Touring the American Triumph- aka rockin' the hard hat

Dh is crazy busy this week at work and has a couple of people in from the lower 48 in so I knew we wouldn't see much of him this week. Around 5 tonight the phone rang and DH was taking the visitors on a tour of an American Seafoods boat and asked if A and I wanted to tag along. Of course we jumped at the chance. This is the same type of boat A and I toured last year with a group of providers from the clinic, but this tour was much more in depth and very very cool.

I did snap a few pics and I thought I would share with yall. This is such a unique experience that truly not many people get to experience.

These boats are HUGE! 140 something people live and work on this boat. The eat, sleep, fish, and process those fish out at see for months at a time. I couldn't do it, but I have the utmost respect for these men and women. Here;s a pic of the boat....notice the person hanging out the window for some perspective of the size.
 This time our tour guide was a head safety officer from Seattle who was up doing his inspections, so we all had to don hard hats. A looked absolutely adorable in hers!
 We started our tour up in the bridge and A took a seat in the captains chair. We chatted with the captain for a bit, looked at all the high tech equipment, and learned about the inner workings of such a large operation. 
 A asked about the sonar screens and what fish appear like on the screen.

 After the bridge we headed down and took a look at were the guys sleep and eat. We even stopped and ate dinner in the galley. These chefs are amazing. 4 meals a day for 140+ people....tonight's menu.... beef tenderloin, grilled chicken, ribs, roasted yellow fin tuna, rice, green beans, potato pancakes, clam chowder and lamb stew, sticky buns, strawberry short cakes, and cookies, along with a fresh salad bar....an amazing selection that the workers have to chose from. The people who work on these boats come from so many different cultures and countries that they try to cater to the special dietary needs of the different cultures and religions of their employees. A really enjoyed her meal, and had quite enough dessert to give her a sugar high for the rest of the night. LOL
 After dinner, we headed down and toured the actual factory, but I didn't snap any pics since I was holding A's hand making sure no little fingers went near the machinery even though it was not running at the time. We also toured the engine room...the belly of the beast so to speak. 

We finished the tour by heading back up to the deck. The nets and ropes used for trawling are massive. I was amazed as they explained the process. The regulations on by-catch (what they catch in the nets that they are not fishing for) are amazingly tight. This boat fishes for Pollock...that's the fish in your fish sticks, your fish sandwich, etc. It also processes fish meal and the protein substance used for imitation crab meat. I was also amazed to learn that American Seafoods processes and donates 100 percent of salmon caught as by-catch to a program that distributes the fish to food banks across the nation.


 As we were walking down the plank, I snapped this picture of the boxes of processed and frozen fish being off loaded to the Kloosterboer storage building.
Dh even stepped into the massive freezer warehouse. Not me....I have no desire to feel that kind of cold when not dressed for it. LOL

It was a great night. We got back home around 9, read some stories, and A headed to bed. Now I am off to bed and to try to get some sleep before A wears me out again tomorrow LOL!

Night all. Thanks for coming along with me on this journey!

Comments

kyndale said…
Cool! Thank you for the tour!

I love your blog :)
Amanda said…
Thank you! I love your blog too. It is so much fun to see how others live and parent. Got to run. Talk to you soon.

-Amanda