"There's Always a Catch"

This Seattle ritual is called the "Blessing of the Fleet." This Lutheran minister blesses this boat and its crew as a symbolic gesture so that in the eyes of God the craft, and others at sea, will be divinely protected. It works most of the time. I said hello to the captain, the white-haired man standing on the deck. He told me he was an atheist. 

While Seattle is well known for Microsoft, Starbucks, and Boeing, its heart and sole is the fishing industry. Trollers leave Fishermen's Terminal and putt through the Chittenden Locks into and out of the secure Puget Sound, through the Straits of Juan de Fuca north onto open seas to Petersburg, Alaska for salmon, and Dutch Harbor for herring and codfish in the western Aleutian Islands, about 800 miles north of town. 

Fishing is ranked number one as the most dangerous profession. A block, as in block and tackle, came loose and landed on the chest of my friend Stuart on his 56-foot fishing boat. He was bleeding and really in bad shape. Luckily he was by shore giving his childhood friend, now a doctor, a ride. Had he been out at sea he would have died. It takes a lot of bother and schlepping to get that nice piece fish onto your plate. Bon Appetit!