Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

  I took my oldest daughter Jennifer out fishing with me a week ago. She enjoys being outside when the weather is sunny, even if it's kind of cold. As you can see from the top picture, it was chilly that morning when we started out. I asked her why she just didn't come inside if she was cold, but she wanted to experience the outdoors first hand, cold or not. She spends all week inside, which is fine when it's rainy or snowy, but when the weather starts to turn she chomps at the bit to get out. It was my second time dropping some lines this year. We had gotten a late start and the wind was blowing a bit,so I opted to just go to Point Sophia and troll around. There wasn't much sign of feed or fish, but we had to try anyway.  I heard from a few people the other day that there were some fish out in Cross Sound, but I'm not going to go out there right now. There's a relatively small area to fish in and I don't feel like being in with a ...

   A few days ago I went down to the harbor to do something on the boat and I saw a lot of unusual activity on the transit dock. Upon closer examination I saw that the old wooden seiner the Hollywood sank at the dock. Several months ago I had mentioned to the harbormaster that it looked like it was setting down a little bit. I can't remember what the response was. A week or so ago it was really starting to look  like it was taking on water, but I didn't give it much thought. It was docked right where everyone who came to the harbor would see it, so it wasn't a surprise that it was looking a little shaky. I think there was ample opportunity for the powers that be, either the owner or the harbormaster to deal with it, but obviously that didn't happen. You know that old saying- there's never enough time to do it right but there's always enough time to do it over." ? Well, this was kind of like that. The owner was out getting ready for a se...

This past Sunday the first cruise ships of the season showed up. I  have mixed feelings about it. Those of you who know me understand how I feel. I know that the ships provide employment for a certain segment of the local population, but like everything, there is a cost involved. The folks who live here who have very little or nothing to do with the tourist industry have to deal with all the ramifications of hundreds of people being unloaded, many of whom are from a foreign country with different cultures and values. They don't seem to understand that Hoonah isn't Disneyland and we aren't all employees here. The number one complaint that most folks here have is that the people walk in the middle of the streets without regard for the cars that are trying to get somewhere. That being said, I will say again as I've said before- if you are going somewhere as a tourist, please be respectful of the local population. You are a guest, regardless of whether or not you are spendi...