Snettisham 2009 - 3:  Work Party
May 23-25

Orcas in Stephen's Passage

It was clear from the previous trip that it would take all summer to haul down enough lumber for the porch on the Ronquil.  I needed a bigger boat.  Thankfully, the Alaskan was more or less ready to go and needed an excuse to leave the harbor and my parents graciously agreed to haul the lumber down to Snettisham for me.  All winter I'd also had in mind a spring work party to move lumber around and cut some firewood (both tasks I can do on my own, but multiple people and strong men make the work ridiculously easier and faster).  With the Alaskan booked came the ability to haul more than a few people down at a time.  I sent out invitations and, surprisingly, everyone in the first group I invited agreed to come. 

Then came the insanity of trying to get ready.  My parents generously spent the whole week prior working on the boat; they discovered some leaks in the fresh water system and had some other unexpected and standard maintenance to take care of.   I had the rest of the lumber I needed for the deck delivered to the harbor at 1:00 pm on Thursday and took the afternoon off of work to get ready.  Chris, my dad, and I loaded the lumber from the top of the ramp at Aurora Harbor down onto the Alaskan in about an hour (using a metal harbor cart to transport it).  While we were loading, my mind was working through the decking calculations again (which I'd done hastily earlier in the week while cooking dinner).  I'm baffled at how this came about, but I'd shorted myself about 20 boards in the order.  This was a bit discouraging, as it more or less defeated the purpose of having the load of lumber delivered at all.  But, I was 20 boards shy, the boat was leaving in two days, so there was nothing to do but go buy some more.  I headed out the road to Valley Lumber and, on the way, got to thinking about another project I wanted to do this summer--railings for the lodge porch (one of the things I need to do to get it up to code).  In a flash of inspiration I decided that cedar would be the way to go to match the rest of the porch.  While at Valley Lumber I picked up eight 12' pieces of cedar 2x2s--probably enough for most of the deck, which will certainly make hauling the rest down later in the summer when I have a firmer plan a bit easier--in addition to the decking materials.  From there I went to Fred Meyer to pick up groceries for myself and my six person crew for the weekend, and dinner for my mother's birthday the next day.  I went home, had dinner, then Chris and I returned to the harbor (at low tide) to haul the rest of the lumber down.  It didn't take us long and we were all loaded up.

Saturday morning I got up early, loaded my gear in the pickup, grabbed a few last minute items at the store, and stopped at the harbor, taking one cart load down to the boat to get started.  I ran back home, picked up Chris, and met everyone back at the harbor at 8:45.  We loaded the rest of the gear onto a big metal cart and then I parked the truck. When I returned, I got my first reward for luring a bunch of guys on the trip.  Torsten and Rob took the heavily loaded cart down the steep ramp (low tide again) and I carried nothing.  At the boat we quickly reconnoitered, loaded all our gear into the after stateroom, and got a quick safety briefing from my dad.  Then Chris and I left Torsten, Rob, Shawna, Alex, and Amanda on board the Alaskan and Chris and I drove to Douglas to fetch the Ronquil.  We met up with them right outside the harbor.  My dad handed us a line and I leaned over the bow of the Ronquil to tie it on.  We jumped on board the Alaskan and took off for the homestead.

The trip down was pleasant, the weather beautiful.  The Alaskan left the harbor at 9:00 and anchored up about 1:00; it was a bit choppy, but hardly noticeable in the big boat.  We passed several whales in Taku Inlet and down Stephen's Passage near Seal Rocks.  At about Taku Harbor I dug out my frying pan and quesadilla makings and started making lunch on the Alaskan's range.  It was a little slow going one at a time, but eventually everyone on the boat had their fill.  Thanks to my mother for supplying a can of salsa, as I had expected to use the supply I had waiting at the lodge. 

Once we were settled at anchor close into the sandbars, we started loading up.  First we loaded all the gear into the Ronquil and I took Chris, Torsten, and Alex to shore.  They loaded the gear up while I returned to the boat.  Rob got on board and helped load lumber that the others handed down to us, then came to shore with me and helped offload.  We made three trips this way before I came back for the last few boards and the girls.  I'd mentioned to the guys on shore that I also wanted to move the stack of lumber that had overwintered on the beach into the woods with the rest of the staged lumber and was amazed (and pleased) to see that the entire stack was gone by the time we got to shore.  That was one of the two main tasks for the weekend!  Once we were all on shore I took everyone on a tour of the homestead and folks dropped their gear in their cabins for the night.  Shawna and Alex took Cottonwood Cabin, Amanda took Mink, and Torsten and Rob took Murrelet.  Nigel followed us happily, both sides of his neck smeared in green bear poop.

As we walked around I showed the new guys some downed trees that I thought would make good firewood.  My little Poulan chainsaw was still in the shop (changing the spark plug the week before had done little to help), so my dad was kind enough to give me one of his big Stihl saws.  I begged Torsten to be careful, then let Torsten, Alex, and Rob take off into the woods.  We could hear the chainsaw working in the distance and eventually the guys seemed to fall into a routine bringing loads of rounds to an opening in the alders near the start of the long boardwalk just past the staged lumber.  Unfortunately, I never did visit them while they worked to get photos and see what was going on.  Meanwhile, Shawna and Amanda took off in Keet, the double kayak, and Chris and I fell to work on the deck.  I figured if we at least got the joists nailed in we could loosely lay the decking down and have a semi-functional deck for the group.  The weather was gorgeous, so deck space was desirable.  First Chris and I did a lot of measuring, shifting, and remeasuring to get the foundation level and square again, then marked the stringers for 16" on center joist placement.  My plan was to use the 4x4 stringer to support the joists on both the existing 8' length of deck and the additional six feet that I planned to add later that weekend.  I didn't like the idea of splitting a 3.5" stringer between two abutting joists, and I figured that most of them could overlap and didn't need to be the same distance apart in both sections of the deck.  However, the joists on the end clearly needed to butt against one another, as did any joists that would support the ends of decking.  So I decided that I would alternate 4' and 8' lengths of 2x6s on the top, which required butting joists only every four feet, or every third joist. 

So we cut five joists 1.75" shy of 16' and started nailing them in.  The rest we left long.  Shawna and Amanda came back and did a few important tasks nearby, including stocking the lodge with firewood (from the pallets we'd chopped up), gathering tinder from the dry sticks and twigs lying around, and fixing the boardwalk path.  Chris and I had picked up the whole boardwalk (made of three sections of 2x12s) when we started the deck foundation and it had been laying there catawampus for several weeks.  They repositioned it under the stairs, dug ditches for its foundations, and eventually got a stable, relatively level boardwalk back in place.  Around 6:00 pm everyone seemed to reconvene for a break just as Chris and I were nailing the last of the joists in place.  Shawna and Amanda brought out delicious snacks of cheese, crackers, and tart grapes while the boys and I quickly laid down enough 2x6s to cover the deck.  They were amazingly stable--an instant deck.  We brought out the four lawn chairs and I took Nigel down to the water with a bucket, kitchen gloves, and shampoo.  He knew what was up and only came down to the water with me at my stern insistence.  The tide was out so we stopped down on the flats at the ends of the small channel formed by the runoff in front of the lodge.  I admit I felt some satisfaction tossing buckets of cold water on him. 

Chris started a fire and I started to get dinner ready while the crew relaxed on the porch.  They slowly started to trickle in and soon we were all eating alfredo tortellini, zucchini, and garlic bread for dinner in front of the picture window.  Amanda baked chocolate chip cookies for dessert with batter she'd made in town.  All the cooking steamed things up a bit and the lodge got pretty warm.  At about 10:30 everyone got up and went to their cabins except for Chris and me.  We stayed up for some time and had a rigorous conversation about alcoholism.

The next morning I allowed myself to sleep until about 8:30, then got up and made my way to the lodge.  It was another gorgeous, sunny day.  I had a snack, then walked down the beach to almost within throwing distance of the Alaskan at anchor.  I chatted with my parents for a little bit, then walked back to the lodge as others began showing up.  All morning, one or two whales fed in some part of the inlet, moving in and out.  It was gorgeous, and everyone but Chris and I went for a kayak.  In the meantime, Chris and I worked on the water system.  First we repaired the hose where the bear had bitten through again, simply cutting away that section and placing in a new coupling.  Then we walked up the length of the water line to check for any catastrophic leaks, but it seemed perfectly intact.  Everything up at the creek seemed in place as well, so we turned on the valve and hoped for the best.  Down at the lodge I cracked the second valve and was pleased to see foaming water rush through the filters.  We had running water again.

The girls soon returned while the boys continued a fruitless search for a whale on the other side of Gilbert Bay and we started making banana pancakes.  I was grateful to Amanda and Shawna for taking over after I made a few--and the pancakes noticeable improved as well.  The boys showed up, stowed most of the kayaks away, had some pancakes, and then returned to chain saw work.  Chris and I started digging foundation holes for the second half of the deck with a little help from the girls.  The digging went surprisingly well.  Chris dug up an obelisk shaped rock while working on the middle hole; I hit a flat rack on a corner hole exactly where I wanted the footing to go and decided to place the pier block directly on top of it instead of digging any farther.  The third hole we dug barely larger than the pier block and somehow it was almost perfectly placed. 

I'm not sure how much more wood the guys cut up, as they turned their attention to another endeavor.  They had some long lengths of trunk and wanted to chain saw them into benches.  Alex was dead set on making me a 12' bench (although I couldn't think of where it would be useful), but in the end they only had time to make two 6' benches, each one half a trunk supported by two notched rounds.  They look great. By then it was approaching departure time and the girls had already packed most of the gear up and made more cookies.  My mother came ashore with Rosie and took some final group shots of everyone before I loaded them on the Ronquil for the trip to the Alaskan.  Rob wanted to ride in the kayak, so we towed him out (it was a short trip).  As we approached the Alaskan, Rosie was being winched into the boat from within the inflatable (the swim step is too high for her handle by herself).  We may have spooked her by our approach, and she dove into the water from several feet up.  So there she was, an 80 lb. Chesapeake retriever swimming around the boat with no way to get on, far from shore.  Alex suggested that he could pull her up onto the Alaskan's swim step by the scruff of her neck, so I dropped him off there.  Rosie had swum around the bow of the boat and for a moment we thought Torsten could pull her into the bow of the Ronquil when she passed and I quickly cleared an area up there of gear.  At the last minute she turned away, heading for my mother in the inflatable.  But, she wouldn't get too close to that either, and wound up instead right next to Rob in the kayak, who somehow managed to drag her in with him without tipping over.  It was amazing.  Rosie was transferred from the kayak into the Ronquil and from there into the Alaskan.

After that adventure, I let everyone off, tossed them their gear, and returned upriver to anchor the boat.  Chris and I continued work on the foundations that afternoon.  The second section of deck went much more smoothly than the first.  Everything seemed to come together square and plumb and with the proper dimensions (at least relative to last time).  We cut 4x4s for the posts and the stringer and had a level, square foundation completed by quitting time.  That night we feasted on stuffing, nachos, and wine and played many rounds of mastermind. 

The next morning I did a bunch of odds and ends around the lodge and started getting ready to go.  I finished putting away lumber and covered everything neatly with tarps along with half of the firewood the boys had brought in.  I also gathered up another tote of tinder for fire starting, cut the joists for the second half of the porch, and marked the stringer where they should go.  I made about a 6" cantilever over the end of the stringer.  The five joists at 4' intervals and the ends were cut to abut the existing joists; the rest laid alongside the existing joists for strength, but I cut them anyway, since we only wanted a 6' section.  When Chris arrived we nailed in the joists and then decided to forgo kayaking or other activities to put the decking on.  I'd cut two of the 2x6s in half that morning to see if my plan for an alternating 8' and 4' decking pattern would be attractive.  It looked great, so we cut a bunch more and set to work laying out pieces and nailing the ends in, using carpenter's pencils to measure the gaps.  It was fun work, going from board to board and watching the deck take shape.  About two thirds of the way along we stopped to cut more boards and I started to measure them and lay them out all the way to the end to make sure we gapped them correctly so they wouldn't overhang too much or come up short.  Unfortunately, using the same gaps as the beginning of the deck brought me and inch and a half short of the edge.  I'd wanted to overlap by an inch and a half so I could put a board beneath it to cover the ends of the joists, but that clearly wasn't going to work without making enormous gaps, or really tiny ones.  I decided to compromise and made slightly larger gaps over the last four feet, which brought the final 2x6 flush with the edge of the deck; I decided I could put up 2x10s to cover the ends of the joists and add an inch and a half to the deck.  Not ideal, but I think it'll work.  Laying out those last four feet of decking was pretty time consuming, but it came out well.  I finished tacking those boards in while Chris went around and pounded the rest of the nails in (we'd left them sticking out in case adjustments needed to be made).  The deck looked fantastic and we were both pretty pleased with it.  We listened to whales breathing in the inlet on and off all day.

By the time we finished nailing in the ends of all the boards, the afternoon was winding down, so we relaxed briefly on the deck, then closed everything up and took off around 5:30.  The lovely weather we'd had for the work party was beginning to wan and it was mostly overcast.  Thankfully, this meant that the wind had turned and was coming from the southeast, putting the mild seas behind us, and the ride was fairly fast and pleasant.  We passed a few whales here and there.  As we approached Taku Harbor I saw a rather small blow off Grave Point.  Since we see humpbacks there quite often I assumed it was a small one whose blow was diminished by the breeze, or perhaps I hadn't noticed it right away.  The thought did cross my mind that it was about the right size for an orca, and wouldn't that be wonderful.  But, that fantasy occurs more regularly than I'd care to admit and I had never found orcas in all my trips back and forth to Snettisham.  Then, a minute later, a huge black fin rose above the surface and I think I may have shrieked in excitement.  It had finally happened. 

Looking around we suddenly saw lots of orcas, spread out all the way across Stephen's Passage as far as we could see.  In front of us were groups of two or three traveling in our direction, and one young orca spyhopped quickly as he passed.  It was already late in the afternoon, but dinner and showers would have to wait!  We turned and traveled with them for a bit; the pod was extremely spread out, so our exposure was limited to the three groups on our side of the channel.  I was eager to get a look at the big male we'd first seen in case he could offer any clues as to what pod he belonged to (since there are comparatively few mature males in any pod, they are the easiest way to identify a group quickly ).  He was traveling with two smaller orcas closer to shore and when I finally got a good view of his saddle patch I was doubly elated--it was AF29, the first orca I ever identified, an old friend, and this, then, was AF pod.  Or possibly it was AG13 and I was hanging with AG pod!  They both have open saddle patches and I didn't get a good enough photo to conclusibely identify him.  But, I choose to believe it was AF29, the first orca I ever identified (in 1998).  These were Chris's first wild orcas that he could remember, too, so it was all around delightful. 

The two other groups offered us some wonderful looks, including a cow and her very young calf (still orange in the white spots) traveling with another female/young male.  They and several others approached the boat a few times, once diving about eight feet off the side, one of them turning upsidedown underwater so we could see its white underbelly for a few seconds.  There were rafts of flotsam on the surface in places and a couple of them stopped to roll around in it and one young orca spyhopped there as well.  They were traveling fast, so we eventually had to turn and head home.  As we left them behind, one orca spyhopped in the distance.  Fantastic.