I went to Seattle with the intention of finding some of the fishing boats from Deadliest Catch. I decided the best plan to find them was to just drive onto whatever docks I could. They were not at Fisherman's Terminal, so I knew there were probably getting some kind of maintenance done. Most of the area between the locks and salmon bay is commercial fishing stuff, parts places, dry-docks, etc. So I just started going down access roads, even though most of they say, private, no trespassing, etc. (My mother taught me well). I went down onto a couple of and saw some boats, but no names I recognized. Then I went down one so I could try to get a good picture of Starbound.
Funny, there were guys everywhere. They were lifting a boat onto a dry dock using the same sling system they use to pick up a horse! Anyway, there I was in my little red Neon, and no one ever questioned me. Maybe because my license plate is "alb8ros" (albatross) they thought I had something to do with fish, although I do believe the boat in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" was a whaling ship. I did get a shot of Starbound, but then decided maybe I should just drive down that dock and get a closer look, since no one seemed to care.
I went back and drove down, and just pulled in beside all the other vehicles there. Two men were standing around talking and working on a car. One had on a shirt that said "F/V Starbound" on the back. I started talking to him, telling him how this boat had always intrigued me, and could I take a picture of it? He said, "How would you like a tour?" I babbled something like "are you serious?"
It turned he was Mike, the Chief Engineer, and he is the one in charge of the whole thing, everything except driving it and marketing the fish. I was stunned.
So on I went. Of course my first thoughts were 1) why am I wearing these stupid shoes because all the stairs were very narrow either metal grids or just metal, and 2) please don't let me have a panic attack or hurt myself.
He took me everywhere; we even went to the engine room. 'That’s my baby' he said. It’s a 5000 HP diesel that only runs the propellers. Everything else on the ship is run by other motors (or engines). There is one whole room full of electric panels, I think about 12. They make their own water, 10,000 gallons a day. The bilge pump ducts are about 18" in diameter. He was explaining all this stuff to me, and I just couldn't take it all in. They have a whole machine shop in there, plus a big workshop. He said they can make about any part they need. Oh, and the parts room is better than Napa. I noticed 2 rat traps and he said "We have never had mice before, but we do now", so I told him he needed a cat.
He couldn't take me down to see where they process the fish, unfortunately, because they were painting. But he did show me their incredible cooling system; I guess it's pretty innovative. The fish are cleaned as soon as they get in there, then they are filleted, and the fillets go one way and the scraps go another. Then they are passed over metal slabs that are cooled by freon and as the fish pass over them, they are instantly frozen. The fillets are sold that way, and the scraps go into other items. Some is minced and some is surimi, which has a big market in Japan. It's used as an ingredient in a lot of things. Same with the minced fish.
Then we went to the crew cabins, not bad at all. Each had 2 sets of bunks, a desk and dresser for each, a bathroom with toilet, sink, and shower, dark blue carpet, light blue walls, light color wood stain, steel fixtures, and yes, there is a toilet seat cover. There are portholes in all but the smallest interior ones (bet those are for the newbies). When they are in full crew out at sea, there are between 150 and 165 people on board and they work rotations, 16 hours on, 8 hours off, 24 hours a day. They are at sea for 12-14 days at a time.
And the galley! Wow. It is huge, all stainless steel appliances, with a big salad bar in the middle, incredible. They have a day chef and assistant and a night chef and assistant. They serve in 3 shifts 4 times daily, I.e. day chef has 3 shifts at am and noon, night chef has 3 shifts at pm and middle of the night. The dining room was huge, (way bigger than the hospital where I work!). There was also had some recreational type stuff, VCRs, etc.
He took me out on the deck to see the winches that pull up the nets (which are about 60' by 10'). They drop them down then they spread out and catch the pollock, then the winches pull them up. There are 2 types, one is up high and one is on the deck, can't remember which pulls first then they switch over. Everything is automated. Just the size of those winches freaked me out. He said one net of fish averages around 50 tons. I said "Tons, as in 2000 lbs?" "Yup" he said, "That's about one catch". By my figuring that comes to 100,000 lbs of fish.
Then we went up to the bridge. Absolutely unbelievable. It was glass all around, 360 degrees. And in the center was like a giant center area surrounded by computers. I counted 6. A couple are navigational; a couple are systems on the ship, just amazing. There is a chart table (even though there were no charts on it. It is all computerized, but they still have the chart table covered in tan leather. Facing the front under the windows the whole width of the bridge was a console with 2 steering wheels (but you call them something else), and a bunch of instruments, like a 747!!!! You can see down on deck from front and back. In the back, there were a lot of controls and things to control the winches, etc. Even though they are computer controlled, there are manual controls as well. He said it only takes 1 crew member to run the whole thing; they have one person on watch once they are at sea.
While I was there, an alarm went off. He said they go off on an average of every 40 minutes while they are at sea because the computers are so sensitive. Usually it's just something to check and override. He said that once they broke down and had to be towed back to Seattle. I said, "Yes I read the Coast Guard report about that, was it in 2001?" He just scratched his head and said "Well, yes, I guess it was."
Mike told me that they are headed out on Friday June 2. I am bummed. I have to work.
So then I left, and now I feel like I am a member of the crew! When I told the security guard that I had to work the day they are leaving, he asked if I could come back a couple of days before. I told him I could come Wednesday 5/31 or Thursday 6/1. He told me I should because they will be loading everything up, food, etc., and the crew members will be coming. He said when they are do that they have tons of food for everyone, sort of as a sendoff. He told me I definitely needed to come! So I am going to try to go Thursday 6/1.
When I left I was still in a state of shock. I could not believe that I was able to go on Starbound. How crazy is that. Mike was so amazingly nice. And that ship is so clean. I kept saying, everything is so clean and he kept saying, “No when we are in dock it's so dirty because we are working on stuff. You should see it when we go out to sea, it really is clean. That’s the way the owners want it, they want the cleanest ship on the Bering Sea“. Apparently, the owners have a couple of other fishing boats, and it is a family business . They should be really proud of that boat. I had no idea how massive everything would be. I bet working on a fish processor down in the hull of a ship in the middle of the Bering Sea would be a nightmare job, but on a ship like that, it would be bearable. I know the money is great. He said they have crew who have stayed with them for years! He said "I think it was built in 1990, that means I’ve have been on it 15 years." I said, "Actually no, it was built in 1989". He thought that was hysterical. He said "I think it is about 230 long". I said "Actually no it's 240". When we got off, he said to the security guy "She knows more about this damned ship than I do and it's been my baby for 15 years!"
