When The Fishing Boats Go Out

The weather has been pretty rugged lately.

The sky has been full of rain and clouds for the better part of two weeks, with only very brief glimpses of sun breaking the routine.

Every once in a while, sometimes for just minutes a day, a strange yellow ball appears briefly in the sky and then disappears again behind seemingly ever-present clouds.

Two days ago we had pouring rain and winds blowing over 50 mph.

Power went out off and on all morning, and by lunch time 80% of the city was in the dark, and work came to a standstill.

With people standing around in the building waiting for the lights to come back on I called the local electricity company. 

At that point they did not know exactly where the problem was, how widespread the problem was nor how long the power would be out.

As soon as I got off the phone someone walked into the building and reported that their bus driver had said that the power would be off for about an hour.

From that point on if someone walked into the building and asked about the power, they heard from wanderers-in- the-dark that the power would be out for an hour.

I had to laugh and just shake my head. 

It was so, because the bus driver said it was so.

Crazy thing is that the power came back on within the hour...........

The sun actually shone for a couple of hours today before the sky turned to grey again but I missed it all, tied up in paperwork that was due......a while ago. 

Trying to play catch up, and making a big dent but still only partially catching up.........

I stopped on the way home from work at Auke Bay - about 1/4 mile from the ferry terminal.

This place contains a long metal ramp, and there are, throughout the spring, summer and fall, numerous wonderful working class boats that dock here.

It is a very beautiful place. 

It smells like fish all summer.

It has beautiful mountain and channel views. 

It is very close to the condo where I stayed for only a few weeks when I first arrived in Juneau in January.

This morning the mountains here were a combination of low and long thin lines of fog that extended all the way from Auke Bay along the channel and then continuing through the mountains over on Douglas.

It looked very lovely this morning, and I should have stopped for a few minutes to really enjoy it and picture it, and I regret that I did not.

And so I resolved to stop here tonight...........

Today was the first time I have seen one of these vessels in Auke Bay - a barge transporting vehicles.  

This barge contained six private vehicles and one commercial box truck.

They were loading when I first arrived at the ramp....... 

After watching the Glacier for a while I walked down the ramp to the end, as I always do when I come here.

The water was calm.  The sky was grey.

I stood for a minute enjoying the calmness of the late afternoon, and enjoying the simple quiet of where I was. 

While standing there I saw the familiar and beautiful dark blue and white colors of the Alaska Marine Highway ferries.

I watched as the ferry silently travelled across the channel and moved into the cove closer to the terminal. 

I watched as this fast ferry slowed down as it moved closer, and then stood watching in interest as this very maneuvable vessel easily worked its way sideways so that it could come to rest alongside the columns at the terminal...........

After watching the ferry come into port I directed my attention back to the barge, and realized that although it was now filled with vehicles and was now billowing smoke, it was not moving.

I walked back to the side of the ramp to watch it more closely, wondering what the problem was.

A fisherman on one of the docked boats told me that he had a car on the barge and that the barge was stuck on the bottom.

I walked to the top of the ramp and watched as the dozer that had been on the barge unloaded, pushed against the barge, and then loaded back onto the ship.

I did not stay around to see if the boat eventually made it further into the water so it could move on down the channel, but am sure that it did.

Interesting to watch............

Yet one more beautiful and unpretentious boat close to the terminal.

This is a boat owning and plane flying town.

Boats and planes are everywhere, and the number of planes that have gone down in Alaska this summer is indicative of the fact that Alaska has more plane owners per capita than any other state in the country......

Salt is the breath of ocean slopes and fresher blows the breeze,
And swifter still each bounding keel cuts through the combing seas,
Athwart our masts the shadows of the dipping sea-gulls float,
And all the water-world's alive when the fishing boats go out.  

(When the Fishing Boats Go Out..........Author Unknown)