My New Fishing Rod! - by Gabe

I caught one!

A Sculpin!

For my birthday I got a new fishing rod! I was really excited! I like to go out on the dock and fish off the side. My brother, Michael, got a fishing rod too! He and I like to go fishing together! Once I caught a Kelp Greenling, and another time I  caught a flounder!

We went on a trip to Carol Inlet, we went fishing there, and we caught two Rock Fish! We ate them for dinner! After that we went out in our skiff to fish, we weren't very lucky, we did not catch anything. We went back to the boat before night time. I put my fishing rod away above my bed, where I keep it with Michael's fishing rod!

My Kelp Greenling!

Sailboat Racing in Ketchikan - by Adelaide

The sailboat milling about before the start (we are the sailboat on the right).

Each year the Ketchikan Yacht Club has a racing program through the summer, Anna, Katie, and I signed up for the program. Katie and I crewed together on Camai a Nauticat 35, while Anna on the Sedna a Cal 36.

Our first sail.

 There was a darling little 18' Cape Dory Typhoon in Bar Harbour that was sad looking, we wanted to clean her up and maybe sail her for the summer in exchange for cleaning her. We called the owner and he was really glad we wanted to sail her (since he did not have the time), we pulled out our buckets, scrub brushes, soap, and the hose and started washing her, and when we were done we could barely believe it was the same boat! The owner replaced the halyards and brought down new sails and sheets! We had a lot of fun putting on the sails and and figuring on which head sail to put on, then we took her out into the Narrows, we had so much fun! So, that is how we came by our own little sailboat to race! We went out a few times every week, and took her around the courses, to get familiar with her and know what she could do.

Making way in our first race!

 Well, our first race came up, we headed down to the Sweet Charlotte early to take off the sail covers, get the sheets straight, and untie any unnecessary lines, after everything was ready we waited for the Skipper (our Dad). Once he arrived we hauled up the main sail up and sailed out of the harbour, once we were clear of the break water we put up the head sail, then we would head for the starting line and wait for the race to start. There was a south wind, which meant we were going to do the second course, the race always starts into the wind, we preferred the north wind; south was to variable. Everything started well, but the wind died before we finished the race and had to paddle back to the marina
(Sweet Charlotte did not have a engine). Sweet Charlotte was small and was not hard to paddle, we made it back the dock and put her away, then hopped the bus down to the Yacht Club for the potluck. There is a potluck after the races where you can talk about how well (or poorly) you did on the races, or chastise each other when you stole their wind or something of the sort!

Our next race was more successful, we had a north wind, the sun was out, a beautiful day! We came in third, which is really good for a sailboat her size! We were all really proud of our little racer, we all said she was the sweetest sailboat we had every sailed!

After the last race of the summer, a big cake was made and had all of the sailboats that had raced had their name written on the top, and we celebrated a successful summer, no one had any accidents! Now we are all looking forward to this summer's Ketchikan Yacht Club's Annual Sailboat Races!

The Cake!