A One Bear Day or Musings From the Front of the Skiff

You saw the new front door.  It has been four days of high winds, hail, rain, sleet, the whole gamut of nasty weather that keeps us pinned down in the cabin so we were ready to go out even though it was still a heavy mist.

We were boating around the outer islands looking for treasures which is what we often do after high winds.  Not everybody ties things down and not everything that is tied down stays.  Heck, we often find things that we lost after a blow.

So, there I am standing in the front of our skiff  perusing the shore lines and I am thinking of Dad Ryggs.  A long time ago I bought him a mug that he loved.  Printed on it was, " You can always tell a Norwegian, but you can't tell him much"! 

Ryggses are Norwegian.  But, I am thinking, you can always tell an Alaskan too, by the way they stand up in their boats.  Now granted, I haven't been around a lot of boaters before here except lake ski boats and you DON"T stand up in those.

Now local Alaskans ( I would say native but around here natives are Native) always stand up in their boats be it large fishing boats down to 12 footer skiffs with hand tillers.  I have seen them put extensions on the tillers so that they can steer while standing.

So, when we got our own boat I started practicing standing.  It is a little tricky what with the wind, waves, and a husband that isn't above jerking the steering wheel.

I learned that it is all in your stance.  You gotta stand wide with slightly bent knees, loose hips, and sway with the movement, kinda like riding a horse without the smell.

By now I am pretty good at standing and ready to move on to phase II.  It is about then that I realize that I don't know what phase II is.  Why am I standing here???  Am I looking for whale? rocks? rogue logs? the next island?  Am I to be ready to bale out at any second? 

 Why do Local Alaskans stand up in their boats?

Oh, and while we were out there on the water we saw our first bear of the year.  It was a really pretty, velvety black one, seemed rather big.