June 12: Happy for the mud

Both generators are up and running, and both with new oil (yay me!). Trevor arrived after a bit of a travel trial - his flight from San Francisco into Anchorage was late so he missed his connection into King Salmon and so had to stay overnight in Anchorage. He went to an International Hostel and said it was a really good experience. He couldn't get on the first plane this morning but they squeezed him onto the second. He did lose his sleeping bag in the transaction, forgetting it on the trip to or from the airport...

We came down the beach and he did a little more work opening the crew cabin and we scrounged up some gear for him to wear fishing until his gear arrives. Finally, the tide moved out far enough to get the inside site ready and go on an explore for the anchors for all the sites - inside and outside.

In the first trip through our sticky I thought it was pretty good this year. Not sinking in too far... but on the fourth trip through, I changed my mind. I'm still happy to be in the mud, but boy, is it ever deep! And sticky. Only about the first 800' or so out from the beach. Then it turns into hard sand with a thin veneer of mud.

It feels like a miracle that we found the anchor for the inside site - only part of the eye was sticking up above the mud. We found it by pacing out to where we thought it would be... and then pacing out to the Hakkinen's site (for some reason, their anchors are always poking up out of the mud) and then, while we were out there, pacing over to the third and fourth sites to see if we can find those inside anchors (yes), then to the outside of those sites. The anchor was buried on the fourth site, but we could see the loops of the anchor line, so that's good. Then we found the loops for the anchor line for the outside of the third site and... those loops were no longer attached to the eye of the cable. Huh? The eye was still attached to the anchor, and the broken off cables were lying close by. But not attached. I'll be darned. We dug for the eye of the anchor and couldn't get deep enough. We'll decide tomorrow whether to put a new one down or take a shovel out to find the old one.

Then we paced past Hakinnen's over to the first site (mine) and found no trace of the outside anchor, though we did find the inside anchor.

During all this walking and pacing, Trevor did great. We took out one of the little sleds that Mom and I got in Wasilla this winter - they're called Jet Sleds and they're for towing behind snow machines. They seem to work well in the mud. We used it to haul out the anchor line, tools, spare anchor, turning bar, and buoys to affix the anchor line to the screw anchor and the buoys to the anchorline. I asked Trevor to take the tools in while I finished with the knots and then I went to catch up. I took a side of the line to help pull and when I thought my lungs were probably going to burst, I stopped to rest... and Trevor kept on. I caught up again and this time pushed on the boat which I think also helped. When we finally got through the mud to the hard sand, while I was busy wondering if it's possible for one's heart rate to exceed 100% (and what happens if it does), he just picked up the turning bar and the anchor and took them over to the truck. Maybe I should take up LaCrosse.

Then we hurried to change (we were both drenched with sweat) and went back to King Salmon to pick up Yin. Harry and Hannah are now over in the Space cabin and Yin is in my loft. In a couple of days I think Makenzie will be sharing that space with her.

Harry had a good day on the Janice E - they started out being unable to find the carburetor, worried that Roy hadn't been able to get to the twister drive on the reel after all (I don't know what a twister drive is, but I think I know how to spell it), and with evidence of water in the engine oil. They ended with the carburetor installed, a better understanding of twister drive repair and some confidence that the water in the oil was just rainwater. I'd say that's a good time to call it a night.

Me too.

Tomorrow, we'll put out a net and see about some dinner. After that, five crew members will come in at about noon - and I'll meet three of them for the first time...