Dutch Harbor Video

Here's a video of Pat's adventures in Dutch Harbor! It's a bit long, but it's all his clips put together. Amazing!

Happy Birthday!

Welcome to the world, Cambria Jane Penner! I know your mommy and daddy are so glad you are here and healthy! Be prepared for some possible confusion from your brother and sister! Don't worry though! I'm sure Toby and Mia will love you and teach you all the things you'll need to know! Siblings are the greatest things in the world (besides spouses!), and they'll be great! Try to sleep a lot in the next weeks so you can grow strong! I'll be praying for you and for your mommy, daddy, brother, and sister! I can't wait to meet you! I already love you!
Love,
Aunt Meli

DUTCH HARBOR

Ive just returned from twenty five days in Dutch Harbor where I served as welding foreman on an oil drilling ship. The picture below is of the Russian ship Kapitan Dranitsan . The KD is an ice breaking ship with a hull three feet thick. As it's name implies, it's job is to cut a path through thick sea ice so that the drilling rig can go through. We stayed aboard the KD while we worked on the drill ship "Discoverer".This is a photo of the bridge of the drill ship Discoverer. This ship was just remodeled in Singapore and is now in it's final stages of completion.


Above is photo of "Nanook", one of the ships in the fleet. Below is the derrick on the "Discoverer"
We were blessed with beautiful weather most of the hitch. The scenery was truly part of the pay! This is Dutch Harbor at sunrise. You might remember Dutch Harbor from the tv show "Deadliest Catch".


The Discoverer, center, is flanked by the Arctic Seal on the left and the KD on the right and behind. The "Disco" is operated by Shell Oil Company and is about 700 feet long. I would guess that the derrick is about 200 feet tall. The width of the ship is about 90 feet.
Tug boats were our transportation to and from the dock.

Penner Weekend Recap!

I'm driving myself mad waiting for Pat! He's coming home in 4 hours! Fortunately, I got some copies of pictures that Barry took on our weekend! In the net is the King Salmon that I caught! We left it in the net to avoid stressing him too much. We want them to spawn successfully!





Here we are, Halibut fishing! It started out calm and cloudy! Oh what a morning will bring! It'll bring big fish!!!





























































Rich had his Silver, and Monday caught this nice Rainbow!

A Few Photos

Yesterday, I went to the beach with my friends, Aaron & Stacey with their two boys, Justus and Keegan! The weather has been absolutely gorgeous lately, with sunny skies and 70 degrees.

This is Keegan, who just turned 1, enjoying the sand on the beach!

Justus was really having fun with the sand! By the end of the trip, he was wet and covered with sand from head to toe!

Here's a view of the yummy tomatoes that we grow at work! I've been enjoying them immensely, and took them over to Stacey along with zucchini, patty pan squash, another funky squash, cabbage, and cauliflower! She made some yummy vittles that my tummy wasn't used to!!! Fiber!

Going back to my dipnet experience! Here was the opportunity that I took to stand in the surf for 4 hours for this one, single fish. I was soaked.

I had to eat it, so here's my butchering of the fillets! I had to take pictures to show all those who know, to give them something to laugh about!

Busy Weekend

Yes, I'm stealing pictures from websites! I don't have my camera, so...! This weekend was a fun and busy weekend that began Friday night with the arrival of my cousins, Rich and Barry Penner. Despite their delayed flights and lost luggage, we were ready after 3 hours sleep for our Saturday morning Silver Salmon Charter! It rained a bit, and only Barry ended up catching a Silver, but Rich and I both caught Kings! Their season ended on July 31st, so we had to release them, but one of mine was about 30 lbs! I'm guessing that's about what the King on the right had of the guy on the left was, give or take!

Okay, no, this is not anyone that I know! Again, stealing pictures! Sunday was our Halibut Charter! We got a couple more hours of sleep that night, and made our way to Homer. The day started our cloudy, drizzly but calm seas. As the morning progressed, and the Halibut caught were thrown back for wont of a larger beast, the wind picked up, the sky cleared and the seas built! By noon we all had our limits of Halibut (plus Rich's very nice Silver Salmon!), and the seas had built to about 7'. As we were finishing up, we hit a wave about 10'! It was rather exciting, really! I had about a 30-35lb halibut, and the gentleman that filled Pat's seat, Derryk, caught a 60-pounder! Needless to say we had a fun trip, even though it was more of a half-day trip. By the time we got back to the spit (the docks in Homer), the day was gorgeous! Sunny and 68 degrees or so!

Monday, I went back to work, and the guys took a Rainbow Trout charter up at Skilak Lake, and brought home a Dolly Varden (sea-run trout) that I cooked up for supper before they headed for home! Whew!

Quick Note

Well, I talked to Pat tonight, and this is actually the Russian ship that he's on! Go figure! It's called the Kapitan Dranitsyn. I guess it goes all over the world, and if one was so inclined, one could book an Antarctic Cruise. Hmmm, interesting. I'd think the view would get a bit "Groundhog Day"-ish. I'm keeping myself somewhat busy. I took the opportunity to hike Skyline this weekend, solo! I impressed myself, but also felt like I was getting a bit out of shape. I need my personal trainer back! I also need my camera! Can't wait for his pictures, though. I guess I'll just head up to bed (*sigh*).

Speak Russian, anyone?

Now, I have no idea if the Russian Ice-Breaker that Pat is sleeping on is this big, but here's a cool picture of one of these ships! He is staying on one of these and he did say that all the crew are, indeed, Russian! Apparently, there are English words also written on some of the signs, so if he needs a restroom...!
He then goes from the Russian Ice-Breaker to his work ship via the Billy Pew. This is the crane-operated lift that is commonly used to transport people to and from ships & oil rigs. Again, I don't have any clue as to the size or look of the ship, but below is a Oil Drilling Ship, which is what Pat is actually working on. He is also having all his meals on this ship, which seem to be quite good and hearty he says! The chefs know about Celiac, so they make special stuff for him if the main meal is not good for him. He sounded pretty good last night, and seems to be enjoying the work and the interesting environment!

Quick Trip

Before my fabulous husband left for Dutch Harbor, we took a little evening trip out to our friends, Chuck and Debbie's home. They are on the Kenai River, and we thought we'd test our rods against the Reds! As you can plainly see, Pat did very well and caught his limit!

I, unfortunately, only caught a 3/4lb. weight on the top of my hand! I hated to give up, but as hours (& Pat's fish count) mounted, I relinquished my grip on the rods and made my way up to the camera to catch photo's of my love! If you hadn't noticed, I kinda miss him!

Catching up!

Hey there! We really have been out doing activities, but since Pat's monster trek, we've been a bit more relaxed! I also somehow lost all photo's of a recent hike I went on. I'm quite disappointed.

Since our last posting, however, we have been able to see a few moose roaming about. This one was lovely, and though her baby is hiding behind her, it's always fun to see baby moose!

We were also fortunate to have had a visitor a couple weeks ago! Jazz Warner, a friend from Wichita, came to see us. She had work in Anchorage, and just thought she'd drop by, since she was in the "neighborhood!"

We haven't been fishing much. The Red's hadn't really been in until just yesterday. The boats are always out, though. Guess what we'll be doing this evening! We've heard that the Reds are very large this year. We are also contemplating having all the Red Salmon exchanged for smoked. We'll see. We prefer to eat Silvers from fresh or frozen, but Red's are a bit fattier. Maybe soon I'll stop and catch some of the dip-netters. They are the ones who stick a huge net into the water and the fish just swim into it. It's a resident-only activity meant to help harvest meat for the year. We qualify since we are resident's, but neither of us love salmon that much to take 30+ salmon each!

The flowers are still blooming and it makes the road-sides quite lovely. Yesterday I saw some horses grazing in a ditch filled with blues, pinks, and whites! The lupine are everywhere and it's fun to see so much color.

Pat is scheduled to leave Friday for Dutch Harbor, and will take the camera, so when he gets back there should really be some fun photo's!

Happy 4th of July

Well, we've been out to Skyline Trail and Pat did the 42 mile Resurrection Trail hike last Saturday, but the camera just wasn't rainproof or accessible, so...sorry! Here we are from yesterday and today at Seward's 4th of July Celebration!

Pat didn't do too bad taking pictures! Long arms are nice sometimes!

We slept last night in the back of the truck! It was rather comfy!

"Run this way!"

We loved this gal's getup!

Here's a look at the top half of Mount Marathon. The race is a 3.5 mile run up 3000' elevation and back down. It's a monster race that the women ran in just over an hour, and the men in around 45 minutes. INSANE!! (but really cool! we had a friend of ours run, so we got to cheer her on!)

Dark Summer Soltice

This was the view out of our house. The sun was a dull orange from a 20,000 acre fire south of us.

This is not a cloud bank, but smoke. Incredible.

We went to a music festival for the Solstice, but it ended up being really dark!

I think the smoke got to us! What all was burning?!!!

Resurrection Pass Trail

We headed up on Friday "night" up Resurrection Trail, a 36 mile long trek from Cooper Landing to Hope. We didn't do the whole thing!! This was a view from the first part of the trail.

It had rained for an hour before we began, thus the vegetation was all wet! Wearing the rain gear made me VERY HOT! Nylon doesn't breathe well.

This is a shot from Trout Lake, a half-mile jaunt away from the main trail. There's a cabin and a boat for public use, but it was taken, so we just relaxed, got a drink, and enjoyed the view.

The little white spot on the top of the cliff is our tent! Pat is taking this picture from a bit closer to Juneau Falls, and the mist ended up being too much for this camp site!

Saturday, we hiked up to Juneau Lake, found this Forest Service Cabin (public use), and liked the security measures!

Here's a view of the front of the cabin. This was rebuilt in the last year, and still smells like fresh varnish! I think it's been in use since December, as the cabin register dates to that time!

Behind another cabin further up the lake, I was surprised by this critter in the woodshed! I'm glad porcupines aren't bears!

Pat thought I looked like I was on Safari! I had to switch clothes with him, as I packed for too cool weather and got very toasty! I'm sure that clothes-swap would've been a cute sight for others to come upon on the trail! We had planned to go to another lake a few miles up from Juneau Lake, but the clouds were foreboding, and we turned back. It was a good sight-see, but not too difficult of a trail. This is one that a lot of mountain-bikers use. Pat's planning a long day-hike to do the entire 36 miles. I'll forgo that one, and let him go with our friend Dan!