West of Spencer

Bo, a salmon troller in Sitka, has been drinking steadily through the long dark Alaska winter in a futile effort to get over a broken heart. Spring and the need to get his boat ready for a new season offer some distraction, and Bo’s love for women keeps him above the poverty level on that front, but the only time Bo feels really free of regret is when he’s out on the water, wholly involved in his work, trolling for salmon. After some radical swings of fortune during the short spring openings, the main king salmon season starts out west, and a weird chain of events puts Bo in jeopardy of losing everything.

West of Spencer nails the hard-working, hard-playing lives of fishermen who ply the Gulf of Alaska waters. In the flying spray and the blood on the deck, we get the true feel of life onboard, from a wild ride in a near-gale to the pensive calm of quiet anchorages. On the docks, over the boat radios, and in the Quixote Club, a favored watering hole, Bo and his friends look, however erratically, for a deeper understanding: why is love so elusive...who is God, really...where have the fish gotten off to now...and what the hell does Spinoza have to do with it, anyway?