“Here is the real thing! A lot of what Anne writes about I have been witness to – one way or another. She tells the story I’d like to write. Factual, exciting and riveting! It’s the Alaskan experience so many (even Alaskans) will never have. But these pages will transport you to the time and places she and Ron lived.” –Al Crane, Bush pilot, SE Alaska boat operator, Iditarod organizer and musher
“Tenders are the ‘transporters’ of the Alaska commercial fishing industry. We don’t catch fish. We haul fish. We are hired by a processing company to go out to the grounds, pick up the fish from the fishermen and bring them back to the processing plant on the beach or to a floating processor nearby. This allows the fishing fleet to stay on the grounds during the peak runs of fish. Tenders act as grocery stores for the fishermen. We bring out parts, deliver mail, offer hot coffee and sometimes a hot shower. We act as the mother ship for the fishing fleet.” -Anne Winters in The Tender Life: 20 Years of Commercial Fish Tendering in Alaska
In The Tender Life, writer Anne Winters tells stories from her 20 years of working and living aboard two classic wooden boats with her husband Ron as they worked the Alaska fisheries from south of Ketchikan to way north of Nome. They filled their holds with seine fish and gillnet fish, salmon, halibut, black cod and even abalone.
They visited big towns and native villages. They suffered a fire and a near total loss of everything they owned. But they worked together, lived a dream, re-built after tragedy and made life long friends. Winters’ stories are told in an easy-to-read familiar style with humor and insight and a true feeling of the love she feels for Alaska, the ocean and beautiful old wooden boats.
Left: Ron loading a seine onto the front deck of the MUTUAL. You don’t realize how big and heavy a seine net is until you have to find room for it.
“We were so fortunate that we decided to take that leap of faith and that we were able to make a living for all those years and at the same time have some of the greatest adventures we could have ever imagined. Climb aboard and come along for the ride.”
Anne has a degree in Journalism from Syracuse University. She’s been an advertising copywriter, owned her own secretarial service, run a travel agency, sold many free-lance articles to various Alaska publications and holds a USCG 100-ton license She has lived in Alaska since 1968.
The Tender Life: 20 Years of Commercial Fish Tendering in Alaska, by Anne Winters, illustrations and maps by Jon Van Zyle, with over two dozen full color photos. 6” x 9” format, 218 pages, glossary, index, ISBN 9798339373292. $24.95 plus shipping, now available from Northern Light Media.
The Tender Life
The Tender Life: 20 Years of Commercial Fish Tendering in Alaska, by Anne Winters, illustrations and maps by Jon Van Zyle, with over two dozen full color photos. 6” x 9” format, 218 pages, glossary, index, ISBN 9798339373292. $24.95 plus $5.00 shipping, now available from Northern Light Media.
$29.95
Northern Light Media 