June 30: Beautiful day for a sad anniversary

Fishing was better today. Here are the chairs I have come to think of as Alex's chairs, overlooking the bluff I sometimes think of as Alex's bluff about 2 hours before we headed out to fish. I thought the contrasting shades of gray were beautiful, so it was my first photo of Alex's day. You can also see the ranger tracks in the mud and if you squint, way over on the right side of the photo, you can see the Ambi out there on the mud flats. We were busy during the tide, so I didn't get additional photos until the very end. More about that in a minute. We got in at about 10:30 tonight and we go again at 3:30 tomorrow morning, so a short post. David made a quick trip to town to pick up the 25 hp outboard for the Grayling which we've just been towing around because the 45 hasn't been starting. Once he got there, we figured out that John was out of town. But he saw that we were trying to call and got back to us, telling David how to get in to get it. Whew. David got back just in time to set the nets, so I asked Roger to work on getting the 45 off the Grayling (it had been bolted on) and I told him that I would bring out the 25 with the ranger. I brought down our little aluminum dory that we call "Skook" to load the 25 into, and to receive the 45. At least, that was the plan.

But the ranger was low on gas... and this was an incoming tide. My nerves can stand taking a chance of running out of gas in the ranger out on the mud flats if it is an outgoing tide, but as it's coming in? No thanks, I'll get my stress other places if I have a choice. So I gassed it up and tried to start it... dead battery. Jumper cables in the white truck - really short ones, so the vehicles have to be really close together. Got it started, but we didn't have all the right tools to get the 45 off and decided to postpone that whole operation till the end of the tide.

As we finished setting the inside site, Sarah waded by - the new Honda wasn't working for the lack of a whole o-ring. She was about to run into town to get a piece. Meanwhile, the problem-solving New Boat crew robbed the needed piece from our beloved and loyal Yamaha 60 in the Bathtub to get them going for the tide in the New Boat... and they repaired the Bathtub by the end. Whew.

The fishing started strong, tapered down a bit, rallied at high water and then tailed off at the ebb. We ended with a total of about 13,000 lbs.

We used the ranger to bring in the last of the ebb fish and I was planning to run back out with it to help Roger finish with the outboard. But I noticed that the tread was sagging and David noticed the flat-ish tire that was allowing it to sag. We are all about work-arounds here, so I sent Jeff up for the tank of air I keep on my porch... it was empty. So I ran up to get one of those compressor things you might carry in your trunk and plug into your cigarette lighter, hoping that we actually have one and I found it quickly. The ranger doesn't have a cigarette lighter so Rohan got the generator and extension cord from David's cabin to run the little machine and re-inflate the tire, hoping it will hold. Jeff, Jake, and Roger went out to the Grayling to switch outboards, and noticed that the bulb in the Grayling is pretty stiff. That too may need to be replaced. We haven't been able to test it yet because the tide has been out. But we can do that tonight if we want (in the dark... hmmm) or on tomorrow's day tide.

Here is the end of the beautiful day for a sad anniversary. I do feel Alex close here - closer than anywhere else. But if it were mine to choose, I'd choose to have him here - or anywhere - in the flesh.