Tele Aadsen

writer - fisherman - listener

A Fishing Love Story: Tribute to Cap’n J

by | Aug 11, 2011 | Alaska, Commercial Fishing, F/V Nerka, Salmon Trolling, Sitka, Women in Fishing | 17 comments

Fair warn­ing, read­ers – this is an unapolo­getic love sto­ry. Today is a spe­cial day that requires some sap­py reflec­tion. Those of you stop­ping by for a hot fish report or our lat­est wildlife encounter, please come back lat­er and Hooked will be back to the more usu­al fare.

I was crew­ing for my friend Mar­lin in 2004. A clip­ping from The Stranger, Seattle’s week­ly paper, rode in my wal­let: I will take a reprieve from dat­ing drunks, junkies, and emo­tion­al crip­ples. When Mar­lin saw me eye­ing boys on the dock, he was quick to chide, “Remem­ber what’s in your wallet!”

The Sadaqa came back to Sit­ka when the July king sea­son closed. Respond­ing to the same autopi­lot dri­ving oth­er deck­hands’ feet, my route from the har­bor paused at the pub­lic show­ers, then set a course for the Pio­neer Bar. The P Bar’s atten­dance reflect­ed that of the full har­bor, with fish­er­men wedged five deep like boats raft­ed together.

When the young man on the neigh­bor­ing stool smiled at me, I did a dou­ble-take. I rec­og­nized him as a fel­low boat kid, five years my junior and just legal to be there. When I was nos­ing into an ado­les­cence of blacked-out stum­bles through Sit­ka, he was a life-jack­et­ed sen­tinel on the docks, blissed out with a fishin’ pole glued to his hand. My mem­o­ries of oth­er kids from that time are silent, mat­te stills, but the glossy image of young Joel is accom­pa­nied by a sound­track, his excite­ment bel­low­ing across the water. “Pop­pa, Pop­pa! Come see what I caught!”

The ori­gins of Cap’n J. (With big thanks to Mama MJ for the photo!)

But this was­n’t a lit­tle kid sit­ting next to me. I stud­ied his clear green eyes and guile­less smile, and thought of the clip­ping in my pock­et. I was prowl­ing for a sum­mer fling and he appeared to have grown up well, sure­ly did­n’t fall under my restrict­ed cat­e­gories… No.  Hop­ing this fish­ing vaca­tion would fend off my increas­ing tremors of social ser­vice burn-out, I was back in Alas­ka to work. Cute as this boy was, after my pre­vi­ous dat­ing mishaps I didn’t need any fur­ther complications.

Of course, sweet read­er, you know how those kinds of self-assured procla­ma­tions go. The next night we walked through Totem Park, sub­mit­ting our­selves to a vora­cious dark­ness, and spent hours talk­ing on the shore. Dis­cov­er­ing a kin­dred spir­it in the South­east Alaskan rain­for­est, gen­tly hold­ing each oth­er’s shared his­to­ry under the chap­er­on­ing eye of moon­light as the sur­f’s faint chuck­ling approval echoed our words…My guard­ed heart did­n’t have a chance.

The uni­verse was work­ing over­time on Joel that sum­mer, ladling up a full plate of tran­si­tion. As our rela­tion­ship devel­oped, he wran­gled a win­ter job in the Cal­i­for­nia crab fish­ery, crew­ing for a leg­endary cap­tain who would become a life-chang­ing men­tor. And mid­way through the sea­son, his dad announced, “I don’t think I want to do this any­more… How about you take over the boat next year?”

And so, at the age of 22, Joel became Cap’n J. The tran­si­tion was less-than-seam­less. The old man had a nose for when to get out, and hand­ed the helm over just as every essen­tial sys­tem on board gave up the fight. Joel would have to author his own blog to share the sto­ries from that first sea­son; I still get the willies remem­ber­ing the moun­tain­ous series of mishaps.

Had I stag­gered free of a sea­son like Joel’s first, that might’ve been it for my fish­ing career. But to his immense cred­it, his love for fish­ing was stronger than the suf­fer­ing he’d endured. Blessed with a her­culean selec­tive mem­o­ry, fuel­ing his com­mit­ment with the rec­ol­lec­tions of good days, Cap’n J set about reviv­ing the Ner­ka.  Six years and an exhaus­tive, expen­sive under­tak­ing lat­er, he’s res­ur­rect­ed her to a sea­wor­thy ves­sel, a fishy boat that responds eager­ly to our requests.

And now, today is Cap’n J’s birth­day. He’s turn­ing 29, on the cusp of final­ly exit­ing his twen­ties.   His birth­day falls in the midst of our sea­son’s annu­al clo­sure, and in his ear­ly years as skip­per, this break meant mas­sive boat projects, try­ing to fend off dis­as­ter enough to make it through the sea­son’s remain­ing 6 weeks. There were sev­er­al con­sec­u­tive birth­days that he spent upside down in the bilge, sat­u­rat­ed in engine unmen­tion­ables and despair. Not this year. Our projects min­i­mal and most­ly done, we’re going to cel­e­brate with the lux­u­ry of sleep­ing in — not as in, “I’ll set the clock for 4:45 instead of 4:30,” but “What clock?” — and mosey through the day from there. The har­bor’s full of friends to vis­it, and there’s some snug­gling to do while we’re town-clean and still smelling fish-free.  About as relaxed as you can hope for mid-sea­son, 4 days before a 72-hour king salmon opening.

I could­n’t ask for a bet­ter life than this, work­ing for my best friend in the wild tem­ple where we both wor­ship. Please join me in send­ing your good thoughts to Cap’n J for a won­der­ful day — or, as he’s hop­ing, for a delayed birth­day present of giant king salmon and plen­ty of them, with clear skies and fair seas to boot.

Still as fish-crazed as he was 25 years ago.

(Hap­py birth­day, Bud­dy.  I’m thank­ful to have had this decade with you, and am look­ing for­ward to many more. Love you.)

17 Comments

  1. Village Farmer
    Village Farmer on August 11, 2011 at 6:45 am

    JOEL (my third son) — KEN AND I WISH YOU A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY. I’M SURE YOU AND TELE WILL FIND SOMETHING SPECIAL TO DO TODAY IN SITKA. OUR THOUGHTS (AND LOVE) GO WITH YOU AS YOU CONTINUE THE FISHING SEASON.
    TELE – SEVERAL OF MY FRIENDS WHO RECEIVE YOUR BLOG/ MESSAGES HAVE COMMENTED TO ME HOW WELL YOU WRITE AND THEIR ENJOYMENT OF YOUR “ADVENTURES.” MUCH LOVE…DAD & CAROL

  2. Lindy
    Lindy on August 11, 2011 at 7:19 am

    Cap’n J ~ Wish­ing you a hap­py birth­day haul of salmon from Sun­set Beach NC.

  3. Angela
    Angela on August 11, 2011 at 7:41 am

    A beau­ti­ful sto­ry of a beau­ti­ful cou­ple in a beau­ti­ful tem­ple har­vest­ing beau­ti­ful, healthy food for us. Thanks for shar­ing your love sto­ry. Have a won­der­ful day cel­e­brat­ing Joel and your love for each oth­er and the life you’ve cre­at­ed togeth­er. Blessed be!

  4. jillian
    jillian on August 11, 2011 at 10:57 am

    Hap­py birth­day to a fel­low Leo, J! May you always be as sweet (and cute) as the tod­dler in the pic­ture. You guys are lucky to have each other! 🙂

  5. Marguerita
    Marguerita on August 11, 2011 at 11:23 am

    Very nice blog, I’ve enjoyed read­ing it 🙂

  6. dk
    dk on August 11, 2011 at 1:48 pm

    Got­ta love dem Leo boys.=) Enjoy a restive/restorative/blissful day or two before you go chasin’ after those big, fat, lus­tery king salmons, Joel. Bless­ings in your 29th year and beyond…

  7. Scott
    Scott on August 11, 2011 at 2:41 pm

    Took the lib­er­ty of post­ing on that oth­er place, Tele. Anoth­er beau­ti­ful piece of writ­ing. Hap­py birth­day, Joel! And con­grat­u­la­tions to both of you, on everything.

  8. Steven Breckon
    Steven Breckon on August 11, 2011 at 3:34 pm

    Tele,

    I was for­tu­nate enough to catch Joel on the phone for a few min­utes the oth­er day, and could­n’t help but wish I could say hel­lo to you as well!!! I miss vis­it­ing with you both in between trips, and wish I could be around to buy the birth­day boy a Delir­i­um Tremens!

    Good luck with the king derby.….not that you will need it 🙂

  9. Angela Amos
    Angela Amos on August 11, 2011 at 6:45 pm

    I love it! I love it! pulled some tears out of me too! Hap­py birth­day Cap’ J, my dear friend. Oh Tele my dear you nev­er cease to warm my heart with your writ­ing and sto­ries. loves and hugs

  10. Ashley
    Ashley on August 11, 2011 at 6:53 pm

    very sweet! And as usu­al, beau­ti­ful­ly writ­ten. I love ya both.

  11. Aja
    Aja on August 11, 2011 at 7:41 pm

    Jose Fuerte!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  12. Annie Boreson
    Annie Boreson on August 11, 2011 at 8:35 pm

    Won­der­ful post. It reminds me of my first love who spent every sum­mer for 30 years fish­ing in Alas­ka. The sto­ries he could tell! That love of the water and the lifestyle he still miss­es today. A very hap­py birth­day to Cap’n J! You cer­tain­ly have had to nav­i­gate some chal­leng­ing years but it seems like you’ve faired well!

  13. Kristen
    Kristen on August 13, 2011 at 6:49 am

    Great post! Thanks for shar­ing your love sto­ry — I’m always fas­ci­nat­ed by how we find each oth­er in the world… And a very hap­py birth­day to Cap’n J!

  14. (FL) Girl with a New Life
    (FL) Girl with a New Life on August 16, 2011 at 11:12 am

    Awwwww. I’m feel­ing all warm and fuzzy.

    Hap­py Bday to Cap’ n Jay. Here is hop­ing the giant king salmon complies.

  15. Tele
    Tele on August 19, 2011 at 11:31 pm

    Hooked has such sweet read­ers! Thanks, all, for send­ing such good juju out into the world for Cap’n J. You must have some pret­ty pow­er­ful thoughts, because the birth­day wish for giant king salmon was indeed grant­ed. Clear skies and fair seas… Well, no, but the beau­ti­ful mon­ster kings made the ass-kick­ing worth­while. Again, many thanks for the sweet­ness, friends!

  16. Capn'J
    Capn'J on August 20, 2011 at 2:40 pm

    Thank you every­one for the birth­day wish­es and kind words. I am a very lucky man to get to share what I love with the woman I love and I would­n’t trade this life for any­thing. I still feel like I am liv­ing a sur­re­al dream, fol­low­ing in the foot­steps of my father and real­iz­ing the dreams of my youth. Tele there is no one else I would rather share this dream with and I am hon­ored and hum­bled to work by your side everyday.

  17. Karolee Joel
    Karolee Joel on September 15, 2011 at 1:17 pm

    Well, since Joel is going to pick me up at the air­port, and maybe we get a beer tonight, it isn’t too late to say hap­py b’day one more time. 

    But I also remem­bered this video that might say a lit­tle about Tele…

    Oh the 20th is near!

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. Happy Birthday, Hooked! « Hooked - [...] some expletives fell from your lips, too, in chorus with those falling from mine.) You celebrated Cap’n J’s birthday,…
  2. Celebrating at Sea: King Salmon, Graduation, and a Birthday « Hooked - [...] last year’s birthday post, I shared the story of how we met. I wrote about how proud I am…