Sporadic

I wasn't kidding when I said this would be a sporadic account of my journeys. The latest update is that I am finishing my Biology degree at Lyon College. No, you haven't ever heard of Lyon, but I assure you it is rigorous. With one semester standing between me and the open road, I'm wondering what to do with my life. My ideas include teaching high school biology at a rural school in Alaska or Arkansas, becoming a ranch hand in Montana, trying to get my old job at Bear Body Works (the best auto body shop in Juneau) back, or simply becoming a gypsy. Varied paths.

In the mean time, I snagged a job with a cruise vessel. Not a Cruise Ship. I am very careful to make this distinction (albeit in my own mind) when the subject comes up. The words Cruise Ship invoke a vision of luxury accommodations, environmental rape, and Helga the chamber maid folding your washcloths into cute little rabbits. The M/V Sundance is a 70 foot working boat that was converted into a small chartered cruise vessel. She has four state rooms and from what I can tell, the best crew to work such a beaut. Passengers are picked up in Juneau or Ketchikan, and then escorted through the cool deep waters of the Inside Passage. Stops are made at ghost towns, glaciers, for fishing or wildlife viewing, and at settlements along the coast. I will be happily working away, doing a little cooking, deck-handing, or guiding, but mostly telling our guests about the flora and fauna surrounding them. Seeing the look of rapture on someone's face when they see their first Orca up close or help pull a shrimp pot containing the evening's dinner is irreplaceable. There is a soothing of the soul that comes with such experiences that cannot be replicated any other place on earth.

Invariably people give me astounded looks and ask "HOW did you manage to find a job like that?" So, before you start to raise your eyebrows... When I fist landed in Juneau I knew one person. A week later I met the couple that became my first roommates in Alaska, Jason and Naomi Hooley. A friendship formed between us that hasn't been dampened by my return to Arkansas a year and a half ago. About a month into my spring semester at Lyon, I got a facebook message from Naomi. She said that her cousin, a relative she truly liked, was looking for a deck hand. I scoured sundancealaska.com and immediately wrote Wayne a letter detailing my fishing experience, biology education, and love of AK. Within a short time he had replied that he would keep in touch about the position. A month and a half later, my face appeared on the website with a semi-corny bio that I wrote under duress. I count my self extremely fortunate to have stumbled upon another such opportunity.

I endeavor to update the blog over the summer chronicling the adventures of the Sundance. Also, be on the look out for pictures from the Bahamas. At the end of May I will be taking a college related trip (aboard the Bahama Star) to the islands before I head for colder water.