Even when we started fishing the outside sites, ending about a quarter mile off shore, for 10 years (from 1969 to 1979) we still carried the nets over our shoulders and the fish in on our fingers, on a tow string, or in the little boats. (We learned to strategize which gill to use for which finger to maximize the number of fish we could pack for a quarter mile without dropping any.) It was hard work, but it built strong shoulders and a powerful grip. We understood the "equipment" we used and could understand its feedback.
Now it's more complicated - with trucks and rangers, four wheelers and outboards. Last year we had Bob and as Chris said, he's still the MVP this year and he's not even here. Roger also has some mechanical ability and certainly the ability to understand mechanical directions he's given (how to rewind a pull cord, for example), and he's not terrified at the concept (like I am), but this is all new to him. He just joked that he used to think that he understood how mechanical things work, but now he thinks he understands how nuts and bolts work. So we're pretty dependent on nothing going wrong, equipment-wise, which doesn't seem to be in the cards for us this year.
My alarm was set for 3:30 am for the 4:30 am set, but Josh woke me up. I immediately assumed that I'd overslept or something and the first thing out of my mouth was, "Why am I asleep?" (Just yesterday, when I went back to bed at 5 am I saw that the clock still said 2:30 which was when I'd awakened. Again?) No, Josh was waking me up with a problem. He had taken the truck into town with two kings to put in the freezer, and Evan, anticipating a tide off, went with him so the two of them could get showers in the same trip.
Coming back down the beach, Josh forgot to shift back into 4 WD (easy to do), noticing it when he got stuck. What happened next is a little fuzzy to me, but it involved enough struggle to get it really buried, and then coming and getting the ranger, and much of the crew (not me), to try to pull it out. The ranger is amazing because it can go through the mud where nothing else can, but it's only a little Briggs & Straton (or maybe it's a Kohler - is that the same thing?) engine with one cylinder. It doesn't have the horsepower or the weight to pull the truck out (though in the past, I have tried the same thing myself). However, trying may have harmed the ranger as well as the truck. Josh told me that they may have broken the truck's transmission in the effort to get it unstuck - it didn't seem to want to go into reverse any more. Aieee.
I had noticed that the rear tires of the ranger were low and filled the lower of the two with the air I brought back from town but the air tank didn't hold enough for both. I know I mentioned the other low tire to a couple of people but either not to the right people or they didn't understand the implications. So in the process of trying to rescue the stuck truck, the other rear tire went completely flat and pulled away from the rim, no longer eligible to be filled out with compressed air. I didn't know yet that the gears on the ranger had also become stuck. It may have been from trying to pull something it couldn't pull, or it could be that it was just going to happen, so it's actually a good thing that it happened on the beach instead of the flats. I recall that that happened last year as well and Bob took things apart to realign the bits and get it going again.
When the ranger wouldn't pull the truck out and seemed to fail to function itself, they went into town (by four wheeler, I assume) to get the red truck to try to pull the white truck out. That was also unsuccessful as the truck was now too buried for something as puny as a 3/4 ton pick up truck to dislodge. The lesson here is: when you get stuck, try one or two things (a lower gear, a lower range, reversing) and if those don't work, stop trying. Go get help so you don't make it worse.
They towed tow the ranger to the beach access road, out of service, but also out of the range of the quickly coming high tide. By now, it was nearly 3 am and Josh decided he had to bite the bullet and get me involved. The truck was not above where the tide would come, but it was high enough on the beach that we did have some time. We also had nets to set in an hour and a half.
Josh knows me well. After just a few of the pertinent facts, I had on my coat and boots and we were heading out so I could see it myself. He made no effort to tell me it wasn't necessary to go see for myself or any other effort to control my reaction. Just sat beside me for the process. Of course, I was afraid of getting the red truck stuck on the way, but we arrived without incident. The white truck was covered in mud from the unsuccessful efforts to remove it. I'm not really sure what caused the mud spray, exactly - it must have been the other truck? But I was relieved to find that the reason the truck didn't seem to want to go into reverse was because they didn't have it firmly in 4 WD or 4 WD low range or 2 WD, for that matter. The way to do that when it's making grinding noises and not shifting well is just to turn the truck off to stop the turning that is causing the grinding noise. Then shift. Then turn it back on again. I was able to do this and get it in gear, but even in 4 WD low range, it wasn't budging. By this time, it was nearing 4 am and we had to get ready for the set.
Returning to camp, we found that the crew was still asleep (Josh is the alarm clock). Everyone was hastily roused while I called Brad, the truck driver (at 4 am - something no one really appreciates) to ask him to come down the beach a little bit early to pull us out. He said 5 am. So I geared up and followed the rest of the crew out for the set.
We had some problems from the previous tide to resolve, but other than that, the sets went smoothly enough. In the previous tide, we'd lost the v-line on the inside site during the tide and created a make-shift one. That one had to be removed and the original v-line restored. (The Ambi crew remembered the problem and attended to it on the way out to set the first net. Yay them.) Additionally, the outside site the Ambi usually fishes had a v-line problem that was evidenced by the marked unevenness of the two lines coming off the anchor. That needed to be understood and corrected before we could set it. Chris discovered that one of the lines was wound many times around the screw anchor and he straightened it out.
The water was easy. Though the wind is strong, it is blowing off shore so we had to wait a few minutes for enough water to set. Much better than wishing we could set a few minutes earlier so we don't take on water.
When I was sure the sets would be successful, Jeff (scheduled for a tide off) and I headed to the truck to wait for the big deuce and a half that was going to rescue us. They weren't there yet, so we went beyond the waiting truck to the ranger to see if we could inflate the tire using the portable charger-air compressor unit I got from Costco. That was when I saw that it was completely pulled away from the rim - any air we put in wasn't going to help. I didn't know about the stuck-between-gears problem yet, but I couldn't have done anything about it anyway.
Brad still hadn't arrived, so I sent Jeff back to camp to get my phone from the Ambi so I could call Brad while I stayed with the truck in case they came. I used that time to get water from around the wheels to try to wash some of the mud off the windows so that if I ever could drive it again, I could see.
Brad and Tony both arrived and pulled me out - with considerable effort on the part of their truck. I drove our truck back to the sites but heard a new whine I hadn't heard before. Maybe all was not as well as I had dared hope. That problem is still awaiting diagnosis.
Once I got to the site, I saw Jeff struggling mightily to get the rowboat to the water. But it has that little outboard on it so it's heavy. I realized that he was trying to go get my phone - no longer necessary, of course, so he was now trying to put it back.
I went to try to get the new ranger going. But it just isn't ready for beach duty. It's all tidy with its exposed little connections (just asking for corrosion) and the throttle is on the other side of the exhaust, just a few melted sleeves and burned forearms away. So I don't think it's going to see any duty this summer. But the little ranger did start. We'll use that one if we have to, but we'll try not to have to because it is a very expensive proposition to get them reconditioned after they've been in that very determined mud.
I keep my phone, the camera, the permits and the crew licenses in a little orange not-so-dry bag. I wanted to phone but remarked that I wanted to be sure to the permits on board, just in case the troopers come by to check...
Then I went up to the cabin to return to yesterday's partially made birthday preparations and to try to get help for the equipment, while the crew went through the sites. When they came in, David came over to tell that just-in-case had happened. The troopers stopped by to check our compliance this morning - at 6 or 7 am. They wanted to see permits and licenses, buoy lights, life rings, and flares. All present and accounted for except the licenses were all soggy and unreadable so they took names and birthdates. When he got to the Bathtub to take names and birthdates, Hugh must have short-circuited or been half asleep. He said his name was Evan. (Evan had the tide off.) But he gave his last name and someone else's birthday. I imagine we might see them again.
I remain worried about the new whine in the white truck - Roy said it may mean some damage to the transfer case; or maybe just a rock stuck somewhere. Peninsula Auto will call me back about the ranger. Since Bob could fix it on the beach with available tools and a tarp, I think they'll probably be able to fix it too - the problem is... when? The birthday cake is now cooling on a rack, awaiting peanut butter frosting and a jar of salmon is now pickling on the counter.
And all that happened before 9 am!
So far, not many fish this tide. I hope I have good news to report later in the day.
This is the last report of the day.
People: We did have Evan's birthday dinner/ lunch. Channeling Yin, Sarah took some food photos.
The hamburgers were a success (with bacon crumbled up and mixed into the hamburger meat) and either pan fried or grilled on the portable propane grill. Here is the hamburger pile Jake created
The orzo salad with broccoli was actually an Israeli couscous salad (due to lack of orzo).
Carmelized onions and sauteed mushrooms, along with avocados, tomatoes, and lettuce rounded out the main meal. 
And here is Evan trying a bite of his giant birthday chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting.When finishing up the dinner/ lunch my nephews (Chris and Joe) arrived! I had
intended to pick them up but the whine in the truck scared me and I didn't have any way to reach them. When I didn't show up, they just solved the problem themselves. I was glad to see them. Here they are - we finally got it together to get a picture of them a few days later. Equipment: the ranger is restored and maybe even improved with two good rear tires and a fixed "dog?" in the shifting mechanism. The process of getting the ranger repaired spurred me to talk to them about the new ranger about making it Naknek Beach-worthy. They invited me to bring it to the location where they would drop off the repaired ranger and they would make it heartier. I was afraid we'd need to tow it because I hadn't been able to keep it running earlier and then it seemed that the battery had given up. But when I went to start it again, it worked, so I asked Chris and Joe to follow in the truck (they wanted to go - going to town was always the highlight of their time on the beach).
We arrived with the new ranger just as they were dropping off the old one. I got to drive the new one onto the tilting flatbed trailer. I was supposed to drive it on far enough to shift the balance so it would stand up, but I stopped too early. When I tried to go the next few inches, it lost its traction and slid backwards, sideways. That was kind of scary. I've rolled a ranger before and found that jumping off is a good thing. But it wasn't necessary in this case. I was just able to sort of back off the side and try again, this time not stopping short.
Chris, Joe, and I got back into the white truck to continue into town. We struggled a bit with the truck to get it into 2 WD and after running the truck through its gears (with difficulty - it seemed pretty sticky), the whine seemed to resolve itself. Maybe it had been stuck in low range? I'm hoping that means it's all fixed.
When I asked them to drive anything they drove like an old lady, Chris assured me, "Don't worry, I'm past the point where I drive everything like I stole it." What more could I ask for?
Arriving in town, we learned that the steering ram for the New Boat had finally arrived (after the people we ordered it from had forgotten to actually order it the first time). But it wasn't quite the same thing, though Roy thinks he can get it to work.
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