It began the way it always does, with a phone call. “Kate, do you want to go hunting in Alaska?” He sometimes calls me mom, but in recent years mostly “Kate”. It’s not with disrespect— we have become friends.
“Count me in,” came my immediate reply. I even extended my trip by putting two extra days on both ends. Edgar lives on a trawler just outside of the Houston ship channel. I enjoy a little time on that boat. Thursday I flew to Houston and Edgar picked me up at the airport. We drove straight to the Bow Out, the 1973 40-foot DeFever PassageMaker. I dropped off my luggage and he took me out to dinner for some “catching up” and contemplation of the adventure ahead. We were off to hunt sitka deer, the small black-tailed deer native to southeastern Alaska. The conversation drifted from logistics of getting to Prince of Whales Island, our hunting destination, to our hopes for the hunt itself. The “what ifs” and “whens” exhausted, we headed back to the Bow Out for a great night’s sleep. I rest very well on that old boat.
The next morning Edgar got up early and headed off to work. He makes that forty-eight mile rush hour drive every morning to downtown Houston. I didn’t get up until almost eight. I enjoyed a leisurely coffee on the fly bridge in the hot Houston morning. Then I spent some time getting a little “house” cleaning out of the way. The captain will come back to a clean ship.
The one hundred-plus degree afternoon was a good time for me to take care of some business calls inside the comfortable air-conditioned galley…. no matter how much I enjoy the view from the upper deck. Edgar arrived after work and we packed up and went to Leigh’s, through Houston’s Friday night traffic. They took me out for a Vietnamese dinner, then back to the house for packing hunting and fishing gear. Showers and bed did not come nearly as early as that 3AM alarm.
Next up: On the first full day of our adventure, we found ourselves in an all-out airport sprint, and got our first glimpse of the quirky town of Ketchikan… a place where salmon runs and cruise ships oddly intersect.
-Kate Riley
