More on Into the Ice

We ended up circling outside Naknek for so long that the bosses decided we should skip Dillingham and head straight for Bethel.  Yesterday, the morning of the 15th of May, we had 8 hours of snow.  The good news was as we entered the Kuskokwim we didn’t encounter ice.  We heard another boat had made it as far as Eek before being turned back two days before.  We headed on and about 15 miles south of Eek we found the ice.  Eek is a natural holding area to await tides for shallows we have to cross before heading to Bethel, so we circled for 24 hours and are about to make the next leg up.  The good news is the ice has thinned.  Fingers Crossed!

Updated : they made it to Bethel.

This is a video made by Max, the engineer onboard the Fish Hawk, from the Sunday trip upriver.

Into The Ice Again!?!

 The Fish Hawk is in line to get to the dock in Naknek.  The ice broke in this river a couple of weeks ago.  The next stop is Dillingham which broke a few days ago.  But after that it is 120 miles up the Kuskokwim and that just broke yesterday.  So pretty good chance we will be waiting on ice.  But the bad news is one of the barges left behind last year has broke free and heading down river with the ice.  Looks like we will be slotted for a rescue mission.  Stay tuned for updates.

Work

We have decided that Mark will go to work on the Fish Hawk for another year.

And so the season started, with them leaving Seward today.  They are headed to Naknek.