Kirjahaku

Abandoned in Seattle by their mother, thirteen-year-old twins join an elderly fisherman friend on the long and dangerous voyage to Alaska in hopes of finding their father by Christmas.

Young readers will thrill to this breathless story of courage and determination set in the Alaska wilderness. Abandoned by their mother in Seattle, thirteen-year-old twins Annie and David Ross enlist the help of Lars Hansen, an elderly commercial fisherman, to find their father in Alaska. In late November, when most fishing vessels are decommissioned for the winter, the trio sets out from Puget Sound in a forty-foot salmon troller for an eight-hundred-mile journey along the Inside Passage.Pursued by the authorities as runaways, and with Lars's health failing, the three experience one adventure after another as they inch their way North, through terrifying winter storms and frightening encounters with strangers. In the process, Annie and David also make new, lasting friendships and kindle personal reserves of strength that they didn't know existed.

Writer and fisherman Joe Upton recounts the riveting stories of explorers of the past and seafarers of the present in JOURNEYS THROUGH THE INSIDE PASSAGE. His chronicle offers events vivid in their telling: the journey of widow Muriel Blanchet, who solo navigated a small vessel in the 1930s with her five children; the failed meeting of explorers Alexander Mackenzie and George Vancouver in 1793; countless sinkings; and tales from the author's own experiences plying this legendary waterway.

In dories, skiffs, and seiners, fishermen chased herring through moonless nights among the wild offshore islands. Sometimes, when the phosphorescence in the water was firing and the stars were lost behind thick clouds, whales appeared like glowing locomotives beneath the boats, and the herring were shimmering clouds of light. Deep in the night, with surf close at hand, fishermen worked for the one good set that could spell the difference between lean times and a prosperous winter in outport fishing towns, knowing even then that their fishery was dying. Under the title Amaretto in the 1980s, this memoir gave lyrical voice to a dying way of life in Maine's herring fishery, just as Men's Lives (Peter Matthiessen) did for the Long Island surf fishery and Beautiful Swimmers (William Warner) for the Chesapeake Bay blue crab fishery. Back in print after 25 years, with a new introduction from Joe Upton to bring the story up to date. A swift, compelling read. A wonderful accompaniment for a Maine vacation. A great gift for any fan of sea stories.

FOR SEVEN MONTHS Joe Upton steered his 30-foot boat, the "Doreen," through the open channels and narrow, twisting passageways of Southeast Alaska, living the life of an itinerant commercial fisherman far from home.This is Upton's award-winning account of that season--the lonely hours at sea as well as the close community of the fishing fleet; the sudden, violent storms and glorious days of sunshine; the difficult, frenzied work and quiet moments of contemplation. "Alaska Blues" endures as a powerful and enduring portrait of a time and place--of a people and their way of life and the haunting, beautiful shores that draw them back, season after season.

This a gripping memoir of a winter season of crab-fishing in the Bering Sea, filled with scary moments, killer ice, dangerous work, and-for the lucky ones-financial rewards. For others, survival was their reward. Just 25, Joe Upton was the youngest guy aboard when the 104-foot Flood Tide pulled out of Seattle in March 1971 headed for Dutch Harbor with 700-pound crab pots stacked three deep on her deck. The top-heavy load caused some anxious moments later when the vessel iced up. The crew went to work with hammers and baseball bats as howling winds roughed up the seas and the Flood Tide rolled from side to side, threatening to capsize while everyone held their breath. Bering Sea Blues is a thinking-man's book version of the TV series Deadliest Catch, because Joe Upton did a lot of thinking that winter working 12- to 14-hour days in weather that would scare most mariners away. He figured if he challenged fate in the Bering Sea crab fishery too long he would wind up either rich or dead, or both.