A Summer of Trials and Adventures Working on an Alaskan Fishing Boat

Photo: Old Alaskan Fishing Boat Compass

I am currently on winter break in seminary studies and was reminded of another transformative experience earlier in my life where I discovered the reward of doing hard things and persevering. One evening during the Spring of my senior year of high school in 1992, my father came into my basement bedroom and handed me a small Readers’ Digest magazine, and said, “You should do this.” I took the magazine and it was opened to an article by a young man would had written about his experience crab fishing on a boat in the Bering Sea. Through a family friend in my church, I would get the opportunity to work out of Dutch Harbor, Alaska, hired on as part of the crew of a 180’ commercial fishing longliner boat.

During the summer we fished for cod, which involved working 12 to 14-hour shifts with 6-hour breaks for 2-3 weeks at a time, returning to Dutch Harbor to offload the catch and going out again for another run. I seldom showered and would eat as quickly as possible at the end of my shift to get back to my bunk room to rest. I would fall asleep listening to the boat engines pulsing as the skipper maneuvered the vessel and watching my clothes sway back and forth on the hangers on the wall. I had no idea what to expect other than what I read in the Readers’ Digest article, and the reality of what I had entered quickly hit me with two and a half days of sea sickness as we began our journey out to sea.

I was the youngest of the ship’s crew, all who seemed tougher and harder than me. I found out later the some of the returning crew had wagered that I would be the first person to quit. Although the experience tested me every day, I found strength in the suffering, remembering the resilience provided by the practice of martial arts, and watched three other crew members quit and lock themselves in their rooms while the rest of us worked. Besides the mental and physical toughness that I developed during this experience, it was the bond of shared hardship that developed between the crew that I would never forget. As I reflect now while writing, whether I failed or not, I have not regrets for anything hard thing I ever tried. What mattered was I had a dream, went for it, gave it my best, and faced the challenge head on.

"Those who wait on the Lord, shall renew their strength, they shall mount upon wings of eagles. They will run and not be weary, they shall walk and not be faint.” Isaiah 40:30