July 3 2016: The weather creates debt

The weather kept up through the night though it didn't seem as windy. We went out at 1:30. It took 3 tries to paddle out to the Bathtub. The surf break is pretty impressive when the tide is that high. Jeff and I went out first, but we started too close - it really was a determined wind, and with the tide going the same direction, even Mighty Jeff couldn't get us back to it once we'd overshot. He did want to try and I discouraged it. It's no big deal to start over from a better spot. But it does wipe you out from the beginning of the tide and that didn't seem smart to me.

Austin and Jeff made it in 2 tries. Have I mentioned yet that I really like my crew? Well, I do! Jeff nosed in the Bathtub to drop off the row boat and pick us up. It is a stressful experience when the weather is rough and blowing onshore. The waves just pick us up and throw us wherever they want - usually down on the prop and up on the shore where it's dry and rocky. So we try hard to stay in control - but who am I kidding? In control of the tide and the weather?

As we were working our way to the Ambi, we saw that lots of nets had broken loose. Uh oh. Including one of ours. We could see that #3 had entangled with your neighbor's. Argh. That's what storms will do - show you your weak spots. We were within 50 feet of the Ambi when the Yamaha on the Bathtub started to sputter and die. That is a sound that is alarming to me. Jeff tried again and again, no luck. Then he stopped trying for a while, hoping it was flooded. That Yamaha is the most reliable outboard we've ever had. I was shocked that it might do any more difficult than run out of gas. It once had a brailer bag of 1000# of fish dropped on it and barely flinched. It ain't called "Enduro" for nothin'. But it wasn't going anywhere early this morning. We dropped the hook. It was a cold, dark, and stormy night (of course) and 9 of us were anchored in the little Bathtub with no hope of rescue until the neighbors came at their regular time, some time after high water. We were going out a couple of hours before the flood. That's a long time to wait. Jeff fixed it on this tide - he suspected water in the gas, so he drained everything and indeed, found lots of water where it wasn't supposed to be.

When it's the middle of the heavy part of a fishing season, it had better be an emergency when you call someone at 2 AM. We weren't really having an emergency; just a major inconvenience. We made insulation out of brailers and snuggled into groups to stay warm. It was better than nothing, but "warm" was out of the question. Finally, at 4 AM I called David N who had stayed in that tide (trying to recover from his near miss the previous tide) to ask him to ask the Williams to come and give us a lift to the Ambi when they come out. But they weren't going anywhere. Both of the skiffs they keep up on the beach were full of water and one had dragged its anchor and knocked into our stairs so they fell over, on the skiff. Wow. Bray at AGS used the Gehl to put them back up. We have to make a few adjustments because now they're sort of like a ladder - kinda steep!

Finally I thought to call my brother. I didn't know whether he was fishing - he wasn't. Apparently it was a setnet only opening. But he's a wonderful brother because he roused his crew (his daughters - the Moore Girls 2.0) and motored down to us. It was a pretty awesome sight. My brother the hero motoring out of the dark, cold distance to give us a lift of about 100'. He maneuvered that great big boat masterfully... and I realized that I don't leap agilely anymore. Jeff does, David D does, and so does Austin. Others may, but those were the people I'd picked to go with me. Except that they could leap up to Harry's boat and really I couldn't. Where are my handrails!!??

And we were surprised by how many fish we had! Yikes! Flagged nets can catch fish. And when both ends aren't tied down, strange things can happen like sort of tying the net into a spin of knots. It was a very long tide once we got to the nets. We tested (and proved!) the pulley system. At least for getting skiffs in. And we found that at least this morning, we were able to just tow the empty skiff out with the ranger.

We were surprised by the incoming tide, though. We thought we had a little more time to get the fish delivered. But Bray stood by and waited for us.

And then, the next opening was upon us. David took charge and told us all to come in, eat, get dry (several of us took a lot of water in the initial process of getting off the beach in the Bathtub... was it weeks ago? Oh, it was less than 24 hours ago?) And come back out for this tide. Yep, that's what we needed to do.

This time, the tide started off much better - the shore-runner didn't swamp in the swamp zone and the wind started to die down. Still, we had a lot of chop. We were able to deliver most of our fish over the water instead of the mud, and I am here to report that we have a lot of late hitters again this year. That is hard.

So I'm up to about 36 hours without sleep. The crew is holding up great. We go again at 1:30 this morning. It's about 8 PM now. Good night.