May 1, 2014 — Not many high school seniors choose to spend their winter studying for an extra exam — or to become captains — but three students from Bristol Bay and Chignik did both.
Originally, Gabriella Hill, William Lind and Kvichak Aspelund were enrolled in a two-week maritime education course meant to prepare them for AVTEC’s 9-week captain’s exam preparatory course. AVTEC is the Alaska Vocational Technical Center and has its main campus in Seward.
But when their instructor Andy Mezirow showed up in King Salmon to teach the first session of the course last fall, he realized that they were well beyond the material he had prepared and could start preparing for the exam.
Originally, the course was meant to provide nautical skills: first aid, familiarity with an engine room and vessel stability.
That was nothing new — probably because the three had grown up on boats.
Lind, from Chignik Lake, grew up fishing on a purse seiner with his family. He’s also tendered in Bristol Bay and out of Chignik Bay.
“I wanted to follow in the footsteps of both my grandparents,” he wrote in an email.
Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce