July 25: Exodus begins

Today, David, Sarah, and I got up early to sneak past the high tide and get Jake to the airport. Here they are, lying on the shelf where the luggage comes in, waiting for Jake's plane. But it was foggy so the flights were delayed and eventually, his flight was canceled altogether. Normally, it wouldn't really matter much - getting home today or tomorrow doesn't really matter. Usually, we only think it matters because it's what we planned. This time, it was different. This time, he was trying to get to a wedding (my nephew's wedding) for which he had agreed to play the guitar. It was important for him to get there. I think we have to give Jake some lessons in how to rattle a cage. He is so polite that he didn't want to make any kind of a fuss or disturb any of the already stressed out ticket agents. But other people were getting seats, people who probably weren't scheduled to play guitar in a wedding in a day and a half. I contend that it is possible to rattle a cage while at the same time caring about and attending to the impact of said rattling on the stressed out ticket agent.

It is always very hard for me when the crew starts leaving. They are such delightful, committed, honorable, and endlessly interesting and amusing people and I love them. It's hard to let them go, but of course, it's exactly what needs to happen. Again, it's a pretty good problem to have and I really look forward to having it again next season.

After finally seeing Jake off, the big task for this day was getting the stairs up. Of all the things we do to close up at the end of the season, this is the thing that would be the hardest to do alone and it is the most dangerous. The stairs are heavy - I think they probably weigh more than 1000 lbs.

David used the boom truck to lift the stairs from the bottom and

Jeff operated the capstan winch to pull it from the top once it was up as high as the boom could take it. Luka worked with Jeff to relay messages so that Jeff could focus his attention on the winch and still be able to respond quickly to a message from the bottom of the cliff.

Four people at the top of the cliff held guide ropes to pull the ladder into the desired position. David had really thought it through well, making sure Jeff knew to take up slack, but not to pull it until it was all the way up. From where David stood, he could very clearly see the big risk: he could have been crushed if the ladder somehow slipped out of the slings. (That's the reason he didn't want the winch to pull prematurely, pulling it out of its slings.) Another and relatively minor risk was that the boom truck could have been crushed. Neither risk is acceptable or necessary and we can do better next year. I didn't recognize these risks from where I stood. When I watched the video that Alok made, I felt sick because I saw it then. I saw risks to the people at the top of the cliff if we lost control of the ladder so I ran a chain from the top of the ladder to a screw anchor between the ladder and the crew cabin. If something let go, the chain would not stretch and would prevent the top of the ladder from rising up... unless it came toward the anchor first, sending the bottom of the ladder away from David and the truck. So the chain made them safe, but that should be the fail safe, in the unlikely event of a failure. Watching the video showed me that it wasn't so unlikely that the ladder would slip out of its sling. Further, the chain did not provide much protection for those of us at the top of the cliff between the ladder and the anchor. If it swung that way, it would have swung right through us. I think the answer to both problems is a pelican at the bottom, like the fish buyers use to pick up our brailers and then release them at will, and a second anchor and chain at the top on the other side of the stairs.

The boom has the bottom of the stairs lifted about half way up.

When it was up as far as it would go, David quickly climbed the cliff to help us pull it into position as the winch continued to pull it back. I was very surprised when Alok told us that we pulled up those stairs in less than 15 minutes.

After the stairs were up, Jean and I went for a walk on the beach - I was hoping to use the low light to find agates. We walked down to Pedersen Point, getting there in time for another beautiful sunset.

Later that night, we saw the moon - still huge, no longer full.