Monday, July 23, 2018

Hoonah

As we powered around the north end of Chichagof Island we came upon a purse seiner fleet of twenty five boats working the shore for pink salmon.  Among them was "Island Queen", a boat Matt worked on years ago as cook.

Matt had never been the cook before on a large commercial fishing boat, and he wanted to do a good job.  He called the previous season's cook, Steve Marvik, and asked his advice.  Steve gave Matt some good tips and he also mentioned that he always had a fruit cobbler ready for the crew every morning to have with their coffee.

Matt took Steve's advice to heart and worked his tail off to do a good job, but preparing the fruit cobbler was particularly time consuming and difficult for him.  He did his best though, and after a week or so he asked the crew how he was doing.  They said the food was great.

"How does my cobbler compare with the ones Steve used to make?"  Matt asked them.

"Cobbler?!  We were lucky to get burnt toast out of that bastard," was their reply.

Ten miles past the fishing fleet is the little town of Hoonah.  We got a slip in the small boat harbor and set off to find some food after we got Thankful settled and cleaned up.

The only establishment we found open was a dive bar on the waterfront, "The Office", with a single employee who served as both bartender and cook.  The menu was nachos or pizza.  The pizza was remarkably good and the beer was cold.

There was one other large group in the bar, obviously from a visiting yacht, and as they were leaving we spoke to them.  One guy had on a jacket with a Newport Harbor Yacht Club burgee on it.  He knew Robbie Vaughan, the skipper/owner of the boat I sailed from the US to Tasmania on last year,
who was also a member of that club.

As we walked back to the boat after dinner Vicki recognized and spoke to a gal among a group of folks standing in a church parking lot.  The two had paddled dragon boats together in Tacoma.  It is a small world indeed.



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