Running Northwest (29 page)

The waves were peacefully rolling on the Pacific Ocean as Thomas and his son Daniel sat next to each other on the back of a 35 foot metal-hulled fishing boat. Derrick was sitting on a chair behind them facing the opposite direction and yelling at a fish he had on the line. It was May 9 and was a warm and sunny Sunday afternoon on the coast, which was a nice change because it had been raining or storming nearly every day for the last two weeks; a little more than normal for this time of year.

Daniel had finished school the week before and Thomas promised his son they would go fishing out on the ocean the first nice day they had. Derrick had been a last minute addition to the fishing outing but Thomas and Daniel were happy to have him with them. Tracie and Erin were invited also bu
t decided instead to have girl’s
day, and spend it up in Astoria for a day of shopping. It was just the boys and they had been out for three hours already and had a few nice size salmon to show for it.

It was a nice getaway day for Thomas for numerous reasons. A few days earlier he had gotten in an argument with Tracie; it was their first. Even though they had their, “employee/employer” relationship for some time now, the fact that they were now dating brought a new level to things. They would sometimes butt heads and separately they were very strong willed and opinionated but they were a great team. In addition to that, work had been very hectic for the last week or so also. One of Thomas’ employees, Matt Linstrom had to take a few days off and fly back home up to British Colombia. His father had had a stroke and he needed to be there. Matt lived in Oregon but his parents still lived on their farm just a few hours north of the border.

Thomas understood how hard it was to be far away from your family and the importance of getting back to see them when possible. Matt was close to forty years old, was a painter, and was very talented. He worked at Sunset Café for Thomas for extra money three shifts a week, working the closing shift, and had done so for two years now. He was friendly and good at his job but mostly stayed to himself when he was not working. Two days after Matt had gotten to his parent’s farm his father passed away. He called Thomas and asked if he could take the next week off and be there for his mom. Thomas gladly obliged and decided to fly up overnight for the funeral. Matt was a good and honest employee and Thomas wanted to pay his respects to his mother. This was what sparked Thomas and Tracie’s first argument.

She had gotten upset because Thomas did not ask her to go; he tried explaining that he needed her at the café since Matt was already gone. She eventually understood but not before blowing up at him on the beach behind his house. She apologized the next day and felt bad for getting so upset at him, but was still hurt
,
Thomas
did not at least ask her. He
was still trying to get used to explaining his thought process to someone other than himself again because it had been a while. It was something he was not used too, apologized, and explained himself as best as he could. Derrick and Erin agreed to watch Daniel for the night while Thomas was gone. He did not enjoy being away from his son for that long, it was not something he had not done often but occasionally it had to happen.

The boat that they were on was named the “Mountain Gale” and they had borrowed her a few times before. It belonged to a friend of Jackson, Derrick and Thomas’ bouncer and friend at The Whaleback. Derrick had a license to be able to pilot the boat so they did not need the owner with them. After they had left the boat docks in Garibaldi just to the north of Tillamook, passed the mouth of Tillamook Bay, and gotten a little ways out, Derrick let Daniel steer the boat

The boy was in love with the ocean, the smell of it, the way it felt on his skin and the way it made him feel in his heart. When he was out on the ocean or even looking at it, the boy seemed to get a peaceful look on his face and be content with the world. It was something both Derrick and Thomas could relate to, but for the boy it was a little more personal. Some of his earliest memories were of the ocean and the beaches and all of them involved his mother. Sarah Bellows loved the ocean too, the sea life that lived in it, and she loved the stories of the sea. Thomas recalled as he had watched his son steer the boat earlier that Sarah told him once that her father was a deep sea fisherman before he died. It must have been part of the reason she instilled such a huge love of the sea in her sons brain and heart. And as Thomas watched his son he thought that maybe it just ran in their family and the sea was in way…born into him. The boy was in his glory and Thomas knew out here on the gently rolling sea his son still felt close to his mother.

Daniel was now sitting in his chair with his life vest on and buckled in just in case he got something big on his line. Thomas got up and walked over to Derrick who was still reeling in his salmon; it was his second one so far for the day.

“You need help with that old man, it’s kind of taking you a bit,” Thomas said as he tapped Derrick on the shoulder.

“Yeah, I’ll give you your old man Thomas. How many fish have you caught so far chief, just one I think,
” Derrick responded and laughed.

“Hey there is still more day left buddy, I’ll catch up
,
” Thomas said then saying loud enough for Daniel to hear “you guys ready fo
r some lunch?”

“Sure am Dad I’m starving
,
” the boy replied as Derrick nodded his head in response also.

Thomas went below to the lower cabin to see what the girls had packed them for lunch. A few minutes later, he came up with a basket of food and some water and set it up by the pilot’s chair on a small table. Daniel unbuckled from his chair and carefully climbed the few stairs up to join his dad. A few moments later Derrick joined them after getting his salmon on board just to have to throw it back because it was too small to keep. He plopped himself in the captain’s chair with a grumpy look on his face.

“So it looks like we are still tied my friend” Thomas said.

“Oh be quiet Thomas, it felt bigger than that. Just give me my food man I’m starving now” Derrick said and grumbling under his breath, causing Thomas and Daniel to laugh uncontrollably.

Erin and Tracie had packed five foot long subs and enough chips, cereal bars and candy to get them through the day. Daniel had a foot long meatball sub all to himself and was in his glory. The “Mountain Gale” floated about two miles off shore and as the threesome ate their lunch they could see the mountains of the coast back in the distance behind them, the wide open ocean the other way. Derrick had been in a somewhat grumpy mood for the last few days and when Thomas asked him about it all Derrick said was “oh it’s just bar stuff, but I got it handled no worries man”. Nevertheless, Thomas wondered if it was more than that and decided to ask his friend about it again later on. He had noticed that Derrick had been quieter than normal ever since he got back from the meeting in Portland with Mr. Terreto.

The three of them sat and finished their lunch and talked about the fish they had caught so far, football and camping later in the summer. Derrick had just started telling Daniel about the first time he and his father had come out on the ocean fishing when the alarm on fish finder started going off. Derrick looked at the screen and his eyes got wide. “Oh damn, you guys may get a kick out of this specially you Daniel” Derrick said as he winked at Thomas knowingly then reaching over and pressed the switch to raise the twin outboard motors up out of the water. As the three of them searched the area around the “Mountain Gale”, the sound of spraying water came from the side of the boat by Thomas and Daniel. The three of them looked and about 25 feet away the back of a large humpback whale then its tail fin came slicing through the water as it passed slowly by and disappearing below the surface again. It was followed by four more whales that skimmed the surface, occasionally bringing their pectoral fins out of the water and slapping them back down causing loud splashes.

“Holy cow Dad do you see that” Daniel exclaimed loudly sitting on knees on the bench seat he was sitting on and staring off the side of the boat.

“Heck yeah I did, do you want to take pictures” Thomas answered as he handed his son his digital camera.

“Thanks Dad” the boy said then adding “the kids at school won’t believe this Dad, they’re gunna be so jealous. This is like the best thing ever,” the boy said

“Damn right it is Kiddo” Derrick said then adding “but don’t move too much because we don’t want to scare them okay
,
”

“Okay Uncle Derrick I won’t, and if I do I will move really slowly” the boy answered.

“Sounds good Kiddo
,
” Derrick said.

From the other side of the boat they saw two more sets of black and white splotched fluke fins emerge from the water. They were about 50 yards away from the boat and stayed in the air for a moment or two before crashing back down to the ocean surface.

“No wonder we haven’t been getting to many hits in a while, these big guys were pushing the fish away as they got closer to us
,
” Derrick said.

“See man, you’re not that bad of fisherman after all” Thomas said jokingly as he watched his son watch the whales then
adding, “How
many more are there
?
”

Derrick looked at the fish finder for a moment then said “looks like there is another two or three down a bit deeper, could be babies maybe
,
”

“Hope they stay down there until they get passed us
,
” Thomas said.

“Why is that Dad?”
Daniel asked as he turned and looked at his dad and uncle.

“Because humpbacks can get kind of protective with their kids buddy, and if they think we may hurt them they can get a little rough with boats sometimes,” Thomas said.

As they watched, the whales continue to pass by them and head north they saw two smaller whales come up out of the water about 30 yards from the bow of the fishing boat then go back down. A minute later, another larger adult whale came up and splashed its fluke up and down.

“Hey Dad, look! Baby whales! Their parents must have said it was okay to come up for air,” Daniel said as he continued to snap away at the pictures.

“Must have buddy” Thomas replied with a smile then looking north to see the first whale that had gone by which was now nearly 150 yards away jump partially out of the water and land with a large splash.

Thomas, his son and Derrick sat and watched the whales until they were mostly out of site farther to the north. Then Derrick lowered the outboards back into the water and suggested going closer to shore since it was already 2 pm. Off to the west in the distance there was large tanker ship that was heading north also. It was most likely heading towards Astoria or maybe Seattle to put into port.

After discu
ssing where to go and locking up
their gear, Derrick started up the boat engines and sped off back east then eventually south towards the direction they had come from. The ocean current had caused th
em to drift north quite
a
ways
and they had to make up some distance. When they were about a mile from shore, they saw the small resort town of Cannon Beach. They could also see Haystack rock that stuck out from the ocean like a giant as they went by.

Eventually
,
they got to where they wanted to be just off the coast from Cape Lookout state park, which is a little ways south of Tillamook Bay. They put their fishing lines back in the water and let the current gently pull them north for another hour or so. They managed to pull in three more nice sized Chinook salmon in that span of time. At about 5 pm they decided to stop for the day and head home for the night. Daniel had passed out below on a couch and that left just Thomas and Derrick to themselves as they slowly made their way back to Garibaldi and the docks. When they pulled into the mouth of the bay, Thomas sent Tracie a text message to let her and Erin know they would be there in a few minutes. As they passed the jetty on the north side of the opening of the bay they saw a small group of sea lions sunning themselves on the rocks. Thomas thought about waking Daniel up to see them but decided against it.

The girls were waiting for them on the docks and whistling as Derri
ck gently eased the fishing boat
back into her slip making the two grown men smile. Derrick and Thomas tied her up then proceeded to unload the things they had brought with them and spending a few minutes cleaning up the boat. One of the things they had learned from their time on the coast was that fishermen’s boat was as important to him as his wife or mother, sometimes even more so because it was his livelihood. Therefore, you never mess up or disrespect a man’s boat.

Once they were done cleaning and talked as group for a little bit on the dock Derrick and Erin told their friends goodbye and headed off home. Thomas took the fish and agreed to clean them all and bring Derrick the ones he caught the following day. Before they left, they decided to have a cookout the following Saturday at Thomas
’
house since it was supposed to be nice.

Later on in the evening after Thomas, Tracie and Daniel had eaten dinner at Thomas’ house the three of them played a board game for a little bit. Daniel eventually decided he was tired and was ready for bed; he was beat from his long day. He gave his father a hug and thanked him for taking him fishing, then went into the bedroom with Tracie following to tuck him in.