My crew had been up till 2 finishing the fillets the previous night, and they had been short of sleep for a few days before that, so I let them sleep till about noon. David kept his crew in at the cannery, stripping nets (cutting off the web so only the corkline (with corks) and leadline remain, ready for new web to be tied to it) and putting up the boats. They found the missing new nets!! And they found the missing stripped nets!! That was a great relief to me. We were missing 100 fathom of brand new net. Argh! And when they took the nets that had been cycled out during the season into town in the Grayling to strip them, they were immediately moved to... we didn't know where. But since our stripped lines didn't make it to Seattle last year, I'm a little sensitive about it this year. They spray painted the net bags with my name and SB (southbound) 2011 in orange. 11 bags for 325 fathom of gear.
When the tide was down, I went out with my crew on the ranger to pick up the buoys and the anchor lines, and to attach "finder lines" with a cork tied to it to the anchors, along with just a stiff line to help us find them next season. For the first time in several years, we were able to dig down to the eye of the anchor and get it to stand up a little (thanks to engineering and paddle-bailing by Hugh and Chris, and the use of a line through the eye of the
anchor so that two (or more) people could pull on the anchor to either turn it or bend it back to a straighter posture and in either case, get it out of the hole) for next year's hunt. It is muddy work. We saved bringing in the running line for high water so we could pull it through the tide and wash it. I went into town with some warmer clothes (you can't expect the weather here to be the same in the afternoon as it was in the morning) and with some experience in winterizing the outboards. The town crew was cold and hungry. I realized I should have brought food. Dang! We stayed anyway because the beach gang was eager to start putting away our boats. I asked for the person who understood how wrenches work to come help me with the New Boat outboard. David said that they all understand how wrenches work... except maybe Evan because he's a math major. And maybe not Jake, either - an English major. Roger volunteered (after I pointed at him). Even though it only went down the beach and then came right back because of a failed steering ram, it hadn't been winterized the year before so we thought we should do it. But first, the battery was dead. Grrr. A borrowed battery, and a bunch of other borrowed tools and several hours later, we had done it. The nets were all stripped and being loaded into bags with orange spray paint. (We're not losing them again this year!)
When we returned to the beach - at about 8:30, the tide was high and it was time to pull in the running line. We were going to eat left over chili, but it had taken on a life of its own - bubbling without benefit of fire. Huh? The fermentation process seems advanced in the crew cabin. So we shifted to the spaghetti - it was good and no bubbling.
The beach crew was ready to go out and detach the running line from the anchor (I think Jeff will need a new raincoat next year...) so I joined them on the beach with Hugh, while Chris and Jeff motored out in the little dingy to the end of the running line. These two photos show them motoring out - I had to show the first one for the sake of Jeff's and Chris' parents because it confirms that they were in a boat. The second one is more interesting, though, because the boat is hidden by the waves.
We are all very excited because we're all on the same schedule and that schedule is letting us go to bed before midnight, even if we do have to get to town sort of early to get Jake's fish to the plane.
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