May 05…..Deadwood…..I am packing Big Pink and getting ready to head north for another salmon season in the Bay. I’ll be in Dillingham on May 09. I am going to crew for my friend Rolf on his 32 ft. gillnetter, the F/V Questar. I’ve known Rolf for 30 years. We met during the 1981 Togiak herring season. We were both involved in a joint venture with a fishermen’s co-op out of Hokkaido. We delivered to the same tender ( Sumioshi Maru #1) from the pumpkin fleet. From 1982 to 1998 we ran in the same radio group. I got to know him well….when we weren’t fishing we would often tie up together…and play endless rounds of Trivial Pursuit….During the 1984 herring season …about 10 boats from our radio group were anchored up in Mud Bay from May 7 to May 16 waiting out a storm while waiting for the herring biomass to show….it blew a steady 30-35 knots, gusting to +55 knots…..we played around the clock for 4 days….eventually we invented a rule ….If you picked up a card you had already seen…you picked another….I once went thru six cards till i found one I hadn’t seen before. Now that really isn’t much of storm by Bering Sea standards…On May 26, 1982 , we were all anchored in Mud Bay. About midnight the wind came up out of the S.E…it was gusting to 100 knots when the wind gauge on the tender blew away….there were 90 knot williwaws blowing straight down onto the water….this was on a +20 foot rising tide so of course we all started dragging anchor….it was a real goat show in the dark….by first light the winds had calmed down to 30-40 knots…what a relief….now that was a storm…..