long story short, Gwen got to ride with Rick on an 45 minute emergency boat run into Craig Alaska and visit the Minor Medical Clinic for five stitches to his forehead.  That was not what she was wanting to do on her first trip "off the island".

Today we actually had the first time that Gwen and my day off coincided, but still were unable to get "off the island".  We were able to sleep in and take a three hour hike.  What a beautiful day...

One last image to leave you with.

Are we really that far out in nature.....?

And are the animals really that wild....?