[waves splashing]
This is coming over
the sea wall.
That's 20 feet.
[narrator] No question.
That was the roughest storm
Nome has ever seen.
[man 1]
Okay. Watch out [bleep]
flying off the building.
[narrator]
So much destruction.
Well, my sailboat has cut loose.
[narrator] Everywhere.
Right now. It looks like
an absolute w*r zone.
[narrator] But we were lucky.
My neighbor house is gone.
It's down the river.
[narrator]
We made it out alive.
[woman speaking]
[narrator]
And the fleet survived.
Now...
[Kris speaking]
Wow.
[narrator] It's time
to pick up the pieces.
I'm excited
to get back out there
and go dig and see
what we can find.
[narrator]
And do what we do best.
[man 2 speaking]
You get gold.
You get gold. You get gold.
[narrator]
Get that golden fortune
that's waiting for us
at the bottom of the Bering Sea.
That's [bleep] in a hot pan.
Loaded.
[narrator] We're not gonna
go down without a fight.
[Kris] We're gonna go for it.
Fortune favors the bold.
Go make some gold.
It's gonna be a good day.
[theme music playing]
[tense music playing]
[seagulls cawing]
Stack 'em up,
you know what I mean?
See, always stack 'em up.
[Chris]
My neighbor's house is gone.
It used to be right there.
It used to be right there
where you see all those trashes,
that house to be right there.
And it's gone.
[narrator] After the storm
of the century wreaked havoc
throughout Nome,
the process of assessing
the damage left
in its wake has begun.
I mean,
you can see their belongings
is all over the place.
Like their cabinets.
Their kitchen is over there.
Their living room is over here.
It's just...
Yeah, it's just very...
A saddening situation.
I've seen a lot
of tough times in Nome,
but I never seen
anything like this
that we just went through.
Oh, my [bleep] God.
Can you even [bleep]
believe this?
Boats everywhere,
it's [bleep] piling up
and it's only gonna get worse.
This storm not only
knocked us off the water,
it also changed lives,
like literally.
It's impacted people in ways
that would last for years.
I'm gonna go look around
and see what I can salvage,
you know,
give it back to the owner.
I kinda help them pick up
their [bleep]
you know what I mean?
I really need to get back
in the water,
but first,
I really need to find out
what my community needs.
We've gotta take care
of each other out here.
We help each other out.
I mean,
Nome's a close-knit community,
you know what I mean?
It's just...
We help each other out.
We, you know, we don't...
We're not looting,
we're just picking up her stuff
and, you know,
it's all over the place.
We might as well help
the poor family
that just lost
their whole house, right?
So you might as help them out
a little bit.
And then at the end of the day,
they're gonna
appreciate it that...
You know?
I found this empty can
and, uh...
Oh, look at that.
It's like someone's
personal belongings.
Look at that picture
of their cat.
You know, that's...
I'm not gonna
look through it anymore,
but I'm gonna try my best
to get this back
to the respectable owner.
You know what I mean?
So they maybe
might appreciate it,
you know, 'cause God,
they lost everything.
Going through all
these personal belongings
puts everything
into a perspective.
It is time for the community
to put Nome back together.
And for us miners,
that means we need
to get back on our dredges
and put more gold in our box.
A lot of stuff on it,
it's just sad.
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] Down at the harbor.
[Kris] We'll see
how it goes today.
Weather looks good.
Visibility right now
is the only thing
that we are gonna have
a problem with.
And I don't see any
suction dredges out there.
So let's just go and see
if we have visibility.
[narrator]
After the great storm,
Reaper Nation
is pushing to get back
on the water
as soon as possible.
It's actually
our first day of mining
after the big storm.
It took a while
for the oceans to calm down
'cause it was
a pretty big storm.
I'm gonna jump in the skip,
go out of the harbor,
drop down my camera and see
if I have visibility.
If I have visibility,
we're taking the all-in,
if we don't have visibility,
we're gonna have
to wait till tomorrow.
'Cause you know,
I got three cameras
on the crawler,
but that still
doesn't mean [bleep].
We had an enormous storm,
we'll see if we can see.
The storm is over
and our fleet survived.
But in reality
after a storm like that,
that's just half the battle.
I just want you to get
the Mistress out on the water.
Is everything... Are you...
Are you ready to go?
Okay. Good job.
The good news is,
the Mistress is going back
out there right now
and hopefully be back
on the gold.
But the trickier part
is the underwater crawler.
That storm stirred up
the bottom of the ocean so bad
that we probably won't have vis,
which means we only have half
the operation running.
Okay. Let's go.
[engine starts]
[Brad speaking]
We're gonna check out
how bad the vis is
and make an assessment.
I gotta get both boats working.
You know what?
I'm just gonna get out there
and push hard
and I hope it all works out.
I've been aiming
for a thousand ounces
this season,
but I have to stop
kidding myself.
That's not gonna happen
this year.
Not with the problems we've had
and not with this storm.
To just pay the bills
that are immediate,
pay off the crew and break even,
we need to make
about 175 ounces.
That doesn't seem
like a big number
but that's more gold
than we've gotten before.
Okay. Here we are.
This is the right spot.
Okay.
Let's get this going.
Hopefully we hear a jackpot.
I'd say I'm about 4 feet
off the bottom right now.
[Kris] They're beautiful.
What you don't understand is,
visibility is a necessity
with mining.
The sea isn't just
crystal-clear all day.
Sometimes the ground's
so stirred up,
you can barely see your hand
in front of your face.
With no visibility,
you can't see what's going on.
You can't see the material
you're working.
You can't even see
if you're on gold.
And the vis can be different,
not only from claim to claim,
but at depths too.
More than likely,
the storm ruined visibility
under the water.
Yeah. [bleep].
Uh, it looks like [bleep].
Go down, see at the bottom.
Let's see if that video
right on the bottom
makes a big difference.
[Brad speaking]
[Kris] It's still...
Well, visibility on
the very bottom of the ocean,
there's probably maybe a foot,
looks okay.
The rest of it, I don't know,
you know, so let's go.
Let's make it work.
So visibility on the way down
was terrible,
but when we get to the bottom,
it's terrible,
but it's not as bad
as it could be.
You can see basically
about a foot,
a foot-and-a-half.
We've already had to cut
our gold to just enough
to keep our operation going.
We've gotta at least make
running operation costs
or we're screwed.
We have no choice.
So let's go mining and let's see
if there's enough vis
so we can see what's going on.
[bleep] it.
We're gonna go for it, you know,
fortune favors the bold.
And I think
it's gonna work out for us.
It's time to get the all-in
and the crawler
back up running ASAP.
Every minute is crucial
at this point.
So let's do this.
[Brad] We're going to work.
[Kris] No more [bleep] around.
Daniel, go start the motor.
[engine whirring]
[Kris] It's good.
Feeling excited.
We're gonna go make some gold
and we're gonna make this work.
Get ready to rock and roll.
[phone rings]
Hey, buddy.
How's it going out
on the Mistress?
[Kris] So the spud
is a huge metal cylinder
that we put into the sea floor
to hold us in position
while we dig.
You needed to mine on a barge.
Somehow, even though James
has only been on the water
an hour today,
somehow, we managed to rip
a spud right in half.
So the Mistress is already
on its way back in.
Thank you, James.
I know you don't like
telling me bad news
but, thanks for the bad news.
[James speaking]
Okay. Okay. Bye.
[James] Bye.
I swear to God
that mother [bleep]
only has bad news for me.
[intense music playing]
It's always one [bleep] thing
or another.
I swear to God.
[intense music playing]
The typhoon played havoc
on the town,
destroyed a bunch of stuff,
burned one
of our restaurants down.
[narrator]
Shawn Pomrenke hopes to find
the silver lining
after the storm of the century.
But it moves some gold around,
moves some sand around.
It's gonna open up
some new ground for mining.
I'm excited to get back
out there,
go dig and go see
what we can find.
The storm was brutal,
there's no doubt about it.
Knocked the entire fleet
off the water,
but probably stirred up
the ground.
But with a huge storm like that,
it can shake up the ocean floor
and give us some opportunity.
Gold that's been hidden
under a bunch of sand,
is finally accessible.
Got the boat.
Made it through the storm.
We're lucky the Pomrenke fleet's
come out unscathed.
When the weather's good,
they gotta be on the water
making money.
Otherwise they just sit here
costing me money.
But the way this season's gone,
there's no way I'm hitting
my goal of 3,000 ounces.
But I believe I can hit 1,500
which means we won't have
a fat bank account
at the end of the season,
but it'll pay the bills.
Hopefully the grounds
have some nice surprises
to help us get there.
You got this thing ready
to go after the storm here?
Everything's ready.
[man 1 speaking]
It'd be interesting
to go back out there and see
what the storm did
to the ground.
Well, it definitely moved
some sand around.
We're gonna have to go
check out, you know,
see if we can get on
a good spot here.
Right on, brother.
I gotta go get the crane set up.
Right before the storm hit,
one of the thrusters went out.
So we weren't at full strength.
First things first,
we gotta get
a new one installed ASAP.
I'm gonna use the crane
to move it,
get it into place.
The Christine Rose
can get out there
mining right now.
As soon as the thruster
is installed,
the Myrtle can get out too.
Slow and steady.
That's how we're gonna do it.
Almost there.
[man 2 speaking]
[machinery whirring]
Just about got it.
Looking really good.
Got her on.
Just, uh, drop the drive down.
Oh, yeah.
Fire this pig up,
broom, broom.
[engines starts]
[man 3] Get her up.
We're gonna make some gold.
Nice job, guys.
We're back better than ever.
Another project, well-done.
Feel like we're actually gaining
instead of going backwards.
See if Mother Nature
left us any treasures to find.
Looks like we got
a nice little window.
Get back out there.
We'll make some gold.
[narrator]
Across the harbor...
[seagulls cawing]
[dramatic music playing]
[Emily] It's crazy
just like how calm it is,
the sun's out again.
Out again, out again.
I had a dream she was talking,
"Get back to work."
That's gonna be her first words,
"Work, work, work.
Mine, mine, gold."
[narrator] Perhaps no one
weathered the storm
as well as team Eroica.
Thanks to some
savvy decision making
by the captain.
[Emily] We got the smartest
dredge in the fleet award.
We... Yeah.
- For pulling out the fleet.
- Certainly do.
Nome just got hammered
by the storm of the century
and probably the biggest storm
that most people here
have ever seen.
To be super-safe,
I pulled the Eroica
out of the water and away
from the other dredges
that were all kind of rafted
together in the harbor.
Oh, my God.
- [Alex] Oh...
- [Emily] Oh,
but the friggin'...
The Black Swan's over.
Dude, I think
we are the smartest people
in the harbor right now.
The Eroica
is sitting high and pretty
away from the damage
of the storm.
So I feel like
that was the best call
we could have made.
This is like
the first mineable day.
We're gonna put the boat
in the water
and go check conditions,
see if it's dredgeable.
[man 1] There you go.
[Emily] Time to move.
Ready to dig some gold.
Ready for that
ultra-concentrated storm gold,
you know?
Do you mind to slack me
a little bit?
[man 2 speaking]
[Emily] I'm a big girl.
- [man 2 speaking]
- [Alex speaking]
[Emily] Alex,
the motors are started.
Oh, my gosh.
I've been doing this
for a long time.
[Alex] All right. All right.
You're free.
- [man 2] Good?
- [Emily] We're good.
Yeah, that was really smooth.
Nice. Good job.
I think that was
a successful re-launch
back into the water
because this
is a successful day.
And hopefully it ends with us
getting on some gold.
Now that the storm's over
and the water is safe again,
I need to see
what kind of damage was done
to the floor of 14.
And I've got a unique way
to find out.
Inventing the vischeckanator,
we put the GoPro here
and then we...
If we put this on the bottom
and then that way
we know for sure
what the visibility is.
[Jane]
There's two visionaries,
- like in a visionator.
- [Emily] Right?
Visionator is the official term.
Jane and I have concocted
an apparatus
for reading the visibility
on Claim 14
without having
to put a diver down.
We're gonna take
the visionator out
and check the visibility.
And I hope it's good
because we are not on pace
to meet our season goals.
So right now we're kind
of adjusting expectations
and hoping for 200 ounces.
That definitely
is not the season
that we wanted,
but it'll put us in the block.
Oh, yeah.
We're gonna be the smartest boat
in the whole dredging fleet
because we are gonna determine
the visibility
without having to put
a human in the water.
[Jane] And she's, like,
"We're just maintaining...
- [Emily] The smartest...
- [Jane] that we're
the smartest."
Smartest, best-looking...
Although that's not that hard.
If this is opera,
I'm a concert pianist
and this...
I don't got anything on that.
- [Emily] Most classy?
- [Jane] Yeah.
- [Emily] And we're gonna go.
- [Jane] Okay. I like it.
All right.
Here's the visionator.
Oh, look at it.
It's beautiful!
Have you ever seen anything
more beautiful in your life?
When we get home,
I'll get our intellectual
property rights, so.
Man, this is genius.
I love it.
Well done us.
All right, throw in the skiff
and get outta here.
[intense music playing]
[Emily] We got two factors
against us.
We went through like
a once-in-a-century storm.
And then the other thing
against us
is that it's fall
and all the plankton die
and the water gets like
kind of cloudy already.
So, you know,
this might be the end
of the mining season
for the offshore divers.
I really hope
that's not the case.
[intense music playing]
All right, let's try this.
[Jane] Oh. Phew.
[Emily] All right. Let's put
this line tied around it,
get this thing lowered down,
it's on.
- And...
- [Jane] Like a little...
- Let's see.
- All right, here we go.
The great visionator gone
to work.
All right.
Oh, yeah.
It's going down beautifully.
All right, I'm on bottom...
[grunting]
All right.
[bleep]
All right. Here we go.
Okay.
[intense music playing]
[Emily] All right.
Now she's going down, down...
Oh, man. It's getting
[bleep] darker and darker.
- Oh, it's so dark!
- [Jane] It's black, oh...
- [Emily] I see it though.
It's on the bottom.
- [Jane] Uh-uh. Ooh!
[Emily] It's on the bottom
but, um...
Okay.
[Jane]
It's like a couple feet.
[Emily] Yeah, we're good.
Ordinarily,
I wouldn't be excited
about a couple feet
of visibility,
but it's workable
and we're desperate.
- All right. Well...
- [Jane] Woo!
I'm liking it.
[Emily] And who knows, you know,
after the storm some sandbars
might have shifted
and there might be some new
hot gold to tap into.
[intense music playing]
I could say
that is a successful first run
for the visionator.
Yeah, you got a couple of feet
on the bottom.
All right,
let's go mine some gold.
[intense music playing]
[narrator] Throughout Nome,
the fleet is regrouping
after the biggest storm
to hit town in decade.
And in the harbor...
[Vernon] We're underway,
like a breath of fresh air.
Get away from that dock,
shake off that dock dust,
get out here
where the sailors live,
get away from those land lovers.
[narrator]
After getting his operation
through the storm in one piece,
Vernon Adkinson is ready to push
for every ounce he can
in summer's final weeks.
Today we're doing
a shakedown cruise.
She's been tied up alongside
the dock for a while.
She went through
the storm of the century.
The seas were coming
over the pit
and over the seawall
and hitting
this vessel broadside.
Everything got
a good saltwater bath.
It was already awful
and then the storm came along
and turned this town
upside down.
Now we're gonna try
to get back at it.
The boat is a little beat-up
and the ground is torn to hell.
That's why I need to reassess
my goal moving forward.
I need to keep
this operation alive.
And to do that, I'm gonna need
an absolute minimum
of 50 ounces.
We'll see if the Bering
Sea Gods will allow it.
I wanna get out here and get
all the systems dialed in,
make sure
everything is functional.
We'll take it
as far as we can go with it.
Right before the storm,
I built a pretty strong
dive team
with Gary and Brad.
They had tilted outta town
before the storm
to wait it out
and they still
haven't gotten back yet.
My strategy today is to not
sit on my a*s waiting
for them to get back.
So I'm going out with two
new guys,
Tateesh and Tony.
And hopefully that's not
the only thing that's new.
That storm shook up
the sea floor
and hopefully there's some
new ground that got uncovered.
We'll find out soon.
That storm turned up
some new ground.
We're gonna send a camera down
and see if we can notice
any difference.
Stick our nose out there
and see what happens.
Check the part...
Check the bin.
[engine starts]
The air compressor works.
The heaters work.
See what kind of visibility
we got to deploy the camera.
[man speaking]
[man] We can't see much...
and it's murky, so.
You can't see nothing.
[Vernon] Might have six inches
but not very much.
Visibility is about six inches
and almost any circumstances
I'd say that's not enough.
Let's pack it in
and live to fight another day.
Right now,
that's not an option for me.
We just gotta dive
and visibility, be damned.
We'll do it by braille
if we have to.
[intense music playing]
[Tateesh] I haven't been
diving the shallows
since I was learning to dive
Twenty feet.
I can probably dredge
without the umbilical...
[laughs]
[Vernon] This is Tateesh's
first dive with us.
He's an experienced diver
but not for gold.
So there is a learning curve.
Tateesh is a first...
He's got a lot
of dive experience,
mostly harvesting sea
cucumbers up the ocean floor.
[Tateesh] I'm getting ready
to, like, if I were
to stay under
for a while,
so if things are good
and you want me to stay down,
I'm ready.
He's brimming with confidence,
but we'll see what a few hours
under the Bering Sea
will do for that.
It's filling up
like the Michelin...
- Stop, stop, stop.
- [Tateesh] I'm gonna squeeze.
[Vernon] Stop.
Not good.
The suit is filling up
with water,
it'll be like the Michelin man
and weigh 500 pounds
and we won't be able
to pull him up.
[engine whirring]
We're trying to mesh
his gear with our gear.
I've never dove in with
the hot water suit before.
[man] Let me drain
some water real quick.
[Tateesh] That'll drain out.
That's good.
The guy hasn't even gone
in the water yet
and there are already problems.
Not what I need today.
Hopefully things
will turn around fast.
Testing, testing.
Do you hear me?
Test, test, test.
Do you hear me?
[Tateesh speaking]
Do it.
[Vernon] [bleep] you got it.
[Tateesh speaking]
Is the suction on the dredge on?
[man] What?
Is suction on, the dredge on?
[man speaking]
[man] Yes. Let us go when you
unhook the nozzle rope.
[Tateesh speaking]
Let us know when you unhook
the nozzle rope.
[Tateesh speaking]
[man] Yes, sir.
[Tateesh speaking]
[Tateesh speaking]
A [bleep] just got down there.
How did he get a rock jam?
[Tateesh speaking]
Copy.
[man speaking]
[Vernon speaking]
Holy [bleep].
[Vernon speaking]
[pipe hissing]
We're gonna have to shut down.
Come on up.
[Tateesh speaking]
Dammit.
First this yahoo gets a rock jam
as soon as he goes down
and then the equipment
starts overheating
and sh**ting out steam.
The storm probably
shook up all our equipment
and it all just needs
to be gone through.
I don't know.
But one thing is clear,
we're back to everything
being a disaster
and I don't need that right now.
For some reason,
we're not getting water
through that damn heater
trying to...
It came out steamin'.
So I don't know what the hell
is going on with that.
Should have done this yesterday,
could have been dredging today.
Pretty [bleep]
not normal with people
that know what they're doing.
We're debugging our system
right now.
We're gonna have
to shut down for a while
to figure out
what the problem is.
[narrator] Back in the harbor.
[Kris] What the [bleep] man?
It felt like
somebody slapped me,
very, very,
very [bleep] very [bleep].
[narrator]
Kris Kelly was hoping
to come out of the gate
strong after the storm,
but instead,
his operation could be dealing
with a knockout punch.
[Kris] Grab that rope for us.
This is an honest to God
real wow factor.
Wow.
Wow. I can't believe
I got [bleep] so hard.
Wow.
[James] It's weird
how it's twisted the way it is
and ripped twice to the left.
Yeah, I don't understand.
That's a [bleep] beat.
Tell me the story
because how the [bleep]
did you accomplish this?
You know, that's half-inch
rolled steel.
Yeah.
I mean, it was rough.
It was like all right.
Dug a couple scoops
and then I was like,
"Well, it's just
about time to move,"
look over starboard side
[bleep] spud.
And then I was like,
"No big deal.
We'll just [bleep] pull it up.
We're movin' anyways."
We go to pull it up
and out comes the whole thing.
I'm like, "Well,
that doesn't look right."
[intense music playing]
[Kris] Only James
would be able to tear up
a spud like that.
Luckily, we do have a spare,
an old spud
that came with the Mistress
when we bought it.
So hopefully we can just
swap out the spud.
But hopefully it didn't tear
a hole in the floor.
Well, at least
we're not sinking, right?
[James speaking]
It punched through.
It's not a geyser
but I got current
and I can see the current,
so we're gonna pump it out
and actually see
how bad the damage is.
- So...
- I knew that was gonna happen.
So we're taking on water.
[bleep].
That's [bleep] [bleep].
[intense music playing]
So this situation has gone
from bad to worse pretty quick.
Let's go look at it.
I think I can plug it up.
[Kris] With a hole in the barge,
swapping out the spud
is the least of my problems
right now.
Priority one is seeing
how bad the hole is
and seeing if it's fixable.
[James speaking]
- [Kris speaking]
- [James speaking]
Yeah, but then
you can definitely...
Without the water
going down too much,
you see how there's like
some kind of weird current
going on?
[James speaking]
[Kris] Looks like a toilet.
There's something
underneath there.
[James speaking]
Oh [bleep].
How'd you puncture there?
You musta hit the bottom of it.
[James] Yeah.
That's what I'm saying.
[bleep] dude,
you said you didn't do that.
No. I...
Where do you think we out
when we hit it?
Did you back out in reverse
or did you back out forward?
[James speaking]
Well, we definitely
fell onto it.
So this is gonna be a major deal
with a lot of unknowns.
First, we gotta
pump out the water.
We got to assess the situation,
see how bad the hole is.
Then we have to pray
we can actually patch it up.
Then we'll do the spud swap.
If that big hole in the barge
isn't easy to fix,
the Mistress' season is over.
We've got more of a problem
than I thought.
[bleep]
Well, now, I'm pissed.
[intense music playing]
[Shawn] We got the Myrtle
fixed finally.
Cody made it out.
He's on the claim.
[narrator] With the new
thruster installed,
Shawn and the Myrtle Irene
are entering
the final stretch
at full strength.
We're gonna go ahead
and start digging
and see what it looks like.
I have a really good
spot to mine.
There's definitely gonna be
some lines of gold out here.
These big storms
will concentrate it
into lines
where the surge was at.
And it'll also wash
new gold off the beach,
pull it down
and wash it out
into the ocean.
Hopefully, it didn't cover up
all of our good ground.
We'll find out right away.
The storm really tore up
the ground,
but I'm hoping that'll turn
into a plus for the Myrtle.
There will likely be hotspots
that got covered up,
but there might be some pay
that got uncovered.
We won't know the answer
until we start checking out
some buckets.
[upbeat music playing]
[Shawn] Time to take a pan
and see if we're on the spot.
See what it looks like.
Hopefully, it's Gs.
[intense music playing]
[Shawn] [bleep]
[Shawn speaking]
There's the answer
to the question.
How's the ground look
after the storm?
Not good.
That was a sweet spot
before the storm.
Now it's a dud.
I hope it's not all like that.
I tried to get
on top of this hole.
Hopefully, we get her
all dialed in here.
[intense music playing]
[man speaking]
[man speaking]
[Shawn] Anything?
[man speaking]
[Shawn] If the hotspots
we were working
got covered up
and there's no
new ground exposed,
that could be it.
We could be hunting
and pecking from here on out,
wasting time
when we don't have
much time left.
And a storm like that
moved so much material,
I mean, where there was three,
four feet of sand,
there'll be no sand
and it'll be down to cobble
where there was cobble
and no sand, there'll be
three, four feet of sand.
And it changes everything.
So hopefully it changed it
for the better.
[Shawn] Holy [bleep]
that's [bleep] a hot pan.
She's loaded!
[bleep] hot damn.
Boom! That's what
we're looking for.
Now it's time
to sit on this spot,
pound it,
and make up for lost time.
The pressure's on.
Let's get to work.
Start it out,
couple of crappy test pans
and then bam.
We found it.
So we'll work our way into it.
Spud down.
[intense music playing]
All right.
Fire up.
[engine rumbling]
[Kris] Time to go
make some gold.
[upbeat music playing]
We got a little
weather window here.
We're gonna try to make
as much gold as we can.
That's the name of the game.
I got huge payments coming up
and I need to make...
I need to make a lot of gold
in a short amount of time.
Oh, yeah.
[upbeat music playing]
[narrator] Back in Nome.
[Chris] Oh, yeah.
Morning, Cam.
[Cam] Hey, good morning.
[Chris] How are ya?
[Cam] 30-something years
here out here in Nome.
I tell you, I've never seen
the water like that.
[Chris] Never seen like...
Anything like that before, huh?
[Cam] A weather like that.
[Chris] Yeah, she did...
She did a good one for sure.
Yeah. The boat's
still here though.
That's good.
I kept her safe
as much as possible.
That's for sure...
You ready to go
check it out again?
Yeah.
Catch the bow
and catch the stern.
Let's get outta here.
[narrator]
Chris McCully's dredge
passed the storm test
with flying colors.
Now it's time
to get the operation
back up and running.
Today's gonna be a good day.
Well, we're gonna skedaddle.
Let's go.
Let's go, big gold.
Before the storm hit,
we were already k*lling it.
Matter of fact,
we were already close
to our season's goal.
The strategies for today
is to go back on the hotspot
that we've been working on
before the storm hit.
Hopefully the visibility
will let us mine.
Here we go.
All right.
Right over there is our spot.
Yeah, this is gonna be good.
I think we're gonna do
just fine.
[intense music playing]
[Chris] I marked our hotspot
with buoys before the storm.
It'll be interesting to see
the buoys survive
through all that chaos.
Three out of one only survived
out of my buoys, so.
I'm surprised the one
that I didn't tie up properly
is the one that survived
through the storm.
And then the two
just disappeared.
It's amazing,
like, wow, you know?
Those are max-rated
for, you know,
Wow.
That's crazy. Those broke...
They're rated for 2,000 pounds
and they just disappeared.
All right.
Here we go.
Wow, see?
- [motor starting]
- [Chris] There we go.
You ready, Cam?
Visibility isn't gonna be
the same in every claim,
or even in any other depths.
Some miners on the other claims
would have good vis,
and some other miners
on the other claim
would have no vis at all.
So I'm gonna send Cam
to check on the vis.
Hopefully, we have enough
to just score for the day.
[motor running]
Well,
this could be good, you know,
I never know
I might have visibility.
Cross our fingers.
[tense music playing]
[Cam] I just hit the bottom.
How's that vis?
[Cam speaking]
Can't see at all, huh?
[Cam speaking]
Check out the noz,
see if you can work it.
[Cam speaking]
Copy that.
It is what it is.
[Cam speaking]
Okay.
That's it.
Cam said is pitch-black
down there.
He couldn't even see
his umbilical.
I'm all for pushing the extreme,
but if you got a diver
that can't really see
their equipment down there
because it's so murky,
I mean, that's really dangerous.
So I'm not gonna keep anyone
down under those conditions.
It's, you know, very...
I feel... I feel... I'm...
It's a sinking feeling,
you know? [laughs]
No pun intended but I feel like
I might not hit my
because just way how it is.
We're not too far
from where we last stopped.
We might have to move there
in the morning.
Let's skip outta here.
- [Cam] All right.
- Yeah.
All right,
I'll let you get changed.
To be honest, I'm kinda worried
because maybe we won't
be able to mine this season.
That means
I can't really hit my goal
and that would really suck.
[Chris] A bummer day,
but at least we now know
that there's no vis today, so.
[intense music playing]
[narrator] After the storm
of the century,
the fleet is looking
to bounce back.
And on the water...
[Jane]
There's a little rainbow.
Look, it's full.
[Alex speaking]
That's a freaking rainbow.
How do you know
what a rainbow is?
Better get your head checked.
[narrator]
Mining is a go on Claim 14.
And Team Eroica is planning
a double header
to make the most of the day.
[Jane] And we got a rainbow,
the sunshine had come out.
We're gonna get gold today.
We're gonna have two shifts
to try to work the box
for maximum hours.
Some of our divers
bolted out of town
because of the storm,
so we have a limited crew.
Alex, Emily's husband
will take the first shift.
[Alex] We're looking for
where we around
good gold before.
We got like...
I mean, maybe just
a couple days left of diving,
so we can't mess around.
If we got good visibility,
we need to be on it today.
Alex has learned really
quickly on the operation
and I feel like he knows it
inside and out.
So hopefully that means
the box will be packed
with gold.
The visibility better manage
to clear up.
Though I think
we'll be able to see,
but hopefully conditions
don't deteriorate
much more than this
or it's gonna be
a really tough dive.
Okay. I'll lower you down.
That's a major current.
He almost went
right under the boat.
[tense music playing]
[Alex] I'm on the bottom.
Ugh.
We can see.
We're waiting.
[Alex]
Hold on, hold on one sec.
We're afraid to ask.
How's the visibility?
[Alex speaking]
[Jane] How's the current?
[Alex speaking]
[Jane] That's sweet.
Current is not messing with him.
- [Dan] That's good.
- It's just messing with us...
- [Dan] Right.
- Top side.
Surface current
got us all freaked out,
but, you know,
it's fine at the bottom.
[Jane] Oh.
[Alex speaking]
Whew.
[Alex speaking]
Woo!
[Alex speaking]
Right on.
[Alex speaking]
[Jane] So he's seeing
gold everywhere.
Gold everywhere.
I like that.
There's gold for you.
You get gold.
You get gold. You get gold.
[laughs]
[Alex speaking]
[Jane speaking]
[Alex speaking]
My man!
[laughter]
[Jane] Who knew this
was gonna be a good day?
[narrator] While Team Eroica
gets on the gold,
back in the harbor...
[Kris] We've pumped out
most of the water.
Move everything out of the way
so we can get a clear picture
on what the [bleep]
is actually going on.
[narrator] Kris Kelly
is hoping to avoid that
sinking feeling
as he tends to a hole
in the bottom of The Mistress.
[Kris] Hey, there.
That's what we got going on.
I don't know.
Looks like a 90-year-old
man's piss stream, you know?
So... With a prostate problem.
So we actually...
This is all raised up.
It's actually punctured
pretty good.
But it's a bunch
of small punctures
which is not
the end of the world.
So I got a quick fix
going on right here.
Basically, just a welder's glove
with a little bit of weight
on top
to make sure
I slow down the leak.
Yeah, this is gonna work out
[bleep] easy as hell.
Hand me some... You know what?
Maybe we should have...
Uh, give me one more
And as you can tell,
it looks like it's working.
I don't think we're leaking
any [bleep] water.
Rich [bleep] like Shawn Pomrenke
can afford to bring
in big welders
to fix problems like that.
But look what I'm doing.
I'm using a welder's glove
to fix my hole in my barge.
But to be honest with you,
I think this is gonna work.
We can do a real fix later
when we're not pressed for time.
We're changing out the spuds.
Everything's gonna work great.
And that's how
you make it in mining.
You know, you may never have
all the right pieces
or the money... Enough money
to make everything work,
but what you have is
you have your name,
you know you're gonna pay
everybody back,
and you know that you're gonna
make this work no matter what.
I don't...
A lot of days you don't know
what you're gonna do,
but you know
you're gonna make it work.
First, problem solved.
Now, we gotta get
the old spud out,
put the new spud in,
so we can get back to mining.
[man speaking]
[Kris] Yeah.
Up a little bit then out.
The spud that broke
has a cage around it.
That was all James' idea.
So, first, we have to get
that cut off and out of there.
That'll be good.
I need you to cut right here,
'cause I wanna keep the railing
in case people's fingers...
But I want to...
I want this [bleep] thing gone.
I'm so sick and tired
of seeing it.
It is stupid.
This is James' great idea.
We're connected to the crane,
so now it won't fall
out of control.
There is a slight
danger factor in this,
but, you know,
there's a danger factor
in everything I do.
So, you know,
you need to accept that
you can be hurt at any time
and hope to God you're lucky,
and I'm lucky.
- Cut free?
- [man] Yeah.
Okay. We're cut free.
Tell them to get the [bleep]
out of there.
Just a little bit up.
[Kris] It feels great to get
rid of this stack [bleep].
Watching that thing
being cut off
and carried away,
I want my [bleep] money back.
Thank God that thing will be
gone from Reaper Nation.
It's all going smooth.
Don't you think so?
I mean,
a major operation like this...
This is a major fix.
We're handling it in like
a [bleep] hour, you know?
I think I'm getting better
at this [bleep].
Step two, get the broken spud
out of the spud well,
so it doesn't cause
any more damage.
So this thing is like
a two-story beam of metal.
So if we don't do this right,
we're gonna have
a lot of problems.
[James] All right, Kris.
Get out of there.
[Kris] Can you make it go
straighter?
Okay. We'll see how it goes.
Okay.
We're over halfway there.
The only thing I'm gonna do,
if it looks like
it's gonna touch my excavator,
I'm gonna run over there
and stand between
the excavator and the pole.
I can't let the excavator
go down over this.
I have got two arms.
I only really need one, I guess.
My right hand though, you know,
because that's my fun hand.
Okay. Good.
Now, the final piece
of the puzzle,
we're gonna take a 3-ton spud
that's 50 feet long,
fly it through the air
into a little itty-bitty hole
without destroying
the spud well,
the barge, the excavator,
or anything else.
This is the real danger zone
right here,
getting that spud on this boat
with that angle.
I hope to God everything
works out good.
So far so good.
It's got a little bit
of an angle to it.
I don't like that.
Bryce, this thing is [bleep]
swinging like crazy.
Please, Lord, don't let
anything happen right now.
Tell me...
It's gotta come back.
[dramatic music playing]
- I know but I'm trying to...
- I got you.
Make it go straight.
Stay in there.
It's in there.
[Kris] Okay.
Tell him to just go down.
Job well done.
Yeah, baby.
I mean, come on.
A couple hours ago,
it looked like
it was the end of our season.
Now, we're ready to go
mining again.
That's the attitude
I have to have this season.
I can't let anything stop
Reaper Nation.
A broken spud,
a hole in the boat,
storm of the century, nothing.
Okay. Well, that's enough
excitement for one day.
For more adventures,
please stay tuned.
[upbeat music playing]
[Jane] How's the gold?
[Alex speaking]
Woo!
[narrator] The first shift
for Team Eroica
is scoring big,
and it's been spearheaded
by Emily's husband, Alex.
He really hasn't moved
since... From 3 o'clock.
Pretty much all day.
I know. So he must have got
some good stuff.
You guys must not be wasting
time walking all around.
[Jane] It's important
that we have a monster day.
So that means we have to have
both shifts hit it big.
And, so far, Alex is k*lling it.
He's making the most
of the visibility he has.
He's on this really nice spot
and so he's just like
feasting on it.
[Alex speaking]
Sounds good to me.
I mean, we're diving
and you're seeing gold.
[Alex speaking]
[laughs]
[Alex speaking]
Hey, Alex,
your four hours is up,
and it's time
to switch out with Dan.
[Alex speaking]
[Jane]
Dan's dancing on the deck.
[Alex speaking]
Roger that.
[Alex speaking]
[Jane speaking]
[Alex speaking]
So this is only half the battle.
Alex is gonna come up
and switch places with Emily
on the boat.
And then Dan is gonna do
the second shift of the day.
We have to keep
the good times going
or the day will not add up
for what we need.
It's definitely pretty choppy
out there.
[Dan] It's bumpy.
[Emily] I'm a little bit
concerned, not gonna lie.
But, you know, if it stays
like this, it's fine.
And then Alex left us
some gold, so...
- Yeah.
- It's just waiting for you.
Yeah. Yeah. Let's do it.
The weather's definitely
getting a bit sketchy
as we start Dan's dive.
But we're on a roll.
We have... We have visibility.
We've gotta dive.
At this point, we're just
way too late into the season
and there's too much at stake.
[boat engine revving]
[Jane] Oh.
[Emily] You ready to get some?
You gotta get it
while the getting's good.
[dramatic music playing]
Hey, you doing okay?
[Dan] Say again?
Everything look good?
[Dan] The sand just
covering everything.
So you have to get through
the sand to see.
[Emily] Yeah, that storm
is still messing with us.
[Dan speaking]
[Emily] All right. Roger that.
Dan's just trying
to find an area
with a lower overburden
so he can send up gold fast
and thorough,
because this is probably
one of the last days
we're gonna be out this season.
[Dan]
Okay. I see gold right away.
As soon as I get through
the sand, I can see gold.
[Emily] Woo-hoo!
That's what we...
That's what we want.
[Alex] Good job, baby.
All right.
[Dan] Yeah, that's fantastic.
We got...
low overburden and easy gold.
[Emily]
We're able to hopefully get
a decent shift in
and some hours
on the sluice box.
[Dan] All right.
I'm just gonna haul dirt
and tell you...
Saying that I can't see much.
[Emily] Time to suck it up.
[narrator]
Back in the harbor...
[Kris] Man, did one
of the engines just die?
Well, we already have
an engine trouble.
[bleep] man.
There it goes.
It started again.
[narrator] Kris Kelly moves
from one challenge to another,
determined to get the other
half of Reaper Nation
back on the water
and back on the gold.
Hopefully, we get some gold.
[James speaking]
Hopes and dreams.
That's what mining's about.
Right now, we're about
a half a day behind
from where I wanted to be
at this point,
especially considering
how much gold we need
and how much time is left.
The good news is The Mistress
is back mining.
Now, I just need to get
the crawler going
and everything will be back on.
The question is did
the beating from the storm
have an impact?
We're springing into action.
We're gonna start
the hydraulic motor.
We're gonna start
to lower the crawler
and get the hose in the water,
then the jet log.
And as soon as we get a couple
other things taken care of,
we can start the pumps
and get going.
[motor starts]
[Kris] Okay. We're up.
The hydraulic floater
is up and running.
So, at least, we don't have
any problems there.
And we're gonna get
these pins out.
So it's not purring like
a kitten but I'll take it.
Now, we just gotta
lower her down
and find a place to mine.
Okay.
[bleep] okay, go down.
Okay. We're on the bottom.
We're mining right now. Watch.
Hey, we're actually ready to go.
Holy [bleep]
that took some work.
So everything works.
It's amazing.
Let's see what's going on.
Hopefully, we can get on some
good ground and keep going.
[James] Zero visibility.
With the lights off,
it's pitch black.
With the lights on...
So this is pointed
right at my nozzle.
You can't even see it and it's
this far away from the camera.
Well, [bleep] me.
Is there no visibility? Yes.
Is that gonna stop me?
Hell, no.
I'm so happy to get both
pillars of Reaper Nation
back up and running
after that storm
that I don't even care
if we're wearing a blindfold
at this point.
We're [bleep] mining.
I don't give you [bleep]
if you can't [bleep] see.
It's all about grinding out
every last second
along the way,
and that's what we're doing.
This is a win.
We're still mining.
I, at least,
gotta make gas money.
[Vernon] We'll fix it.
The engine got super-hot,
blew all the coolant out.
That's how
you burn up an engine.
We don't have
any antifreeze right now.
We just put
a gallon of water in it.
[narrator] Vernon Adkison
is trying to cool
his engine down
so he can start getting hot.
It cranks back up.
These damn engines
are just bulletproof.
Simple [bleep] like this,
that'll shut you down
and make you go back to town.
Thankfully, we were lucky.
It's running
and sounding just fine.
We'll get on with the show.
I feel like I'm in a boxing ring
with both hands
tied behind my back,
dodging one punch after another.
But I refuse to go down
without a fight.
I've got the engine working now,
so I'm not gonna quit.
Let's get this new guy,
Tony, down and see
what he can do.
Yeah, I cannot wait.
I cannot wait.
[Vernon] He's got
a little mining experience,
so hopefully he can get
on some gold
and we can make
something out of the day.
All right.
Good luck.
[Tony speaking]
Somehow I feel
like I'm chumming sharks.
Test, test.
[Tony speaking]
[Tony] We're good.
Okay.
I got you loud and clear.
[Tony speaking]
Make sure you're comfortable
each step along the way.
Make sure
your ears are equalized.
Equalize your ears, okay?
[Tony] Okay. Let's go.
This is Tony's
first job with us,
so we're gonna see how
he does here.
First dive in these conditions,
high anxiety.
Once a diver goes subsurface,
it's pretty much
up to the diver.
We'll see how he does.
He seems to be handling it okay.
His breathing
seems to be controlled.
He's taking his time
getting down to the bottom.
Visibility is really bad,
but maybe we can do some good.
Hey, Tony, how you doing?
[Tony] [indistinct]
I can barely hear you.
[Tony] [indistinct]
This is [bleep].
What are you doing?
[Tony] [indistinct]
[Vernon speaking]
[Tony] [indistinct]
Just do it.
He's coming up.
Do you want us to pull you?
There he is.
What happened?
- Come on inside.
- He's draining.
He's still...
He's still draining.
[Tony speaking]
[Vernon] I don't
give a [bleep] come on inside.
Good.
So, evidently,
you broke the nozzle.
[laughter]
[bleep]
I don't know
how the [bleep] that happened.
All I can do,
at this point, is laugh.
This is my season in a nutshell.
I desperately need
this new diver, Tony,
to crush it because
we're dying on the bank.
Not only
does he not get any gold,
but he manages
to break off the nozzle
in the first 10 minutes
of his dive.
My light went out
as soon as I went down there.
I was like,
"[bleep] where's my hose?"
Next time
your light goes out, tell us.
- We'll give him another light.
- [man] Yeah.
All right. In the meantime,
I'm damn glad
you brought the nozzle up.
I mean, if you haven't
brought that up, we'd be...
- we'd be...
- [Tony] Yeah.
We'd be screwed.
If there's any silver lining,
it's this,
losing the nozzle
at 20 feet down
with no visibility,
the damn thing is gone.
So, at least, we can put it
back on when we go in.
Yeah, that pretty much
does it for the day, boys.
We're done.
We'll go back.
We'll fix this thing.
I'm not one
who loses hope easily,
but let's just say,
at this point,
my optimism is being tested.
Is this season gonna break me?
I hope not.
But, at this point, the season
is looking pretty bleak.
The rainbow
is just hanging in there,
taunting us,
saying, "The gold's over here.
The gold's over here."
What are we doing here?
Mark that spot, Kevin.
When we go to shore,
we'll go and check it out.
At least,
we ended with a rainbow.
[narrator] Across the water...
[Shawn] This is looking good.
We're working our way
into that real hot pan.
Right now,
I'm focusing on making
a bunch of gold with the Myrtle.
[narrator]
The Pomrenke Team is feasting
on a new paystreak
uncovered by the storm.
[Shawn] The goal
is to get as many ounces
as humanly possible.
I don't plan on not meeting
my goal this year.
So far,
I'm proud of where we're at.
Bounced right back
out after the storm,
found a new hotspot.
I couldn't ask for any more.
And we got both
dredges grinding away.
It's just what we needed.
How is it going over there?
[Cody speaking]
Hey, you know, you're like,
"A little gray
on top and brown sea."
[Cody speaking]
[Shawn] Same material.
[Cody speaking]
Well, maybe in a couple days,
we could meet in the middle
and high five with the buckets.
[Cody speaking]
Christine Rose is on the inside
of this pay dirt.
We're on the outside.
We're gonna dig
until we meet in the middle.
No problem at all.
Seems pretty consistent.
Pretty good-looking material.
It's either
I make it or I don't.
There ain't no whining
in mining.
[instrumental music playing]
You get what you get
and you don't throw a fit.
Need to be firing
on all cylinders
if I'm gonna pull this off.
But, right now, I need
to keep the Myrtle going.
I need to keep
Christine Rose digging.
The goal is to get
as many ounces
I can shove in the box.
Hey, Chuck, you wanna come up?
[Chuck speaking]
[Shawn] Well, I did my job.
We're doing good
and we're on the gold.
Now, the goal is to get
night crew out here
and stay on it.
Hours on the box.
That's what we need.
Every second
is precious at this point.
All right. Chuck, you got her.
I'll be a phone call away
if you need me.
[Chuck] Yeah.
You know what?
It started out as a rough day,
but now the Myrtle's digging
and the Christine Rose
is digging.
Tomcod just keeps paying.
Oh, yeah.
[Kris] We went
from no visibility
to probably like
two or three inches.
Yeah, we're mining.
I can see we're moving rocks.
We're sucking material up.
I can hear rocks
in the background.
It sounds like a penny
in the dryer, you know?
That... [makes sound]
[narrator] It's not perfect,
but Kris Kelly
has the crawler mining.
And Reaper Nation
is now technically
operating on two fronts.
We just got that big storm
and the ocean
is still [bleep] wow.
So we're like two blind mice,
me and Daniel, right now.
But you know what?
After the storm of the century,
I would rather take mining blind
than not mining at all.
I just have to use
my skill and knowledge
to determine
if we're getting gold or not.
I don't know how many hours
we've been mining right now.
Right now, it's just important
that we're trying
to interpret
what's going on in the screens
with a lot
of imagination right now.
[man] Yes.
So, what you could see in
these [bleep] ground circles.
Those are rocks.
We got a little bit
of sand and...
On top of rocks, which is
my favorite combination.
[man] Right on top.
Now, watch me when I move
this thing real quick.
See it move?
We're looking for...
You gotta imagine
like an asphalt parking lot
and it's got potholes
in the parking lot.
And in those potholes,
you have the chances
of coming
across pockets of gold.
Like you're looking
for the potholes.
I see growth on rocks.
You know, whenever I see that
under the water,
that means I'm getting gold.
All right. Give me some love.
Yeah, man.
Lot of hard work
to get to this point.
It's working.
Well, this is what
we talked about.
I'm having a great day mining.
Best no visibility day
I've ever had in my life.
Let's check it out.
You know, sometimes I get
a little ahead of myself.
Sometimes
I get overly optimistic.
And thinking
I'm getting great gold
when I can't see anything
might fall into that category.
So when you're working
in the blind, the only way
to know if you're
getting gold or not
is to check the box.
Fingers crossed.
Well, we don't know
this box yet.
We don't know where gold
concentrates, you know?
So I don't know
where I'm looking yet.
Ooh, there is one piece of gold.
Look, right here.
A bunch of flakes.
Okay. Look, I know...
I know you look
at that gold and go,
"Wow, Kris,
that's not impressive."
First of all, I have to say
what the [bleep] do you know?
Second of all, I have to say
these are fresh
brand-new carpets.
You know, it takes
a little while for them
to fill up and for there
to be enough gold
so you can visibly see gold.
A little bit of gold on top
means a lot of gold
in the bottom.
[Kris] So when you start
to see gold
in like 20 little places
and we've been running
in the blind
and smiling the whole day,
'cause usually
I'm in a bad mood.
So crawler's working,
no visibility.
Still we're getting gold.
We're getting gold.
I don't know how much.
Let's not put
a dollar figure on that.
Let's just get
some high five action,
'cause we're getting gold.
Everything's going good.
I haven't had
to jump in the water.
You know, my Mistress
is working in the background.
Give myself a high five, baby.
That's what I'm gonna do.
We made it, baby.
[narrator] While Reaper Nation
hits a groove...
[Emily] How you doing?
[Dan] Visibility
has declined rapidly.
[narrator]
there's one suction dredge
still on the water.
[Dan]
A thick cloud of murkiness
just totally engulfed me.
[narrator] After three hours
on the grind,
Team Eroica's second shift
may have met its match.
[Dan] I can't really even see
my extended hand, so...
We've lost our visibility.
We're back into freaking storm
of the century mud b*mb.
[Emily] Yeah. No, copy that.
Dan, you've been down
three hours.
So we gotta call it.
[Dan] Coming up.
[Dan speaking]
The bad news
is that the murk is back
and it's shutting us down
for the day.
The good news is that,
in spite of the bad vis,
we had two great shifts on gold
and it's an awesome
comeback after the storm.
Good job.
Woo-hoo!
Yeah! Whoopee!
Oh!
We'll see what the scale says
and hopefully
the proof is there
and we're on a good pace
to finish out the season strong.
[chuckles] Woo!
Booyah, baby.
[Emily] Go get your ears warm.
[upbeat music playing]
[narrator]
Ladies and gentlemen,
the comic stylings
of Vernon Adkison.
There was somebody
several years ago,
he came to Homer
with his family.
They had...
They were living in a bus.
They camped out
on the Homer Spit.
And somebody turned him in
to Fish and Game.
He was down there
sh**ting seagulls.
- [man] Oh.
- Well, evidently...
I didn't know it,
but it's against the law
to sh**t seagulls.
So Fish and Game
went down and said,
"What in the hell are you doing?
You're sh**ting these seagulls.
They're like migratory birds.
You can't do that.
That's against the law."
He said,
"Well, you know, I know,
but we just
came down from Oregon.
I got my family with me
and we were hungry
and we had
to have something to eat."
And the guy said, "You were
eating those seagulls?"
He said, "Yeah, we didn't
have anything else to eat."
And he said, "Well, um...
well, what did they
taste like?"
And he said,
"Well, it tasted like
kind of a cross between
like a bald eagle and a...
and a spotted owl.
[laughter]
[applause]
[dramatic music playing]
[Kris] Chicken strips
and potato wedges,
you know,
for my hardworking crew.
Do you want a chunk of gold?
- [Andy] Yeah.
- Yeah. Okay.
This cleanout is critical
to our survival,
but if this one is a dud,
it's gonna be a scary place
for Reaper Nation.
So we need something
to hang our hopes on.
Check this out.
[Kris] Holy [bleep].
- [Andy] That's nice.
- Oh, that's pretty nice.
[Andy] Yeah.
[Kris] So let's just see
what we got.
Okay. The chunky gold.
- We'll check that out first.
- [Andy] Put it on last.
All those [bleep] nuggets,
they weigh like [bleep].
That's why I'd rather have
the fine gold,
to be honest with you,
you know, because you...
That's why we don't give
a [bleep] enough chunkies.
They look pretty but
they don't...
Ain't worth [bleep].
Fine gold
is what pays our bills.
And you know what...
[Andy] The only thing
that pays the bills, man.
Not that chunky [bleep].
Okay. Here we go.
A little under an ounce.
[Andy]
Oh, we're over an ounce.
- Two.
- [Kris] Two.
There's 3, 4, 8, 9,
- [Kris] Come on.
- 14.
Come on. 14.
[Andy] 14. Dead on.
[narrator] 14 ounces
is worth over 25 grand.
Not a bonanza, but Reaper Nation
is still alive after the storm.
This year, it is getting better.
We're doing okay
and trying to do
different kinds of plans
and see what happens.
Was it record-breaking? No.
Was it a huge cleanup?
No on that too.
But after that storm,
I thought we'd be down
for the count,
but we got both the Mistress
and the crawler back out.
They're both producing.
And that's really what counts.
We just have
to ride that momentum
for the rest of the season.
All we can do is work hard.
Keep dialing in the boat
and everything one day,
moving perfect.
Compared to last year,
this is an amazing season.
You know, [bleep] last year.
[narrator] Across town...
[Emily]
Look how chunky that is.
This looks...
This looks really good.
Looks nice.
[Alex]
Chunky gold and chunky babies.
[Emily]
That's so nice and clean.
Yeah.
[Alex] That's what
this crew is all about.
[Emily] Yes.
- Amen then to that.
- Okay.
Chunky gold and chunky babies.
[Dan] We're good.
We're ready to go.
[narrator] After two shifts
on the water,
it's time for Team Eroica's
first cleanout
since the storm of the century.
[Emily] This looks awesome.
Super proud of this team.
These guys are awesome.
In spite of everything,
we got a lot of hours in.
We put some gold in the box.
- He's in the splash zone.
- [Dan] Oh, yeah.
If we get a good number today,
I would say
that we beat the storm.
Do you have any guesses?
Well, I'm looking at it
and that is...
definitely a pretty thick crepe,
if that was a crepe.
That's about a crepe.
[Emily] That's our standard
for gold measurement.
That's a crepe.
I would say, if it was a thick,
think crepe, it'd be 20.
So, I don't know, 17.
I don't know.
Twelve is like rock bottom.
- Like we're doing okay.
- [Dan] Right, right, right.
If we do 18 plus, I'm like...
[Emily] Okay. Ooph.
All right.
Um, it looks to me...
I don't know, like a 18.
Burn it.
I'm so curious.
[Dan] All right.
Ready for the pour.
[Emily] Let's do this.
Little bear,
I know you're excited.
All right. 1, 2, 7,
- 10, 11, 12.
- [Dan] Yeah.
- 20.
- [Dan] What?
[Emily] Oh, we got 21.5.
- Isn't that great?
- [Jane] That's so good.
[narrator] 21.5 ounces
reels in over $38,000.
And despite the hardship
from the storm,
Emily's squad is making it rain.
All right.
The season reinforced
what I already knew.
If you surround yourself
with the right people,
with good people,
you're giving yourself
the best advantage out there.
This isn't the crew
I started with,
but it's the crew
that I'm very happy
to finish the season with.
Look, gold mining is not easy.
It's a difficult job
with a lot of things
that get in your way.
I thought that you would need,
at least, a couple seasons
under your belt to like
really get into good averages,
but you guys
have kind of blown past that.
You've just adapted
and learned really...
learned really quickly
to figure out the process.
And that's rare.
That's a rare quality.
So you guys have done well.
You guys have done really well.
Don't make any jokes.
Just take the compliment.
[laughs]
- Nobody thought that, but...
- [Emily] Yeah. [laughs]
Anybody can do this,
if you need money.
[laughter]
I'm so happy to be here.
[Emily] It's awesome
to have people
who are competent and on it.
- This is a great team.
- [Dan] Good vibes.
- [Alex] It is good vibes.
- It is good vibes.
- [baby cries]
- Oh, okay.
We gotta wrap up this prep. Come.
I know it's time
for a little nap, huh?
Yeah, it is.
[dramatic music playing]
Cleaning up Myrtle gold.
Keep this stuff drying.
[narrator] After crawling back
from the storm of the century,
will the Pomrenke Empire
be back on pace or drowning?
We're mining again.
We're back up and running
and moving dirt again.
That storm shook me to the bone,
but it did uncover a nice
new paystreak for Cody and I.
Now, I'm hoping to see
solid numbers on the scale
to prove we're back
on track for the final run.
Did pretty damn good.
Good rip.
Whoa. That's a good one.
Let's see
what the hell we got here.
This is definitely
double digits.
Thirty, forty.
There's 50, 60,
Yabba dabba doo.
[narrator] 86.8 ounces
is worth over 155 grand.
And despite
being hit by the giant storm,
the Pomrenke Empire
is going strong.
[Shawn] It's what
it's all about, making gold.
It's enough
to keep the lights on,
pay the fuel bill, pay the guys.
This is a good cleanout
for our first time back,
all things considered.
And now we're on
a good paystreak.
Hopefully,
the weather cooperates
and we can ride it out
the rest of the way.
This cleanout gives me hope
that we're gonna do it.
If we just stay after it,
we're going to go out
and we're gonna make
a lot of gold
in a short amount of time.
We're gonna get out,
do one more run,
and we're gonna hit it big.
It's time to get back to work.
The payoff's coming.
[narrator] Shawn, Emily,
and Reaper Nation
all bounced back from the storm,
while Chris McCully and Vernon
still see rain
fall on their parade.
Next time on Bering Sea Gold...
[man] It feels really nice
to be back out here.
I love diving.
I got a captain that drives
this boat better drunk.
[Zeke speaking]
Oh, yeah. Look at that.
Gonna be [bleep] nuggets.
Yeah!
[man] Look at that [bleep].
[man speaking]
[man] Yeah, baby.
All right. All righty. Hurray.
[Cody] It's loaded.
Woo!
[man speaking]
That's what I'm saying.
Like it just picked up.
Gonna be a good day. Woo!
That [bleep] damn good.
When I get up against the wall,
I just push
a little [bleep] harder.
So just do what you do.
[dramatic music playing]
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17x10 - A Murky Future
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The show follows boats equipped with various setups to achieve gold mining in a summertime, cold northern latitude, shallow water, ocean environment.
The show follows boats equipped with various setups to achieve gold mining in a summertime, cold northern latitude, shallow water, ocean environment.