June 29: The rest of the news

This report will be brief. It is 2:30 am and we'll be getting up again at 6:30. We have been fishing only the day tides, closed down by Fish and Game for the night tides. There are some nice benefits to that - well, one. Sleep. It looks like those days may be done. Our fishing was extended until July 1 at 3 am. That's three tides of uninterrupted fishing, except we get a few hours to sleep when the water is way out. So now we have a different benefit: fish.

Roger has been trying different strategies for protecting his broken finger and finally today, in frustration, just wrapped it up with black tape - a tool we all regard as somewhat magical. So it wasn't a total shock when it worked better than the other solutions developed without frustration. The weather was so rough today, though, that it's hard not to get at least a bruise the way we're knocked around in the boat. The weather report told us to expect 15 MPH winds and they were at least 30. It wipes a person out to be pulling against that. The wind also affects the satellite Internet system, and not in a good way. In weather like this I mostly have an olive green light that says, "system degraded." They mean it. So I wait for a tiny window of "System OK" and hit "publish!"

Josh and David parked the rangers - oh! the Friendly Ranger has been fixed. It was the starter and Peninsula Automotive made a house call. We brought home the Killer Ranger anyway, just in case we need to tow the Friendly Ranger off the flats. But if we don't, we'll try hard not to use it. When Josh parked the Friendly Ranger, partway up the cliff, he lost track of where he was and it pretty much reared up on its hind treads climbing that cliff. I was watching and running toward what looked like sure disaster when it stopped its backward roll. I saw Josh from behind, almost with a thought bubble over his head, "What is this thing going to do? Is there anything I can do to regain control and should I jump?" David and I held it to keep it from rolling sideways and Josh let off the brake so it could roll backward. There was enough space to look like an excellent parallel parking job. I'm not sure how we'll get it out tomorrow. We'll worry about it then.

We ended up with about 10,000 lbs for the tide, about 9,000 of them on the flood. Tomorrow was predicted to be windier than today. I hope not. We'll have a better idea tomorrow. I think I hear rain - I hope so. We really haven't had any this season.

We planned to do fireworks for Alex after the tide, but it's late and we're tired. Our candles are lit and I'm trying to make friends with my impatience.