Before we set our sights on the busy year ahead of us, I thought that now would be a good time to look back at all the craziness of 2012.
I’m not much of a believer of new year resolutions, trying to “start over,” or make huge life changes simply because the calendar year has changed. Ideally I would like to continuously make positive changes throughout the year, but I do think the new year is a good time to reflect on the choices I’ve made in the previous year, and the successes and failures that have come about as a result of these choices.
2012 was a huge year for the Blue family. We began the year separated – Zed in Alabama, desperately trying to fix up our newly acquired mess of a fishing boat – and me with the kids in Washington trying to hold everything together while watching from a distance as everything seemed to go wrong.
Read my blog post from January 2012, “Starting a New Life in 2012,” to get a sense of where we were.
The Robin Blue in Shipyard, Bayou la Batre, Alabama
We were in a bad place, emotionally and financially. We were trying to get our boat functioning enough to transport back to Washington state for the dungeness crab season (our main source of income), but we ran out of money and couldn’t afford to finish the repairs, let alone transportation costs. Thankfully, our wonderful friends and family came to our rescue and loaned us enough money to get the boat from there to here. The Robin Blue and her crew departed Alabama at the end of February, 2012.
Read my post, “Alabama to Panama: A Photo Journal” for some images of the voyage.
In the locks of the Panama Canal
After two months of traveling and over 6,000 miles, The Robin Blue arrived in Bellingham, Washington at the end of April 2012, just in time to catch the tail-end of the dungeness crab season. With all our newly acquired debts it was essential that we kept our boat working, so at the end of the coastal crab season, we switched over to tendering (taking deliveries from smaller boats) crab in the Puget Sound.
small fishing boat tied up to the Robin Blue, delivering crab
After tendering, Zed hopped on another boat as a deckhand to longline for blackcod.
Zed and the crew of the Pacific Hustler
And then our bank loan for boat improvements went through (finally!) so the Robin Blue was hauled out of the water and placed in the shipyard where she has spent the last month getting cut up, ripped apart, and welded back together.
The 2013 dungeness crab season is fast approaching (January 24th!) and it feels like a race against time to get the boat operating, pots rigged, and everything in place on the coast. Most of the crab are caught in the first couple weeks, so if we aren’t ready to go in time… Let’s just say a lot is riding on these next few weeks. Like any kind of commercial fishing, it is exciting and terrifying at the same time.
Wish us (and the rest of the dungeness fleet) luck as we enter into a new season of crabbing!
One last look back… here are my top posts from 2012:
- Fishermen Always Miss Out
- I’m Having A Shitty Day
- 15 Minutes of Fishing Fame
- Home at Last:The Robin Blue has Landed!
- The Kindness of Others
the fishing blues 
“Exciting and terrifying” describes it perfectly. Wishing nothing but the best of luck and profit for Zed and G, and peace and calm for us at home!! Can’t wait to get together again, soon.
Thanks Jen,
We are biting our fingernails. Zed still hasn’t left the Blaine shipyard with the boat. But the boat’s in the water and should be ready to go tomorrow. We will be one day late probably. Oh well, better than last year!
Here’s to lots of crab and safe waters!
I think it’s time to have an official Bellingham Fishermen’s Wives party!
-Robin