Naknek Seafood Gone Fishing: July 4: Fireworks and sending ashes

After feasting on salmon, hot dogs, bratwursts, orzo (but really, Israeli couscous) salad, potato salad, and s'mores, the tide had come up enough to row out to get the Ambi. David and Josh took on that task and with the help of other crew members, put the rowboat in a little ways down the beach. They didn't remember to account for the current, which would push them even further down current, so they had some rowing to do. They battled their way over to the Ambi and found it's little malfunction: the battery terminal aren't all that secure and sometimes when we turn on the key, it just makes a clicking noise, which I've learned from Roy means something is wrong with the battery. Judicious wiggling has fixed it so far. But they didn't know that. So they got back into the rowboat and headed over to the Bathtub. At least it was down current. When I saw them coming in with the Bathtub, it was easy to guess the problem. So Jake I went out with them to the Ambi as the designated battery connection wiggler and we got it started. In this photo, I've already hopped out of the skiff, but looking back, here are David, Josh and Jake.

David piloted us out to beyond the buoys. I think there were 15 people in the Ambi. It was OK - that is a very stable boat. Even on a dry, calm night like it was on the 4th, everything is still a little moist. So, instead of putting the sky lanterns down and sending the boats out in the ashes first, we put the origami boats down and tried to send out the sky lanterns first. Honestly, I'm not sure quite how sacred that part of the process was because we were all so intent on getting them launched. Here you can see Jake and Roger working hard to get one launched.

Here is Trevor getting one good and filled with hot air. I think it helps being big - somehow, he could just hold it up and help it fill. This one probably flew. Jake is behind him to the left and you can see part of Tom to the right.

It was almost a miracle how calm it was this night. Still, there was a little too much down draft if we let go too soon. It turns out that the lanterns want to drop down a little before gathering all the steam they need to rise. But over the water, if they drop down too far, they won't be able to get back up. At first, it was disappointing when they happened. But really, that's just exactly how life is. Some flames go out sooner than I want.

After several surrendered to the Bay, Makenzie made the wise suggestion of taking the rest back to shore with us, as the ground would be more forgiving. So we turned our attention to the origami boats. Jeff and Trevor had folded up these boats and put a sparkler down through the middle peak of the boat, and they attached a piece of duct tape to the bottom of the sparkler, trying to create a little ballast and rudder. We sprinkled a few of Alex's ashes in one side and Debby's ashes in the other, lit the sparklers and lowered it over the side of the skiff. Here is Jeff, getting one ready to go.

And this is me, lowering it into the water, to let it sail away. It is always hard to do - I want to grasp at the ashes, the memories, the thoughts - all of him, and all of her - and keep them with me. But it's not the ashes that will keep them with me and I have to keep letting go, as slow as that sometimes is for me. Again, sometimes they burned brightly and floated far; sometimes they quickly filled with water and went down. It isn't that our plans and hopes don't matter, but they often compromise with this world we live in.

Here are some boats floating off, bearing ashes of two of my most important people. My hope was that when the sparklers burned down, they would catch the boats on fire sending Alex and Debby into Bristol Bay with all the light and glory I wanted for them. It worked that way with some boats - especially after Jeff perfected the fold, but not every boat cooperated.

Rohan got this photo of the boats floating toward Pedersen Point, toward the Kvichak River, toward Lake Iliamna, the proposed site of Pebble Mine. Alex was passionately opposed to the idea of mining on the shores of Lake Iliamna. As these boats floated away, the New Trevor sang a beautiful sea shanty for us, followed by another by Josh - the same one he sang at Alex's memorial in Massachusetts.

And then we came back in. The participants from the drifting world left shortly afterward, needing to get back to their boats while they could, before the tide came in any higher, preventing the truck from making it to the beach access road. (I wasn't thinking about that at all. But Harry was.) Sarah rode along with them on the four wheeler so that if they did get stuck (there's a really bad spot by the access road), she could come back for help right away. But all was well.

We spent a little time sending off the rest of the lanterns, with more success than we had in the skiff. Here is Jeff helping to get the last one up. He decorated this one with a dragonfly, incorporating spirals and cycles.

Many of the next fireworks photos will be blurry, but I think they still tell the story. Here is Josh, launching a Roman candle, with Luka looking on.