June 25 2016: Happy Birthday, Matt!... and congratulations on that mosquito eating contest

The day started with ... another update. No fish here yet. It is hard to wait.

One of last night's activities was to lay out a firm plan to bring the fish in from the outside sites. Here is what we came up with. First, deliver as many over water as possible. That means being early on the nets, especially on the ebb. Second, carry small amounts of ebb fish to the Bathtub and use the pulley on the beach and the truck to pull it in. That will mean putting out a line between the 'Tub and the pulley. If the crew is exhausted, we'll break out the ranger to do it. If the crew isn't exhausted, we'll just put the line out by hand. Or, depending on how the mud evolves, maybe we could just push the 'Tub in by hand as we have in past years.

If there are more ebb fish than it is reasonable to carry to the 'Tub, but not so many that we can't get the fish out before the nets go dry or before we come to the end of the period, we will use the ranger to pull the Bathtub around between the outside sites to pick up the fish from the skiffs, and then it will pull it in toward the beach as far as it can go. When the ranger is no longer able to pull the Bathtub, we'll transition to the pulley system. The ranger will be carrying a line in its box (length to be determined). We'll tie one end of that line to the stalled 'Tub and the ranger will run toward the pulley on the beach, dropping the line behind it as it goes. Then we'll run the inside end through the pulley, attach it to ol' Red and pull. But what if there are more fish out there? How will we get the Bathtub back out to pick them up? The ranger can pull it part of the distance, but what about after that? Maybe the crew will be able to push the empty skiff out to where the ranger will have the traction to pull it. If not, we can affix another pulley to an outside anchor, run a line from the bow of the skiff, through the outside pulley, back to the inside pulley, and attach it to the truck... and pull.

That will work. If there are huge piles of fish on the ebb, we might need to roundhaul. We roundhaul when there are too many fish in the nets to get them out before running out of time or water. Instead of emptying the fish out as we pull the net in, we just pile the nets, with all the caught fish, flounders, floaters, and all into the skiff and sort them out afterwards. If we do that, we'll need to work out where to sort out that roundhaul. If it's out on the flats, then we'll be signing up for needing to transport the fish across the mud, but we'll be in position for the next opening. If it's on the beach, we'll be in position for the fastest delivery of the salmon, but the skiffs and nets won't be in the right position for the next opening. We might offload the roundhauled net onto a tarp on the beach. We might set out of the Bathtub next time. We have options.

So the first order of business today was to bring back to the beach the freed pulleys and a couple of tarps. Then we set out to confirm that the ranger can pull the Bathtub around between the outside sites, and to find out how far out it can pull the Bathtub from the beach (about the first 450' of mud), and how far in from the outside sites (about 150' from the outside buoy of the inside site). That means about 400' of mud that the ranger can't help with much.

We gathered together all the things we would need to install the outside end of our over-mud transport plan - that would include a screw anchor, a turning bar, a buoy on a line to help us find it and to help the skiffs' props avoid it, a shackle or two and an adjustable wrench.

Then using... uh, let's call them "experiential" methods, we figured out where to put the anchor. Basically, it needs to go a few steps seaward of where the ranger can no longer pull the Bathtub when it's heading toward shore. To get the 'Tub back out on the flats, we'll use the truck and the pulleys to pull the skiff over the "no-ranger" zone. The ranger will take it from there.

So, David and the ranger pulled the Bathtub around between the sites (good) and then pulled it in until he lost traction. We backed up a few paces, and put the anchor in there.

Oksanna and I are attaching the shackles to the eye of the screw anchor. The big one is needed to attach the pulley, but it won't fit through the eye of the screw anchor and besides, it's so rusty, I'm afraid it will wear out the line that the buoy is attached to. So we'll use another shackle to connect the pulley's shackle to the anchor.

Oksanna and Jeff both came out in their bare feet. It definitely is easier to make it through the mud without boots on, but I'm uneasy about the consequences - cut feet and needing to gear up in the skiff either over muddy extremities or wet ones if the water is up. I do feel strongly that we can't be barefoot in the skiff.

After we'd finished this phase of our work, we watched Jeff, already partially covered in mud, run from about 100' away and execute a graceful sliding dive, face first, into the mud.

Here are the visible results. I don't know how much mud he scooped into his ears and swimming trunks. If I'd known what he was about to do, I'd have tried to stop him. It seems like a good idea right up until you realize that that smell is actually coming from the mud. Well, now the mud, and you. And though it's not quite as hard to get it off of you as it is to get it out of your clothes, it ain't easy, especially without a shower.

After helping Jeff clear the mud from his face - or at least his eyes and mouth, it was time to try to figure out how much line we would need to make this all work. After placing the anchor we calculated the distance (ok, we paced the distance) from the anchor to the outside buoy of the inside site. We know the running line is 700' long. And the anchor that the pulley will be attached to on the inside is probably about 150' from the inside anchor of the inside site. So ...square root... hypotenuse...plus... minus...times pi... about 700', the same as the running line - let's make it 750 just to be on the safe side.

Next we needed David to pull the Cockroach (anchored in, just beyond the swamp zone) out toward the outside sites as far as he could. That would help us figure out how much more line would be needed to pull the Bathtub from where the ranger would have to leave it on its seaward journey to where it could pick it up again. About another 400'. There. We should be ready.

Here David is, bringing the ranger and the Cockroach back in after we had completed our calculations and now know how much line to prepare, with Dirty Jeff and Patrick trailing behind.

Ollie also had been frolicking in the mud, though I think Jeff ended up more thoroughly coated. Ollie gets credit for trying to keep his face out of it, anyway. Jeff and Ollie both took a bath in the lake behind the cabins.

Most of us took a trip into town, except for Patrick and David L who stayed back to finish putting a pair of hinged vents into the bunkhouse. Many of us needed showers (some more than others - ahem), and we returned with what we needed for Matt's birthday dinner. Matt tackled making his requested sloppy joe's while I made the birthday cake. His birthday cake request was pretty much for chocolate. Not with any fancy flavors mixed in. Just... chocolate.

The crew headed back in after dinner for a night out for Matt's birthday. I'm not all that interested in the bar scene, unless there's music involved. And it turns out that there was! Our favorites were playing at the Red Dog and besides, it was open mic night. Every Saturday. And Friday is open mic night at the Fisherman's. Maybe next weekend.

The next day, the crew told me that Matt played pool with someone they didn't know... and they got into a dead-mosquito-eating contest. In a dubious victory, our team took that one. Go, Matt!