"Hey kid, It's Seymour. You gotta' see this!" The 70 year old mate was prodding me awake.

SEYMOUR? I leaped out of bed, pulled on my clothes and stepped outside and stood in awe at the scene: whirlpools the size of tennis courts revolved slowly beside us in the narrow canyon through which we traveled. As I'd walked the Seattle

docks, looking for that first Alaska job, I'd learned that Seymour Narrows was a legendary spot.

So began the three month season "Up North" in 1965 that seared in my mind forever the power and the drama of the Inside Passage and the Alaska coast. It was ALASKA in capital letters. There were totem poles on the cannery docks, eagles in the trees.

That long ago summer led to me eventually collecting stories, taking photos, making maps, and writing books to share with cruise ship passengers what I had seen.

"Old Mick:" my first Alaska shipmate: everywhere we went along the coast, Mick had a story...

A young man's dream: heading "Up North" for that big Alaska fishing money!

Next: Into The Ice (I become a king crabber...)