One huge thing that happened when I wasn't blogging last month is that my friend Aaron Marrs died at sea in Alaska. I have pasted the Courier Journal (Louisville) article below.
Aaron was a very special person. Halfway to Louisville I turned to my cousin Jennifer and said,
"I knew Aaron for no more than a few hours collectively. What was it about him that makes me want to drive three hours to Louisville? I want to be that kind of person."
Aaron was a beautiful person. A roaring lamb. A man who lived with wild abandon and dangerous wonder.
I met him at Camp Loucon. I go to Loucon every year to be a counselor for my mom's choir camp. Loucon is a big place and usually 4 or 5 camps are going on at the same time. So, Aaron wasn't even at my camp. He was at the high school camp and I met him through Jennifer (who didn't know him much better than I). Jennifer had met him at another camp and just thought he was the coolest kid ever. After talking to him for a few seconds I realized she was right.
Here is this guy, a couple years younger than me, and I looked up to him because of how together he was--how cool he was.
Jennifer and I felt validated and affirmed at the memorial service. Everyone kept saying that Aaron was the kind of guy who you could know for a few minutes and feel as if you were his best friend.
I want to live like Aaron did. I want to be that kind of friend. There were hundreds and hundreds of people at the service. I know we weren't the only ones who didn't know him very well because he never really lived in a single place too long. He lived in Louisville where he put out a couple punk records. He taught himself graphic design and moved to Nashville to work for
Gotee records where he designed album covers. He lived in Paris. He was in Africa for a while. He move to Hollywood to pursue film. And he went to Alaska to film a boat of crab fishermen.
He lived an amazingly full life, especially when you consider he was only 27 years old. The summer I met him he had everyone call him "Ocean". So, I've always known him as Ocean. How fitting that he would leave us the way he did.
There will be a benefit show on Sunday, March 13 at Rocketown with Relient K, Bleach, John Reuben, The Evan Anthem, The Kick, and The Lonely Hearts. The money that is made that night will help complete the movie he made. Here's his film company's site: http://www.paperjackfilms.com.
________________________________
Here's the article:
Louisville man missing after crab boat sinks
Search continues in Alaskan waters
Louisville man working on a snow-crab boat off the coast of Alaska is missing after the craft sank Saturday in the Bering Sea.
Aaron Marrs, 26, had gone to Alaska earlier this month to earn money, according to a friend, William Wallace of Louisville. Wallace said Marrs was aboard the Big Valley, a 92-foot crab boat, when it went down. The boat had a crew of six: One man survived; two died; and three, including Marrs, are missing.
Coast Guard spokeswoman Sara Francis said in a telephone interview yesterday afternoon that search-and-rescue efforts are under way, as is an investigation into what occurred.
The Associated Press reported that the vessel sank 70 miles west of St. Paul Island, about 750 miles west of Anchorage, in seas that were said to be 25 feet and with winds at more than 40 mph.The Coast Guard received an "emergency position-indicating radio beacon" Saturday morning from the Big Valley, the AP reported. A patrol vessel sent to the location of the beacon found "a debris field," Alaska State Trooper Sgt. Lonnie Gonzales said. The three crewmen recovered were wearing survival suits, indicating the crew knew the vessel was in distress and had time to don the bulky gear. Survival in the 37-degree water is estimated at slightly more than five hours for people wearing the suits, the Coast Guard said.
Marrs, who owned a company called Paper Jack Films, ventured to Alaska last summer to film a documentary on the fishing industry, Wallace said. He returned this month to work on a snow-crab boat to make money to distribute the film, Wallace said. Marrs is a self-taught graphic designer and lives in the Highlands, Wallace said. He is the son of Richard Marrs, of Louisville, who declined to comment yesterday. The commercial crab season in Kodiak and the Bering Sea opened at noon Saturday.
"The family has been in constant contact with the Coast Guard," Wallace said.
"Basically at this stage, he's still considered lost at sea."
Marrs also is a founding member of Sojourn, a Christian church in the Highlands that was started by a group of young adults.
"Aaron is the type of guy that if he has a dream and vision he goes for it," Wallace said.
"He decided he wanted to do this documentary, and he did it. ... He always had an interest in sailing and the sea life."
Lost at sea - Exuberant Louisvillian dies pursuing dream
He took a job on an Alaskan crab boat so he could make enough money to develop and distribute his independent film.
Aaron Marrs, 26, of Louisville, knew the job's risks, working endless hours each day in freezing temperatures aboard a sea-tossed ship.
Crabbing is one of the world's most dangerous jobs, but the money was good, potentially pulling in thousands of dollars for a few weeks' work. And Marrs figured that he'd earn enough to help complete his documentary on life in Alaska's commercial fishing industry.
He didn't figure that it would cost him his life.
His ship, the 92-foot Big Valley, sank Saturday in the frigid Bering Sea, some 70 miles west of tiny St. Paul Island. Of its six-member crew, one survived; two died; and three, including Marrs, disappeared into the sea.
Yesterday, after four days of searching, the U.S. Coast Guard called off the rescue effort for the three and officially declared Aaron Marrs and the others lost at sea.
His father, Rick Marrs, sitting in the living room of his Anchorage home yesterday, remembered his son — the child who loved fishing and water, the young adult always seeking adventure and the man who devoted his life to Jesus Christ.
"He lived his life being a fisher of men," Rick Marrs said, sobbing, "and he died a fisherman."
`Free-spirited individual'
Aaron Marrs was born and reared in Louisville and loved fishing in the pond behind his family's house.
"He knew every pond in Louisville," his father said yesterday.
In first grade, for a school project, Aaron Marrs wrote and illustrated his own book, "Timmy the Tortoise," the tale of turtle who was swallowed by a whale, only to be spit out its spout.
The book, its red construction-paper cover now faded, foreshadowed the life that Marrs would lead: independent, adventuresome and dangerous.
Aaron Marrs played in Christian rock bands that traveled the country, performing in churches, coffee houses and bars — anywhere the bands could get gigs.
"He was a free-spirited individual," Rick Marrs said.
A few years ago, Aaron Marrs went on a mission trip to Africa and quickly made friends with the village children.
He also helped build and renovate homes in Eastern Kentucky's mountains.
He spent time in Europe, taught himself to be a graphic designer and landed a job several years ago with the Christian company Gotee Records, designing covers and promotional materials, in Nashville, Tenn.
He and other teenagers and young adults who hung out on Bardstown Road, with its eclectic restaurants and locally owned shops, helped start their own church, Sojourn Community, which reaches out to youths.
A couple of years ago, Aaron Marrs took an interest in film, his father said. He purchased some equipment, learned how to shoot documentary-style films, and created his own company, Paper Jack Films.
Dangerous profession
Combining his love of water and fishing, Aaron Marrs soon selected his first project — documenting the lives of people in Alaska's commercial fishing industry.
Last June he and three friends from Louisville — Tyler Deeb, Jason Irvine and Jesse Hargis — packed up and left for Alaska. A journal, posted on the Web site paperjackfilms.com, told of the adventure.
Dated July 23, the journal entry reads: "Team Paper Jack leaves for the island of Kodiak, home of the world famous Kodiak bear, first thing Monday, July 26. ... Though we don't know for sure what to expect once there, we hope to find some weathered and worthy, tired and true seamen, who will take us on as part of their crew."
They discovered Gary Edwards, captain of Big Valley. The crew heard about Edwards while eating at a Chinese buffet, Hargis said last night.
A woman outside the buffet had borrowed a quarter from Aaron Marrs and struck up a conversation with the four.
After discovering they wanted to document life as a crabber, she suggested they check with Edwards, her former boyfriend.
Tyler Deeb and Jason Irvin left Alaska after a few months, but Aaron Marrs and Hargis stayed and later boarded Big Valley to begin shooting the life of crab fishermen.
They would return to Louisville in November but only Aaron Marrs would head back to Alaska.
Crab fishing is considered one of the most dangerous professions in the world, according to the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Web site.
Alaskan waves routinely reach 20 feet, and heavy winter storms bring blankets of snow, hail and ice. Fishermen who fall overboard can quickly succumb to hypothermia, the Web site says.
The danger is compounded for crab boats because of the giant steel crab pots stacked high on the deck, which can help capsize the boat. During the 1990s, the Alaskan shellfish industry averaged 400 fatalities per 100,000 workers, according to CNN News.
Despite the danger, Aaron Marrs loved the adrenaline of working on the boat, Hargis said yesterday, and he worked hard to fit in with other crew members.
When Aaron Marrs returned home last fall, he came back with loads of tales.
"They had so many stories about how people befriended them and that is was cool because they were all Christian," Rick Marrs said. "They lived with people, they barbecued with people. They went living from one town to the next, not knowing what their next move's going to be."
In November, Aaron Marrs told his family that he was going back to Alaska after Christmas, to work on Big Valley. Edwards had offered him a job for the snow crab season and told him he might earn up to $8,000, enough, Aaron Marrs figured, to finance the rest of his film.
"This Alaska thing was like a journey," Rick Marrs said. "They were going to check out all these fishing villages. He thought this would be something interesting for people to know, that fishing in Alaska is one of the most dangerous (jobs). He really had a passion to do this."
The life and death of fishermen was a key component of the documentary.
"We will explore what compels a person to choose this life-threatening, labor-intensive job, in which many crews work around the clock for days at a time, without sleep or food. We will speak with women who have been widowed, children who have lost a parent to the sea," the Web site states.
Aaron Marrs left Louisville on Dec. 28. He called his family about a week before boarding Big Valley, knowing that once the boat was on the Bering Sea there would be no telephone contact until it returned to land.
"Aaron and I had talked about all the dangers, and he said Capt. Edwards was one of the most safety-conscious persons," Rick Marrs said. "That gave me a sense of security."
Still, he said, he tried to talk his son out of getting on the boat.
"`Dad, we've already has this conversation,'" Rick Marrs remembers his son saying.
He said his son's last words to his family were: "I love you. I will talk to you in a month, and I will see you in two months."
One of six survives
Big Valley was on the Bering Sea on Saturday when something went wrong and the boat began taking on water.
It sent an emergency signal to the Coast Guard, which dispatched a boat to the area and found a "debris field," The Associated Press reported.
The only survivor was 30-year-old Cache Seel. Authorities recovered the bodies of Carlos Rivero, 35, of Uruguay and a 33-year-old Belgian man whose name hasn't been released.
But they never found Aaron Marrs, Edwards or 48-year-old Josias Hernandez Luna of Kodiak and Anchorage.
Seel called Rick Marrs on Sunday night, relaying what he knew of the events.
Seel said he was jarred awake to find himself nearly standing on his bunk bed, with the boat turning over on its side, Rick Marrs said.
It was dark, except for the boat's lights. Seel rushed to put on his survival suit, designed to keep him warm while afloat in frigid water. Then, Seel said, he helped Aaron Marrs and other crewmates onto the deck.
"By then, the boat was well on its way to half-way over," Rick Marrs said, recalling the conversation.
Seel said he told Aaron Marrs to get into a nearby life raft, then helped Marrs put on his survival suit. But the raft apparently went down with the boat.
Aaron Marrs and his other crewmates went into the sea as Seel clung to what was left of the boat while another life raft automatically deployed.
Seel told Rick Marrs he swam to it — and waited.
"He said it was so noisy and so dark that he never heard anymore and never saw anybody again," Rick Marrs said.
The Marrs family kept in touch with the Coast Guard every day and monitored Web and news sites.
But, Rick Marrs said, "the last glimmer of hope just seemed to fizzle" after he talked with Seel.
At 9:49 p.m. Monday, the Coast Guard called to say it was ending the search.
Aaron Marrs will be remembered during a memorial service at 7 p.m. tomorrow at St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church, 7813 Shelbyville Road.
His family has created the Aaron Marrs Memorial Fund. Donations will be used to complete his Alaskan film.
This has been a (insert adjective here) month. On June 10th, we welcomed our second child, Evan James into the world. Nine days later, my father, James Harold, died.
