Meeting the Solstice.

Arrived in Dillingham, AK a bit before 7 p.m. tonight. Initial thoughts:
- Compared to the rest of the world, Bristol Bay really is the last frontier. There is one main road, a post office, library and a few fishing-related industries.

- Had dinner tonight at the "Muddy Rudder", typical American diner fare in Alaska sized portions (which is to say two times the size of Texas-sized portions). The "All-Alaskan Sandwich" (Roast beef, rye, melted swiss, tomato, pickles, etc.), a side of potato salad and finishing with a slice of sickeningly sweet banana cream pie was, perhaps, ill-considered given my mostly Mediterranean diet of the last seven months. I can't recall ever feeling this full on even the worst Thanksgiving lambasting of food. The waitresses' name is Kat, originally from Florida where she used to work at a biker bar and now lives up here, running a home for troubled/ at-risk youth. Gregarious, warm and obviously a take-no-shit type. She is also the spearhead for the local "got milk?" campaign to end sugar and juice-induced childhood obesity. Here at the Rudder, there's a "drink ten glass of milk get a free milkshake" campaign afoot, referred to as "Stop Pop." Ryan (the Captain, my dinner mate and chauffer from the airport- which entailed riding to and fro in the back of someone else's truck) has an account there and we will eat free with payout from the end of the season. This is affectionately referred to as "PAF" – not the acronym for the boatyard we're dry docked in alongside 90% of the rest of the Gypsy Fleet- but "pay after fishing". Since everyone's pay comes in one lump sum at the end of the season, from greenest of the greenhorn deckhands (me) to the saltiest of the old Native captains who still roundhaul (or manually) take in their 150 fathoms of gillnet instead of using a hydraulic reel, all of the marine stores and, yes, even the Rudder, take good reputations on an "account" to pay once you're back into dry dock at the end of the season.

- No work today. Definitely feeling the resentment from Ryan about not having come yesterday (which was the original plan, but I had some trouble getting to EWR and flew out a day later then intended). He has a meticulous notebook of things to be done and tomorrow's two-man projects start at 9 AM after stops to get my boots and Alaska Commercial Deckhand license as well as stamps at the post office (?).

- It is now well past 10, it is less than 50° out, I'm full and sleepy lying alone in the cramped bunks in the forward-most part of the F/V Solstice, listening to the sounds of rain and marveling that it is still bright as dawn outside. Sleep is necessary and imminent.