Day 51- Seward fishing trip w Puffin Charters

Sunday July 23^st – day 51 – Seward

Lynn, Brek and Shane went out on a charter trip with Puffin Charters. We fished hard all day, but didn’t catch near as much as we’d have liked to.  A number of things happened on the trip that reminded me that everyone is in Sales.  Now, I don’t like complaining, or complainers……. But I’m about to do both.  The following things went “wrong” on today’s trip:

·         One customer showed up half an hour late for the charter, forcing the other 10 fishermen to wait on him.  Didn’t seem terrifically apologetic upon arrival either.

·         Crew cursed a lot, all day. Glad I didn’t have my kids on this trip. My language isn’t pristine all the time either, but I try to talk to customers like they were my grandmother, not a navy shipman….

·         Boat had trouble, and wouldn’t achieve top speed. This limited our “range”, and definitely impacted our catch rate.

·         The deck hand treated most customers as if they were morons, and were generally unappreciative of any offers for help.

·         Gear was in poor shape.  Lynn’s salmon rod didn’t have enough line to reach bottom in ~130 feet of water (everyone elses did), and didn’t have a “skirt” on the hook upon arrival (everyone else’s did), which didn’t seem to bother the crew when he pointed this out. I (Shane) eventually dug around and found a skirt and put it on the hook myself.

·         They had 4 nets.  They refused to use two of them (rope nets), reserving them for “big kings”, and the other two which were rubber nets had large tears in them. One customers fish fell THROUGH the net. 

·         One of the fish that was caught on the trip was not “marked” to indicate who caught it. So at the end of the day, it was unclear which fisherman had caught that fish.  Ultimately, it was given to a fisherman who happened to be standing next to the deck hand at the time.  This seemed an egregious error, since we were all there trying to catch these fish, and the meat from them is quite valuable. 

I say all that not to complain (I will confess some buyer’s remorse/bitterness), but to point out to myself and coworkers that all of us are in sales.  Anyone in a company from the Janitor to the President can ruin a customer’s experience, or we can make customers feel “special” by going the proverbial extra mile.  Be willing to put in the extra effort, or say “I’m sorry” if appropriate if you’ve failed to do so the first time.

Back in camp, Deanna and the kids had worked hard to make a fantastic halibut chowder.  Potatoes, onion, carrot, cream, chicken broth, halibut, etc and it was awesome, especially since it was her first attempt.

While the old farts fished, Dee and the kids went to Seward Sea Life Center, and saw a bunch of cool live displays, including fish, otters, walrus, sea lions, puffins, sea gulls, etc.  They have a touch pool for kids to touch starfish, sea anemone, etc.  Very similar to the Marine Museum in Seattle, but on a smaller scale.