The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

It's been a while and I'd like to say that we've been incredibly busy slaying fish and raking in the shellfish. I try to keep the tall tales to a minimum though.

In all honesty, we've had amazing window for spring time in Juneau so we have been making the most of it. The Spring King Salmon Derby runs for the entire month of May and as long as I've known him, John has made a habit of getting up at hideous hours and hitting the water with the rising sun. In return, I have a habit of putting a pillow over my head and rolling over when I hear the alarm at 4am. Many recent evenings we've raced home, changed clothes, grabbed dinner and headed out to the boat launch. Clear skies and flat calm waters make for a nice evening, even if the fish don't bite.

The Good

Last Tuesday was just such a beautiful evening. After a quick dinner, we loaded up the boat and drove the 2 miles to the boat launch. For some reason, the harbor department didn't put all of the floats in this year, so the ramp is miserable at low tides, not to mention if there is more than one boat coming or going at the same time. John didn't have the patience to wait for all the yahoos to clear out, so he decided to launch from he beach adjacent to the ramp. Rather than backing up through the entire parking lot and past the ramp, he carefully turned a tight u-turn at the far end of the parking lot. Just as he finished the turn, he jumped out of the cab to investigate a suspicious noise. My first thought was that perhaps we left the motor down and the lower unit or the prop was scraping the pavement. Little did I know it was probably even worse -(Here comes The Bad) a broken axle on the trailer. Thank goodness its a double axle trailer. And that we weren't driving down the highway when it broke.

After staring at each other for a few minutes and looking closely at the axle as if it might miraculously fix itself, we both came to the same conclusion - the boat had to come off the trailer. So, John limped it down to the beach, blowing out the right rear tire in the process. With the most immediate issue resolved, we made a plan for John to take the boat over to the harbor at Auke Bay while I drove around to pick him up. Only problem was, John was not going to leave the trailer in the parking lot and there was no way I was going to drive the trailer home with a broken axle and flat tire. Another thing to be thankful for that evening - we live only 2 miles from the launch ramp.

While I waited for John, my job was to hold the boat's line and make sure it didn't float away or turn sideways to the beach from the current. As I sat on the beach waiting, I struck up a conversation with a gal originally from Japan, most recently of Lake Tahoe, on her way to her summer job as a waitress in Wrangell Saint Elias National Park. Turns out the waitressing job is really a way to get up to Alaska so she can take photos which she will hopefully then sell to travel magazines. She asked if I would mind her taking photos of me and the boat (she kept saying I made a great model - like I could say no to that!). Who knows, maybe our toy will end up famous some day. Here are some of the pictures she sent to us the next day.

By the time John dropped off the trailer and got back to the boat launch, it was about 8pm. We swapped out and both headed to Auke Bay. For him it was a 5 mile boat ride; for me it was a 20 mile drive. John tied the boat up and we drove halfway back to town to pick up his buddy Tom's trailer and then back to the harbor. You'll never believe this, but turns out the boat doesn't really fit on Tom's trailer. So, after several tense moments, and many silent prayers on my part that we would not become the people who dump their expensive boat on the boat launch, back in the water it went for a night in transient moorage. By now it was 10pm and I was ready to hit the hay so we headed home, towing Tom's trailer so that we wouldn't wake his kids by returning it in the dark.

We both have a talent for hunting down bargains, in fact, John found the boat on Craig's list for a steal. So, I wasn't terribly surprised when he called me the following morning to report that he had found a great deal on a new trailer but that we'd have to decide fast because someone was bound to snatch it up quickly. I was a bit surprised that we were talking replacement trailer, because the night before we had discussed getting a slip at the Douglas harbor for a month while we figured out how to replace both the broken axle and the other one that was bound to break soon too. That was before I'd heard what Paul Harvey always called The Rest of the Story.

A friend of ours occasionally parks some of his heavy equipment in our driveway overnight when they are working nearby and don't want to leave the equipment on site and available to vandals. While we were playing around with the boat and Tom's trailer in Auke Bay, a loader ended up in our driveway. The following morning, one of his guys came to pick it up and somehow didn't take notice of the trailer. Until he backed over it. Now we don't have to wait to find out when the second axle is going to break.

The Ugly

So, now we have a trailer with two broken axles and a new trailer.

The good news is that the fish are starting to bite and John's early morning rod hours are starting to pay off. There's just nothing quite as delicious as the first king fillet of the year hot off the barby. Except for maybe the second... Hopefully more to come soon.