Ship's Log July 1st-14th 2020

I left the day Oregon initiated the mask requirement. It was a strange and difficult decision to leave. I was torn by it. There are so many options. Financially we are fine, not too pressed into action for any particular reason. Just that searing desire to chase tuna and knowing they were there for the chasing was driving me crazy. My wife and I have built up a variety of options for making money. We own and self-manage 14 rental units, and live on a 167 acre ranch with many options. Kristi has a great fiber business going, and I could be doing more with cattle, lumber, and/or real estate. Or anything. Will get back to this later.

Jeff and I stocked the boat with supplies for a trip which may last 25 days. I printed the Oregon Regional and Northwest Overview from the Terrafin site, pointed an arrow to the destination of my choice, and got my stuff at home together. I am a Type 1 insulin dependent diabetic. Proper planning with food and that type of supply is important. It is an important part of my story, and has a lot to do with the entire shitteroo really. I do not want to sit at home and then move about town with a mask on, feeling oppressed with limited freedoms and lack of choices. I left the rest of my family to live that life, and Jeff, his dog Apollo, and Seanna and I headed out to sea on the morning of July 1st with heads full of uncertainty. There were no real verified tuna reports anywhere nearby. Jeff trusted me...kinda. And the dogs had been salmon fishing together and made great friends. The group of us are a team taking it on and willing to do whatever it takes.

We got exactly to the point of my arrows late in the morning of July 2nd. Jeff and I were actively working on tag lines and gear that I did not take the time to do ahead on the dock. We were NOT prepared for the fish! The starboard side we were done with lit up while we were half way through doing the port side gear...WTF! It was ON!! At least it really seemed it. We landed a quick 6 fish and focused on getting the port side done. I thought we were really in them and we were really excited. The gear got done and I worked the area up down and all around for a first day total of 34 fish. Sorta bummed.

Early fishing is like that. The tuna arrive with the warm water. It takes time for the situation to develop, solidify, and become predictable. Those with the most experience win. Part of my motivation to participate is the desire for this exact thing...More experience. Gotta go explore and figure it out. So off we went.

Days 2 through day 8 were a long slow trip, down to about 200 miles off the area of Brookings and up to a long ways off of Astoria and all in between and never finding the right zone for a day of actually “fishing”, just searching for that good tac. We found it on days 9 and 10 with 175 and 174 fish days back to back but then the south wind came up and off we went to search further. Back thru some of the same areas as before, and some new grounds, we covered over a hundred miles per day, and many nights we ran late to get to a bite that proved to simply peter out. These are some long 16 hour days for only a few fish to interrupt the boredom. The James Lee does not have any internet connection. We get Sirius Satellite for weather and a bit of temperature readings on the sea surface, and music/entertainment through the radio. No movies or anything screen related like that. Seanna chases the bright spot created by the face of my watch. She bark and barks and gets really fast and intense after the “red dot”... We play that game a lot. We all eat a lot. Apollo always gets a good portion of Jeffs breakfast and dinner with plenty of snacks in between. I am more reluctant to give Seanna much of my food...makes me feel kinda bad... Often the mind wanders into areas sometimes disturbing. Contemplation of the choice to have bought this big boat and take it out so far from the family, and in this time crazy life on land. My wife running the ranch, her fiber business, the rentals, and our boys ages 13 and 15 really need me. My fantasy was to have them (the boys) on the boat with me by now during the summers. My reality is that they are not too interested. So I am a bit committed to pay for this vessel, and the tuna will do that! Otherwise it (James Lee) would need to be sold and I do not have the willingness whatsoever for that option. Pride and self centeredness are contemplated and mentally discussed with myself for hours. I sold the restaurant we owned for 16 years because it got in the way of the tuna, I sold the cattle last year for the same reason... Irritating. I will NOT sell the family. Balance will be found. There is a reason, there is a purpose and I will focus on that. Resolve. Relentlessness. Focus. Go back there and catch a damn fish.

Weather turned into a crap show.

I was going to go into Ilwaco Washington, then slid a bit south to go into Newport, and at 5:30pm July 13th we were only 85 miles from home port of Winchester Bay, so I told Jeff to go take a nap. He was already napping in his chair back there, so he was happy, and when I told him we were heading home and he would have to drive all night, he was even happier. We fish right up until it is completely dark and you cannot see. These days in July it is 10pm when we pull our gear and quit. At 9pm I started catching some fish! It was unfishably rough! Blowing hard and super choppy seas. If I turned around and tried to go back on it, it would be so loud and crazy high RPM motor and MASH MASH MASH of the bow into the waves. Jeff would wake up and loose his nap, and it will take a bunch of time and a bunch of stuff will fly off the shelves and counters when I turn... So I went ahead and did that. Stuff flyed off the counter, the mash thing, Jeff woke up, and once I got the vessel stable and Auto Pilot in action I went back to the deck and saw fish flying through the air on the chain lines. Seriously doing cartwheels, and then ripping loose. Seen that before, no big, keep going. Jeff comes out. We do not catch another fish. Im sort of cracking up inside at the whole thing, my decision, the dogs and their ears down leaning left and right, trying to figure out the sudden change from a smooth following sea for the last 6 hours into a crap ass mess like this.

We got into Winchester Bay at 7am with 4 and a half tons in the hold for a bit of good ballast and a nice start to what will be part two of trip one. I am happy to be home to give this report, eat some nice meals with the family and connect a bit with a couple of our tenants. It is 11:30 pm on July 15 and my entire inner desire is to leave in the morning at 4am. But I want to add some pictures, and finish my dinner and get some sleep, and maybe mow the huge overgrown lawn tomorrow…