More From Darrel

Some of my fondest memories from childhood were growing up with my best friend Terry. He (Captain Terry) even as a kid was a natural leader who even in the toughest situations had a cool and competent head.

Terry helped me get my first little speed boat when I was thirteen and even back in those days he could fix nearly anything. So it is no wonder that he grew up to also run the only marine repair shop in Pelican. There are no cars in Pelican so instead of aspiring to have a car like most young men in the lower 48 States, we strove to get our first boat. Of course at thirteen I was still developing my ability to make good choices and one day while racing my boat through the harbor at full speed (which was a major no-no) I hit a plank which ripped a big hole in the boat. I barely made it to the airplane float with time to pull the engine off before my boat sank right there and that was the end of that boat. Of course Terry being the good friend that he was after scolding me and having a good laugh at my misfortune, he helped me get my second speed boat!

Growing up in Pelican was a unique experience which I realized only later in my life how unique. As young teenagers Terry and I had our first commercial fishing business together where we would go long line fishing for halibut, cod, and other bottom fish. Long line fishing is a type of commercial fishing using a stationary long weighted line with side branches ending in hooks. Each long line can be up to a mile in length and have thousands of baited hooks. We would get up at 4am jump in our boat and go out and pull by hand and then re-lay our long line. Then repeat that same process twelve hours later in the evening and sell our catch at the local cold storage. It was very hard work but from it came some of our favorite memories like the time we caught a 1200 pound shark whose tail got tangled in our long line. At first we thought our line was simply hung up on a rock pile but after a very long time this now dead shark emerged at the surface. Yup! You might be thinking at this point this is simply another big fish story. We too were worried no one would believe us so we spent many hours towing this shark back to town and had it hosted up on one of the large hydraulic hoists at the cold storage. This was to see how big it really was and to provide evidence that this was a big one that didn't get away.

Terry is an awesome guy who has a naturally amiable personality and is simply just fun to be with! He is the type of person who because of his integrity and loyalty collects life long friends and I am proud to be one of those. While I have moved away from Alaska and both of us have gotten busy with our own lives, which sometimes has caused years to go by without a chance to speak to each other, whenever we do get together it is like we have never been apart. He remains my life-long friend and someone I can always count on! There is no other person I would rather spend a day, a week, or even more time with fishing, hiking, beach combing, hang out at the hot springs, visiting the town, or simply sharing life stories with while sitting around playing cards and drinking a beer.