We don't give a ..... cuz its your birthday

Friday was our first day weatherbound in Neah Bay waiting out the first big storm of the season. The sky directly to the west was crystal clear and if we hadn't had NOAA telling us about the storm, our senses would have told us there was nothing to fear. It seemed like the last day of summer. And, just about the best way I could imagine to spend my 30th birthday. Neah Bay and its wonderful people have been great to us at every turn. This is a very fun town if one has the right attitude, and my crew has been having a great time. A female native fishing captain, Lou, drove us out to the Shi-Shi hike trailhead, but on the way stopped at her house to pick up some kippered black cod for us, and invited us to her beach volleyball party the next day. I told her the forecast was for gale force winds from the south and rain, but she wan't fazed.

Shi-Shi Beach, is awesome. John and I made the plunge into the huge turquoise shore break. That may have been the highest point in a day of highs.
Blow the tubes!
John and I exhibiting some of the collection of plastic trash we gathered on the beach
John's cooler tracks.

the walk back to the village, across the reservation from the trailhead was 8km. But we've found that usually the first person we talk to will offer us a ride. After 15 min of walking we began to hear the deep bass thumping of a very loud stereo. We were not about to ask the in habitants of the 89 Cutlass that we discoverd was the source of the loudest rap on the reservation for a ride, but as we tried to walk past them on the road, they rolled down the window and wanted to know how the surf had been. Once the smoke from the inside of the car had cleared, we explained that we had only found the broken board on the beach. This was our kind of ride back to town, and they thought nothing of stowing half a surfboard in the back seat with us, and playing some earthshattering rap for us on the way. Steve and Tasha later visited the boat and had a piece of birthday cake. Hopefully, we'll all make it the beach volleyball party later, as Tasha happens to be Lou's neice. Its funny that the places you wouldn't first imagine turn out to be the places where you can have the best experiences and meet the most memorable, real people.

The night was finished off with a pan fried Red Banded Rockfish from a local fisherman's boat, and a cake made by Dan.

Now, as the storm actually approaches, the rain has come and its a cold, blustery day. John's off to catch a salmon in the TSOO-YESS river, and Dan and his friend Kristina are hiking out to Cape Flattery. I'm going for a rainy kayak along the northshore out to Flattery, as I've wished I could so many times while on the bridge of a ship.