Early this year my brother approached me and asked if I would take his place in his and his buddies' annual Alaska salmon/halibut charter in August out of Sitka. He had a new job and was going to be working in the North Sea in August. After negotiations with the boss, er DW, I happily signed on. Well, around April the guy who runs the charter decided to change to a mothership operation (where you sleep and eat on a moored "mothership" instead of back in port each night) this year to avoid the 4-5 hr roundtrip commute each day to the fishing grounds. For only a few hundred dollars more for the trip, we thought "Why not?"
Well, this turned out to be just the right year to go on this trip. With ocean salmon fishing closed along the entire west coast (Ca-Or-Wa), Alaska and Canada were the only games in town. I was able to use American Airlines miles to get a free ticket on Alaska Air directly (well, not quite) from my home town to Sitka with stops in Seattle, Anchorage, and Juneau. And I got my ticket early enough to avoid the new baggage rules and get my fillets back home for $50 instead of $125 in excess baggage charges.
We had a little bad weather, and some rough seas, but overall the trip was a blast. Here is a summary of the trip.
Well, this turned out to be just the right year to go on this trip. With ocean salmon fishing closed along the entire west coast (Ca-Or-Wa), Alaska and Canada were the only games in town. I was able to use American Airlines miles to get a free ticket on Alaska Air directly (well, not quite) from my home town to Sitka with stops in Seattle, Anchorage, and Juneau. And I got my ticket early enough to avoid the new baggage rules and get my fillets back home for $50 instead of $125 in excess baggage charges.
We had a little bad weather, and some rough seas, but overall the trip was a blast. Here is a summary of the trip.