[Vernon] There's a dredge distress about 17 miles to the east of town.
They're dead in the water.
No power.
Right now, we're the only hope he's got.
[Shawn speaking]
[man speaking]
-[Shawn speaking] -[man speaking]
[Vernon] Hang on.
[Shawn speaking]
John, my engines are swamping.
[Shawn speaking]
[Vernon] Abandon ship!
[narrator] In Nome, the final days of summer continue to slip away,
as an early winter storm looms on the horizon.
And in the harbor...
[Shawn] We're gonna pile up as much gold as we can,
dig until the weather turns pretty flat out there right now.
[narrator] Shawn Pomrenke is determined to get while the getting is still good.
Hoping to stay one step ahead of Mother Nature.
[Shawn] Snow in the mountains and ice in the mornings
that's your sign the season's coming to an end.
Running out of time.
We got some nasty weather coming in, whipping winds,
dropping temperatures, unmineable for the whole fleet,
even this old girl.
The waves are going to get too big for the Myrtle,
but hopefully, there's a big enough window
that we can do some damage before it hits.
[Shawn] Today, we're treasure hunting.
We only got a few hours here,
and I'm impatient for that box to turn yellow.
So, I want to find a spot that's going to just knock it out of the park.
I'm looking for that cheesy, easy cheesy band.
[Shawn speaking]
[Shawn] There's no gold in the pan.
But my gut feeling with the way the material looks says to dig it,
so we're going to dig it.
[Shawn] Even though we're not seeing gold in these pans,
I'm going to put all my eggs into this basket.
I've been doing this long enough,
I know what paydirt looks like.
I'm even willing to risk the whole day on it.
If I'm wrong, it could kill my chances to make it to 3,000 ounces.
Pressure's on.
Running out of time.
[narrator] While Shawn gets to work...
10 miles east...
[grunting] She's moving!
[narrator] Even though it's late in the season,
it's the dawn of a new era for team Tenhoff.
Well, here...
Whoo!
[man] Stop all that.
Woo!
[Zeke] I got my brother Gabe and our friend, Shem and Nate out of the compound,
and we're up for a new challenge.
Out with the old and in with the new.
We're taking the Golden Dawn out of the water
and we're breaking her down.
I'm salvaging some of the parts for the winter.
[bleep]
Up, go...
[Zeke] And now, we're switching over to the Havilah.
At the start of the season, we made a deal with Shawn that
if we can make it seaworthy, we could take it out
to Tomcod and run it out there.
This will be a game-changer.
It's a top-flight dredge with a high-end system and,
most importantly, it has a 10-inch hose on it.
It's the big league right there.
It's a colossal amount of difference.
If I go out on the Havilah and it looks like
we can pull some really good numbers
and have like a really good cleanup,
it's going to make me think that maybe... maybe
I need to, like, find a way to segue into, uh...
using a bigger boat.
I went out this summer thinking that the gold,
there's going to be more gold
that was going to be acceptable for a six-inch dredge,
and I didn't find a lot of that, uh,
but I did find a lot of places where the gold would be
really profitable for a 10-inch dredge.
So, the four of us, me and Gabe and Shem and Nate
are just going to, like, give it a real nice,
hard run on that 10-inch dredge,
and I want to see what it can do.
I was aiming for 50 ounces, but I'm only sitting at about 20 right now,
and the summer is almost over.
-There we go. -There we go, gentlemen.
[Zeke] Getting on the Havilah is probably the key to hitting my mark.
The bummer is, is that there's supposed
to be giant swells headed our way.
And these swells could be so bad that
they could keep us off the water,
which would be a huge bummer because
I'm really looking forward to seeing what this dredge could do for us.
Man, I want to go, um, if it's calm, you know what I mean?
I don't know. That swell's just weird.
It's like this north wind should be right putting it down and it's not.
Swell's determined by tides, right?
No, I think that swell is a big weather system
that's happening like out in the Bering Sea somewhere,
there's a big storm out there.
It's just like pushing up this big [bleep] swell.
At this point with like, what the weather's doing and how spotty it is,
we just like, we look at the weather report
and then look at it out there and make a judgment call.
You know, we'll just keep an eye on it.
For sure.
Should just did some witchcraft and like,
sacrifice a small goat to appeal to the gods of weather.
-[Zeke] I know a guy. -[Nate] You got a guy there?
You got a goat guy?
[Zeke] We got a goat guy.
[narrator] Back at the harbor...
This better [bleep] work right now.
This is my last ditch effort to make this work.
[narrator] Kris Kelly is ready to test his ailing mistress,
and the rest of his season rests in the balance.
[Kris] I just hope he fixes it.
Fingers crossed.
So I paid this guy, Kris and his wife,
to fly up from California to get this excavator running.
Nobody else can figure out what's wrong with this electrical problem.
Right now, this is costing me a ton.
But if he can't figure out how to make this work,
I won't be making any money at all.
It's big risk, high reward.
Kris, got news for you.
I want you to go ahead and try turning that key.
[engine starts]
What do you think of that, huh?
Yeah. That started like nothing.
Do you hear that?
That's [bleep] purring like a kitten.
Well, he fixed.
Yeah, baby.
Yes, finally, I thought this was never going to start again.
This excavator was going to be a giant heap of rusting metal
on the Nome shore.
But now we're back in business.
Come on, let's go.
We've got everything up and running.
Today's the day, the first day of the rest of the season.
No excuses.
We're getting gold no matter what.
So, we owe 125,000 in just a few days,
or this whole operation is going to tank.
Right now, I'm not even close.
So it's like a mad dash to pull this off this summer.
I'm even taking this guy, Kris, with me mining
just to make sure this doesn't break down again.
I'm not taking any chances.
I got Kris and his wife here with me.
We're going to get out there
and I'm sure they're going to have a great vacation out there on the water,
but I'm really bringing them in case [bleep] goes bad.
Any problems with the excavator,
we're going to handle it right away.
We're ready to go.
Yeah. Let's do this.
We're going to push hard.
We're going to make this happen,
and we're still going to get at least 200 or 300 ounces
before the [bleep] season is over. Watch.
We're going to call Kevin, tell him the good news,
because if anybody needs good news, it's Kevin.
Yo, buddy, can you hear me?
[Kevin speaking on phone]
Hey, we're going on the water today.
Everything's fixed.
[Kevin speaking on phone]
We're going to get some gold.
[Kevin speaking on phone]
Kevin is happy.
You know, it's always funny
when you start making money, everybody loves you again.
So the good news is this albatross is working,
and we can finally get gold.
The bad news, the storm is coming
and it's going to knock us off the water.
So it's a race today to get as much material in the box
before we get booted.
I need this excavator to start paying for itself.
I've got people with families.
I can't let everybody go bankrupt.
[man speaking]
[man] Hey, we're good.
Yeah!
It all started and warmed up for you.
[James speaking]
[James] We've left the excavator running this whole time.
Hopefully, this thing lasts us a couple of hours, a couple of days.
Who knows?
James is in the excavator.
We're going to start making gold,
and all I got to say, it's about [bleep] time.
[man speaking]
Yeah, baby.
[Kris speaking]
First test pan of the day, 40 colors, great [bleep] start.
[machine beeping]
[James speaking]
[Kris] Oh, that's not good.
What's the matter?
[James speaking]
Try to idle this bitch up.
It's not idling up at all?
We're having problems with the communication again.
All right. So I got Kris brought it.
He's going to do the best he can,
but he's not a [bleep] magician.
[Kris] I don't understand it. It worked [bleep].
The problem is we don't know what the problem is.
That's the problem.
[machine beeping]
[Kris] Oh, you [bleep] sack of [bleep]!
If this excavator doesn't fire back up,
it's in a really [bleep] position
and I won't even be able to dock up the harbor.
It's all bad.
[bleep] man, one thing or [bleep] another.
What [bleep] joke, man.
[Vernon] I don't know how long this is going to last.
Nobody does.
These weather forecasts, you can pretty much wipe your butt on them,
for all the good they are.
[narrator] Rather than playing chicken with the approaching storm,
Vernon Adkison isn't taking any chances.
[Vernon] I've been through these periods,
I don't know how many times up here.
Extremely frustrating.
There's nothing worse than being stuck up here
hemorrhaging money and nothing's coming in.
We're up here to gold mine,
but the weather doesn't let you do it.
Not a damn thing you can do about it.
So, there's no sense in even going out.
The forecast is terrible, particularly for out on Claim 56.
We've had a few hiccups with the gold ship this season.
I can't risk getting her knocked out right now.
I've got to keep her healthy for the last push.
So it pains me not to be out there,
but it's a decision I made as a captain and that's it.
It's part of the drill up here,
this happens frequently, believe me.
Let's go down to Airport Pizza,
get some coffee, get warmed up.
It is what it is.
[narrator] While Vernon stays onshore, two miles east...
[Jeff speaking]
[Emily speaking]
[narrator] Emily Riedel is choosing to push
through conditions while she still can.
A little swell won't hurt him.
[Jane speaking]
[Emily] Yeah, or I, I'll probably vomit first.
A goal this season is 250 ounces,
and I think it's within reach.
We're down to the last few days of the season,
and we've got a storm rolling in soon,
so we're down to the last couple hours.
So, we're going to push, we're going to dive in with Jeff.
But we got some swells coming in,
so it's not going to be pretty.
[Emily singing]
That boat's going to be rocking.
[producer speaking]
[Jane speaking]
[Emily] All right, let's go.
I'm just looking this way because the diver is changing his clothes.
I've already seen him naked once.
I don't need to see it again.
-[Emily] Ready? -[Jeff speaking]
[Jeff speaking]
[Emily] How's it going down there, Jeffrey?
[Jeff speaking]
[Emily] Okay.
[Jeff speaking]
[Emily] You're in front of the boat.
[Jeff speaking]
[Emily] Ah, that sounds awesome.
I think he's going underneath the boat.
[Jeff speaking]
[Emily] Good, good.
[Jeff speaking]
[Emily] Woo-hoo.
[Jeff speaking]
[Emily] This swell's coming down a bit,
hopefully, it keeps coming down.
[Jeff speaking]
Good day, man. Jeff's on the gold, we're making money.
[narrator] Two miles west...
[Andy] That's a beautiful day on the water.
Good old Reaper right here.
It's small, but it does the job.
[narrator] With the Mistress down,
Andy Kelly is currently the only Kelly with a shot at getting gold.
Reaper Nation, really there hasn't been a nation,
there's only just been the Reaper really.
My brother brought up this specialist guy to see
if they could get something running.
They're not going to get nothing up and running.
So I'm taking my buddy, Daniel and Anthony from that crew,
and we're all going to go dredging.
Oh, I can see right over your head, dude, don't worry.
That's what I love about working with short people.
So shocker of all shocks, the Mistress isn't working again.
My brother has a big payment due,
so it's up to me and the Reaper to get us on the gold board.
So it can't only be me diving,
so I'm going to put two new guys through the wringer.
We're going to see what they can do.
My buddy, Daniel, he's been helping out on the boat.
And Anthony, who stunk it up last time
he dived under Kris' guidance.
Let's see if they can impress me.
Hey, boys and girls...
let the fun begin.
We just got to put it all right [bleep] right now.
I'm bringing them to the spot,
where I already found gold.
So there's no excuse if they strike out.
Daniel's up first.
My hopes aren't that high, but maybe he'll surprise me.
[Andy speaking]
[Daniel speaking]
[Andy speaking]
[Daniel speaking]
[Andy] Okay. Watch out.
[Andy speaking]
And of course, it's a dumpster fire right off the bat.
Par for the course this season.
[Daniel speaking]
Tough case we're having right now.
He has a fat face and an extra-large helmet.
Hood's not working for him.
[Andy speaking].
This isn't a big deal, I wear 2X.
Daniel's got a huge head like me.
All the best people do.
So I'm going to give him my mask
and we'll see if he can get it together.
[Andy speaking]
How's it going?
[Daniel speaking]
[Andy] Yeah, because you're at the end of the hose.
Come closer in.
[Daniel speaking]
Keep going.
I'm basically putting you in front of the boat.
That way you can check over there for me.
[Daniel] Yes.
[Daniel speaking]
[Andy speaking]
[Daniel speaking]
[Andy] All right, big rocks are always good.
[Daniel speaking]
[Andy speaking]
[Andy] Good job, bro.
[Daniel speaking]
[Andy speaking]
Anchor's been down 25 minutes now.
Doing really good.
Found gold, I'm happy.
Now we're just going to dig down for another two and a half hours,
three hours, and we're great.
[Andy speaking]
[narrator] While Andy gets gold for Reaper Nation.
Nine miles west...
[Kris] Well, we're not technically dead,
just the computers don't want to [bleep] make it work.
I don't know, it's beyond me.
[Kris speaking]
[narrator] Their fearless leader has yet to excavate himself
from his latest equipment trouble.
The thing is, there's nothing mechanically wrong
with that excavator at all.
It should work.
At least we're on the water and we're working it out rather than at the dock.
We do have gold in the box, but we just need a lot more.
A lot more.
Again, again, with this damn excavator,
this thing breaks down again.
I spend big money on equipment,
and we have bigger problems and we're in the last days of this season.
This is like a slow, agonizing death.
[man speaking]
Yeah, be like hey, put a bow on it.
[Kris] Nothing's better.
[Kris speaking]
-Okay. -[Kris speaking]
Yeah, let's do that.
So this is the deal.
We got to keep running this piece of crap excavator in limp mode.
What is limp mode?
Limp mode means it's working, but just not at full power.
So everything will be super slow,
which honestly will be pretty depressing to watch.
But this will be digging and still getting gold at a snail's pace.
Make a little bit of gold, but this is going to be [bleep] slow.
So late in the season.
I just have to run with what we got.
So our machine right now is in limp mode,
which means that it's not operating at 100% speed one.
Even though the excavator should be running faster,
I'll take any gold I can get right now.
First bucket in a while.
That's as fast as it'll move.
So, we're getting gold, it's just we're not getting fast buckets.
But thank God, we're at least getting gold.
Pretty pathetic, but some money is better than none.
[Kris] Taking us twice as long to do a scoop.
So usually our cycle time is 40 seconds.
Right now, it's a minute and thirty seconds.
Which is [bleep].
I'm happy to see it but I'm pissed we're not running at 100%.
That excavator's pissing me off.
Limp mode, how embarrassing.
Who wants to be in limp mode?
It's pathetic.
Come on. Andy moves faster than this.
It's a piece of machinery.
You know, it should fix, and then it [bleep] works,
and it's not [bleep] working after you fix it.
I poured money, fixed so many damn things,
I'm not a whining [bleep], but this [bleep] not fair.
I'm not going to call Kevin and let him know the news.
I'm just going to tell Kevin, "Oh, things are going good"
and then hopefully, we can Band-Aid everything up
and still get 200 or 300 ounces this season, that's what I'm hoping.
[man speaking]
Looks like we're just going to stay on the boat
and run it as long as we possibly can.
Like midnight or two o'clock in the morning.
No point in telling anybody the bad news until
it's time to go home and then I'll spring it on them that,
"Hey, we're staying around another four or five hours."
So, you know, like, no point in taking away people's momentum right now.
At least, we're getting gold.
[narrator] As fierce winds creep closer...
[man] I test fired the pump this morning, it fired right up.
Sweet. This is awesome.
Dude, I'm stoked. Let me go grab Shannon.
[narrator] Hopes in the Tenhoff camp are still high
and the time has finally come to launch the mighty Havilah.
Yeah, buddy.
[Zeke] After weeks and weeks of searching around on Tomcod
for hotspots, I'm really ready to unleash the Havilah on it
and see what kind of damage we can do with a 10-inch dredge.
Off we go.
It'll be super sweet to step up our game this summer
on a great dredge and on a great claim.
Honestly, the only thing that would make it better this season
is if we have more time.
But we'll crush it with the amount of time we have left.
They've like really gotten a good handle on running all the systems
on this big boat and figuring it out and making it work well.
Big, powerful diesel pump.
Big, a 10-inch hose, four dudes,
I want to see what that can do.
[Gabe] So looks like we're sending Zeke down first.
He's got the spot.
He's going to make sure we get right on it.
[Zeke] We're going to start off with a little patch that I found
is difficult to get through with the 6-inch dredge.
But I think with a 10-inch dredge,
there's just more volume, and we'll be able to move through it real easily.
[Zeke speaking]
[Zeke] We'll need to anchor the Havilah exactly over the spot that I found.
It was a little bit easier with the six-inch dredge
because you could be off a little bit
and that you could more easily move it around from the bottom.
The Havilah is a massive boat and we have to be a lot more accurate.
I'm pulling us over that way.
If you don't get it right, then you're not going to get gold
because you need to have it in the exact right spot
and it looks like it takes a lot of...
it's like difficult and takes a lot of finesse to do.
Pull over a little bit towards the port.
Okay, so the thing's line
should be between 25-30 feet right off the [bleep] bow.
[Zeke speaking]
[Gabe speaking]
[Zeke speaking]
[Gabe speaking]
[Zeke] I think I recognize where I am,
and I think it's in both directions, that's really good.
Yeah. You seeing well?
[Zeke speaking]
All right.
[Zeke] Where, where am I right now?
Am I on the starboard side of the boat?
Yeah. You're like, 10 feet off the dive ladder.
Hey, man, how's that 10-inch compared to the six?
I know you've been working that 6 all season.
How is it? How does it feel?
Are you comfortable?
[Zeke speaking]
[laughter]
[Zeke speaking]
[Gabe] Are you getting on any hard pan or is it all pea gravel?
[Zeke speaking]
How... I mean, if you're in it right now, open that thing up.
Start, start that big old cut.
Just work it back and forth as wide as you can.
[Zeke speaking]
Well, we're going to hog all the material, the cobble and the sand,
everything. It's going to be a barren [bleep] wasteland,
FernGully [bleep] down there.
Okay?
We're on the money now!
[whooping]
[narrator] Nine miles east...
How's it going?
[Daniel speaking]
[Andy speaking]
[narrator] Andy Kelly is testing out the Reaper's first new diver.
[Andy] All right, man, I'm very proud of you.
You got down. You went right for it.
Good job, bro.
[Daniel speaking]
All right, come back up.
[Daniel speaking]
Daniel surprised me.
He got down there, got the gold, and didn't complain.
[Daniel speaking]
Now, it's Anthony's turn.
Last time, he dove, he [bleep] the bed.
He got a day ending rock jam.
[Kris speaking]
[Anthony speaking]
It couldn't have gone any worse with Anthony.
He's going to have to show me something real different
or he's going to be kicking rocks.
[Andy speaking]
All set?
[Anthony speaking]
[Andy speaking]
[Anthony speaking]
Looks like he's sucking material
and I'm looking at rocks going through the box.
[Andy speaking]
[Anthony speaking]
What?
Did he just say he can't hear anything?
Anthony?
Hey, [bleep].
So far, I'm not optimistic.
[Daniel speaking]
No.
[Daniel speaking]
[Anthony speaking]
[Andy] How's the suction?
[Anthony speaking]
[Andy speaking]
[Anthony speaking]
Pull him up.
[Andy speaking]
[Anthony speaking]
What's that?
[Anthony speaking]
This guy's been down 10 minutes,
he already wants a break.
Hell, I've been down for three hours at a time before I need a break.
I can already smell how this one's going.
He's coming up for a break.
I had to pull him for the break.
What the [bleep], dude!
I've seen some [bleep] in my life, dude,
but I've never had to drag somebody in the boat for a cigarette.
I don't know where my brother found this dude at, man.
This dude's from Alabama.
He should have stayed in Alabama.
When you hear amateur hour, this is it right here.
[Anthony speaking]
[Daniel] You good?
[Anthony] Yeah.
[Daniel speaking]
[Anthony] Uh, a little.
[Andy speaking]
I thought this was amateur hour,
but no, it's amateur 10 minutes.
I think I've seen all I need to see from Anthony,
not that he has anything else to show.
No gold.
Waste of gas.
Waste of my time.
This guy is my night crew.
So why would I want somebody like that on my night crew?
I dive and get gold and he takes a percentage?
I already got one [bleep] like that.
I got my dad.
I don't need another one.
All right, today was a decent day.
I got to see what everybody can do,
and I figured out what I needed to know.
Now it's time to eliminate people.
[Andy] It's hard to find good help.
[narrator] Two miles east...
[Emily] How's the gold looking?
[Jeff speaking]
[Emily] All right. I like it.
[narrator] Trying to outrun the store before it hits,
the crew of the Eroica is winning the race against Mother Nature.
[Jeff speaking]
[Emily] That's good. Sounds really good.
The Bering Sea will always try to throw you off your game.
But you just got to focus on putting hours in the box, so that's what counts.
That's what's happening today. Jeff's down there on awesome gold.
And we're just going to keep pushing as long as we can.
It's the end of the season, but we're...
[Jeff speaking]
[Emily speaking]
[Jeff speaking]
[Emily speaking]
[Jeff speaking]
This weather is not joking around.
[Jeff speaking]
All right. Roger that.
It's probably time to call it.
[Jeff speaking]
[Emily speaking]
Hey, Jane, wanna pull up his umbilical?
[Jane] Weather's changed and we don't want to stop working,
but we have to.
[Emily] All good things have to come to an end.
Swell's kind of picked up.
It's getting too rough to stay out any longer.
At this point, we can't really risk the boat, you know.
We're on great gold, but Bering Sea's telling us no.
[Jeff] You just wanted me to come up and tell you that the gold's good.
[Emily speaking]
[Jeff speaking]
[Emily speaking]
[Jane speaking]
Oh!
Oh.
Don't get hit in the face.
[Jane speaking]
[man] Good to go?
[Emily] We got to get out of here.
I'm bummed that we're leaving.
Um, it's been a super productive day.
But just looking at the horizon
and watching this storm come in, like, we've got to get out of here.
But we know where the great gold is once the storm is over,
so we're not doing too bad.
Yeah, we should be there in just a few hours.
[Emily] Slow ride in.
[Jane] Driving a boat at four knots is never that enjoyable.
It's like, yawn.
Yeah, so, maybe we will get some decent days out, you know,
it's not freezing, it's October ninth, but it's not...
[Jane] It's like Rocktober.
-Rocktober? -Yeah.
Let's Rocktober.
-Just don't hit the rocks. -What?
What rocks?
[Emily] Kind of called it for the day, got knocked off by weather.
We were making money and we just got to get out there.
Damn, it's cold.
[Jane] We can't complain. It's October.
[Shawn] This stuff looks really good.
There it is.
[narrator] Despite no evidence of gold in the pan,
Shawn Pomrenke is gambling on good-looking ground.
[Shawn chuckles]
[narrator] Trying to grab what he can before
mounting winds send him to the sidelines.
[Shawn] I have to admit, I had a point with all the breakdowns and everything.
I was getting a little frustrated.
I've been working, working, working on the Myrtle.
James, you know, handles things, trying different things
and everything seems to be kind of coming together right now.
And it's working.
Man, I love it when a plan comes together.
[chuckles] Yeah.
I don't know how much more time we got.
We're going to check the box, see how we're doing.
Real hard to say, but I mean,
there's definitely some fresh gold in that open top there.
Nice and soft.
-Beautiful. -[man] Good?
Beautiful.
Box is looking good.
Everything's working wonderful.
We got a bunch of gold in the box.
Weather's changing right now.
I'm pumped. I followed my gut and it paid off.
We've done all we can do out here today.
The weather's turning and on the Bering Sea,
the weather turns fast and nasty.
You'd never want to be caught out here when that happens.
Let's boogie before we break something.
Hey, you all, let's get the spuds jacked up.
We got another day, day in longer than what I thought we'd get.
Wait for good weather.
Do it again.
[narrator] While Shawn heads in...
one mile west...
[Zeke speaking]
[Gabe] Yay!
[narrator] ...Zeke Tenhoff is rushing to stay ahead of rough weather.
And he's reaping the benefits of the Havilah's first voyage of the season.
[Zeke speaking]
Okay, well, let's rock with it for a little bit.
[Zeke speaking]
Your compressor is still running.
Maybe the hose is pinched on your shoulder.
[man speaking]
[Zeke speaking]
[Gabe] There's a little kink on the, on the hose.
Nate, he just got it right now.
[Zeke speaking]
[Gabe] No, you don't. You're good.
[Zeke speaking]
Yeah, he was pulling the kink over to the side of the boat
so he could get it out.
[Zeke speaking]
Yeah.
[Zeke grunting]
[Zeke speaking]
Yeah, we must have drug on the stern [bleep].
[Zeke speaking]
[Gabe] It's [bleep] weird that we moved that much.
Yeah. We must have, we got this breeze coming in from the [bleep] south.
And I guess it just maybe that,
that anchor wasn't sitting on something that it wanted to be on.
And yeah, I guess we drug forward.
[Zeke speaking]
You're about maxed out.
[Zeke speaking]
-Yeah. -[Zeke] Ah!
That's how it worked out, it [bleep] sucks.
I'm sorry.
[Zeke speaking]
[man speaking]
I want you to hook, hook the nozzle up and come up.
[Zeke speaking]
[Zeke] The winds are starting to get really nasty.
The only things we've been hearing is that
the weather is supposed to get really bad.
We're going to have to bail pronto.
Got to get this blue one over here.
Yeah, I get that. Yeah, yeah, I'll get it.
We may be getting kicked off the water a little early,
but the bottom line is that we got gold on our first time out with the Havilah.
The 10-inch rocks, and we marked a killer spot for our first time out.
I'm just really stoked about how it went today.
It's not supposed to be [bleep] for that long, though, right?
-It was supposed to be like a day... -A day or two.
A day or two?
Well, [bleep].
I mean I'm glad you got to dive in tonight.
[narrator] As darkness falls on the Bering Sea...
[Kris] You've gotta love these [bleep], huh?
We're just finishing up our 12-hour shift.
Everything went pretty good.
If the excavator were to work better, we would've gotten more gold.
[narrator] ...Kris Kelly and crew have limped into the night
with their slow-moving excavator.
We're getting ready to get the hell out of here.
We've had a long, hard day, and I'm ready to take a shower.
It wasn't pretty and it wasn't efficient,
but we stuck it out as long as we could through the weather.
[man speaking]
[Kris] Despite being in limp mode, we still ran for 12 hours
and I think we're actually going to have a decent haul.
See what we got in the box for gold,
hoping we're on something halfway decent.
-[man speaking] -Do you see gold?
Okay, well, we see gold in the box.
Oh, yeah.
Well, that's awesome, dude.
Good job. Is that gold?
-Yeah. -Ah.
That's actually a decent nugget.
A little picker.
Good job, Dave.
It's really encouraging to start seeing gold in the box.
We got to be on something halfway decent.
Beautiful.
[man] Good job.
-Good job. -[man speaking]
[Kris speaking]
[man speaking]
Let's warm up the thrust faster and get out of here.
We're ready for a slow trip back to China.
Mexico, for taco [bleep].
[Kris] We got gold.
Just never enough.
[narrator] The storm creeps closer to Nome.
Season's turned into a lot of really bad weather, so...
Let's see what this turns out.
You always want to be able to stay out longer,
but you don't want to push it too far.
Gold in hand is always better than a sluice box full of gold
at the bottom of the ocean.
We did it right.
And we had a great day out there.
Can't wait to see the box.
[Emily] Three, four, five, six, seven, eleven,
thirteen, sixteen, twenty...
24.6.
Nice.
Really good man.
[narrator] 24.6 ounces is worth over $44,000.
And the good times keep rolling on the Eroica.
[Emily] Some summers up here have been really tough,
but this summer like work life, family life,
it's all been freaking amazing.
I'm pretty confident we're going to be north of 250 ounces.
-You getting gold fever? -[Jane] Yeah.
Just like staring at it...
-Yeah, I know. Sure. -[Jane] I'll take it.
Like, literally, I'll just take it.
-[Emily laughs] -[Jane] Wow. That's so cool to see.
-It's just cool to see. -[Jeff] That's awesome.
[Jeff] That's awesome.
[Emily] Sweet.
[Kris] Okay, right here, boys.
I know it's not a lot of gold,
but for the hours that we got, it's pretty [bleep] amazing.
[narrator] For Kris Kelly, it's time to find out
if limp mode is the pimp mode.
[Kris] We're finally starting to make money.
It wasn't fast and furious.
More like slow and mild.
But hopefully all those hours are going to equal up to a good day.
I really need it.
[Kris] Here we go.
There's one, that's two, three, four.
I'm hoping for ten.
Five, six...
Grand total of 7.71 ounces.
[narrator] 7.7 ounces is worth over 13 grand.
Not everything they need in the final days to make their payment,
but a decent step forward.
[Kris] For nine or ten hours of mining,
I think that's pretty impressive.
Oh, yeah.
[man speaking]
At this point, I'll take it.
We just need to get out of limp mode
and go hard the rest of the way.
Hopefully, we can get what we need while there's still time to mine.
We're going to have to do anything we can at this point to make sure
we can get out there for every [bleep] possible hour.
Okay. Good job, everybody.
Give me some love.
[man speaking]
Yeah, I am.
I'm real proud of everybody.
[horn blowing]
[narrator] Across town...
[Shawn] Weather was crap and it reflects on the, on the gold we got.
I'm ready for a break.
[narrator] Shawn Pomrenke hopes to find a golden reward from yesterday's haul.
[Shawn] Weather knocked us off early,
but, hopefully we did enough damage to keep us on our 3,000-ounce goal.
All right, let's see where we're at.
20, 40... 80.
-Triple digits. -[man] Not too bad.
167.
Nice job, bro.
[narrator] One hundred and sixty seven ounces is worth over $300,000.
And with the big tally, Shawn may have just rescued his season.
Hot damn!
We made over a quarter million dollars before that storm chased us off.
Now, that's what I call a good day.
All right.
Get this jarred up and get the hell out of here.
That's a wrap.
[narrator] As the storm begins to land,
the rising waves have forced the miners off the water.
All except for one.
I got a call bright and early this morning.
There's a dredge in distress about 17 miles to the east of town
and three miles to the south.
They're dead in the water.
No power.
Wind's picking up.
They're calling for 28-knot winds.
I'm seeing the waves starting to pick up already.
That's a lot for this boat.
But there's nobody else jumping up and getting underway,
so we'll go out and give them a hand.
This is a friend of mine, Yukon John.
That's what we do around here.
We help each other out.
The Coast Guard is nowhere around.
It would take them a long time to get any type of equipment
up here to do a rescue.
He's fortunate that he was able to relay his position
so we can go get him.
Otherwise, he would end up over in Siberia here
in about two weeks.
The weather's getting much worse
and now I'm heading out into the thick of it
and that's because I got a call.
My man, Yukon John got his engine swamped,
and now he's stuck and it looks like his boat is going down.
Not going to lie.
It's a big risk going out in these conditions, especially for the gold ship.
She ain't no rescue vessel, but if there's a miner in need,
you got to help.
Well, we got a call.
Yukon John's out there dead in the water,
17 miles out of town to the east,
straight up from Cape Nome, about three miles out from the beach.
We'll go down to the Cape.
We'll take a real good look at it.
If it looks like it ain't gonna sink us,
we'll go on out, pass him a line, get him back in close to shore
and bring him to town.
[man speaking]
[Vernon] Oh, okay.
[man speaking]
I'm pretty sure we'll be able to spot him when we get down there.
As long as he's still above the waves, we'll spot him.
We still got to lasso his ass and then tow him back to town.
Hopefully, everything will go smoothly, but most likely it won't.
Hold on.
Check the box.
[man speaking]
[Vernon speaking]
[man speaking]
[Vernon speaking]
[man speaking]
[Vernon] Finding that boat in this kind of weather
is like finding a needle in a haystack.
Flares burn bright, but we're not seeing any sign of him.
It's time to go to plan B.
[Vernon speaking]
[Thomas speaking]
6420.932 west.
[man] 6420.932 north.
[Thomas] West number.
[Vernon speaking]
[Thomas] West number 165.12931.
[man on radio speaking] Yes, sir.
[Vernon speaking]
All right, we got the coordinates punched in.
We're looking it up now.
[Vernon speaking]
[Thomas speaking]
-[Vernon speaking] -[Thomas speaking]
[Vernon speaking]
[bleep]
[Vernon speaking]
[Vernon] Things are not looking good.
The sluice box wasn't tied down.
It could come off and smash the side of the boat.
More importantly, we're nowhere near Yukon John.
He's seven miles away.
Almost 10 miles off shore.
That far from land in weather like this,
is about as precarious as it gets for miners.
So we've got to cut south now and see
if we can rendezvous with them out there,
which is not where I want to go.
[narrator] Back on the water...
[Vernon] The further offshore we go,
the bigger the seas are going to get.
[narrator] The Wild Ranger crew continues their hunt for a miner in peril.
[Vernon] We're putting ourselves in danger to rescue these guys.
But right now, we're the only hope he's got.
We got the new coordinates from Yukon John.
He's been blown way the hell offshore.
These swells are tossing the gold ship around like a rag doll.
My boys better get that sluice box tied down like ASAP
or we might be going down.
In these seas anything that can come undone will come undone.
[Thomas] Man, swells are getting pretty big out here.
I can only imagine what's going through their head
at the moment having no...
motor. This is pretty crazy having motors.
I'm surprised to still get cell phone reception.
Give us an update on the GPS coordinates.
All right, ready?
-164. -Yeah.
20.593.
West 165.14.338.
[man speaking]
All right.
We just got your coordinates punched here and you're at five-point...
Seven-five.
...seven-five miles away from us heading out to sea.
[Vernon speaking]
[producer speaking]
[bleep] damn, don't ask me stupid [bleep] questions like that.
If the engines get swamped, you're [bleep].
That's what happens.
I'm thinking we don't have the right coordinates.
Hold on. Let me get you to the GPS guy.
[man speaking]
-New coordinates. -Yeah, new coordinates.
Hey, hold on.
West 165.11.
One-one.
Two.
[bleep] I just lost signal, guys.
I lost signal.
[narrator] As the gold ship crew continues to comb the seas,
there's still no sign of Yukon John.
[man] Hey, you guys. He's right there.
I got him.
I see something. There's definitely something.
[Vernon] Oh, yeah, yeah.
He's just way the hell [bleep].
[Vernon speaking]
But we finally tracked him down.
He's way to hell offshore.
And he's been, being pounded by these waves for I don't know how long.
We're gonna try to tow him in when we get to him,
but we have no idea what kind of shape he's going to be in.
And the swells are getting worse by the minute.
[Vernon] All right, here comes a big one.
Hang on.
This is a big one.
Real big one.
We're going to be lucky if our engines don't get swamped.
[man speaking]
[Vernon] Okay. So the thing that we gotta do is make sure
that we do not get that line caught around our propeller.
Guys, if you do it, you're going to...
It's got to be a really [bleep] up situation.
[man speaking]
[Thomas speaking]
[Vernon] Hang on.
[man speaking]
What?
[man speaking]
[Vernon speaking]
Oh, [bleep].
[producer speaking]
Can't do it.
[man] Can't do it?
Get him on board?
[Vernon speaking]
[man speaking]
[Vernon speaking]
Is he getting on his emergency suit?
[man speaking]
[Vernon] John!
[man] Hey!
[whistling]
[Thomas speaking]
[man speaking]
I got to get out of here.
You got to communicate with him that he needs to abandon ship.
[man speaking]
John, I cannot tow you!
My engines are swamping!
Get in your suit, abandon ship!
You gotta come to us!
My engines are swamping!
He can't stay on there.
Nobody gonna tow him out.
We got to get back in.
I can't...
Watch out, guys. Here's a big one.
Hang on.
[narrator] Ten miles off Cape Nome...
[Thomas speaking]
[Vernon] Hang on.
Ah, [bleep].
[man speaking]
[Vernon speaking]
[man speaking]
Uh...
John, I cannot tow you!
My engines are swamping!
[Yukon speaking]
[man speaking]
I can't...
[Thomas speaking]
[man speaking]
[Vernon] Who is that?
[man speaking]
[Vernon] Yukon John is refusing to abandon ship.
He's trying to get ahold of another dredge that he thinks can tow him in.
Gold Shark. Gold Shark.
Wild Ranger...
Gold ship Wild Ranger calling Gold Shark.
Gold Shark, Gold Shark, Gold Shark.
Wild Ranger.
He may think that somebody else is going to come out here
and get him, uh, but I doubt that anybody else is going to be
crazy enough to come out here in these conditions except for us.
He can't stay on there.
[Vernon speaking]
[Harbormaster speaking]
Yeah, we're out here.
He's drifted way the hell to the west.
The front of his boat is swamped.
I'm trying to get him to abandon ship,
but he refuses to abandon ship.
I can stay here for a few more minutes, but we've got very high swell.
And my engines are swamping.
So I'm gonna have to get out of here pretty quick.
[Harbormaster speaking]
[man speaking]
[Vernon] Hang on.
These swells are getting bigger.
We're in danger of swamping those engines.
I want to help my buddy, but he's refusing to come with us.
My first responsibility is for the safety of my crew.
And right now, we're in jeopardy.
The best I can do is relay John's coordinates to the Harbormaster
and then head back in and pray for the best.
Stand by for GPS position of Juliana.
[man] North,
64.20.3410.
[Vernon] Forget up with the dot [bleep], just 6420.
That's all they need to know.
West, 165.171965.
[bleep] Damn it. Quit doing that.
That confuses them.
[man speaking]
[Vernon] Just make it, give him that position again and just the latitude...
The big number, not the dot.
[man speaking]
Damn it. Do what I told you!
64 and whatever it is.
Tell him what I told you.
64.20.3410.
[bleep] it. I'm gonna hit you if you do that again.
[man speaking]
Look, not the dot.
Just 6420 and then the 165 and whatever the big number is.
[man] North 6420, west 16517.
All right.
[man speaking]
Because it's not important!
[bleep] fraction of a mile.
You just give them the big number so they can hear it.
You give them all the dots and it confuses them!
[bleep] fractions of a mile.
We've got to get out of here.
[man speaking]
[Harbormaster speaking]
[narrator] South of Cape Nome...
[Vernon] You know, sometimes you just got to give up your ship.
[narrator] The Wild Ranger crew fights building swells on the long journey home
after a busted rescue effort.
John refused to come aboard.
[Vernon speaking]
[Vernon] Holy [bleep].
[waves splashing]
[Vernon speaking]
[Gary speaking]
Everything's getting knocked around.
I mean, as you can see, we got flooding coming in through the window.
[Gary speaking]
[producer speaking]
[Gary speaking]
[bleep]
Just turn off the generator. We don't need the generator.
-Turn it off. -Yeah.
[Bryan speaking]
[bleep]
[Bryan speaking]
[producer speaking]
Oh, there's a hole [bleep] water on the floor and it hit the power strip.
Well, it shorted out.
Ooh. Good save.
[chuckles] Think you saved the boat.
[man] Whoa!
I tell you what?
Your worst nightmare is to be in bad weather in a ship that's on fire.
Doesn't get any worse than that.
There's a hole.
There's a hole right here going through the boat.
You see it? The water coming in and out?
That's not good.
Look at the water just flowing in there, man.
Man, it's a lot of water.
Two more holes back here, damn it.
Look at those two [bleep] holes.
Damn.
We never go out in bad weather,
I mean, when weather's [bleep] bad, we stay in the dock.
I mean, we're just a gold getting ship.
We're not really a rescue ships.
So, first time we went out on seas like this,
but obviously there's some, as always, there's some issues.
[Bryan speaking]
[man speaking]
[Vernon] I'm gonna boost it up a little bit more.
I might give it some more gas.
Hang on.
[man speaking]
[Vernon] Yeah, it's getting closer.
[Bryan speaking]
[Thomas speaking]
[Bryan speaking]
[laughs]
[Vernon] Well, we did our duty.
Little dicey there for a while.
Yeah.
That's a big ass swell.
All right.
We're between the jetties.
We're within swimming distance.
I can swim to shore within five minutes.
The good news is we made it back safely.
The more concerning news what's become of Yukon John?
Anyone who thinks that mining on the Bering Sea isn't dangerous,
he doesn't know what he's talking about.
It can be life or death out here.
Fingers crossed for them.
I mean, I like the guy.
I offered him to come aboard with us.
He made the decision not to do it.
I don't know who in the hell he thinks is gonna go out and rescue him.
We might have been his last ticket home.
[narrator] On the other side of the harbor...
It's not the ideal conditions to be going out on the Bering Sea,
but we got Yukon John out there.
He's on his dredge drifting.
So we're gonna go and rescue his ass.
Got a call about Yukon John.
He's stuck ten miles offshore.
Vern went out trying to pick him up and Yukon waved him off.
Yukon John thought another dredge was gonna come rescue him and tow him in.
But that's not gonna happen, not on this weather.
I put a crew together, Joe Fullwood, Chris McCully.
We're gonna try to go get him.
Hopefully, we're not too late.
We're his last option.
Okay.
You're ready?
[Chris speaking]
[Shawn speaking]
[bleep]
[Shawn speaking]
[Chris speaking]
-[Joe speaking] -[Chris speaking]
[Shawn speaking]
This boat, how they set up the plumbing. When you take a [bleep] in there
and then like people are using it all the time,
then it just wafts out from under the boat
and it makes the whole [bleep] boat smell like [bleep].
One of my least favorite experiences gold mining is
having a lion's mane jellyfish suck into my hot water intake
and then into the suit.
Oh.
You can imagine a filtered lion's mane jellyfish
all the way through my whole body in my suit.
[indistinct yelling]
[laughs]
Just every crevice, the end of my [bleep] was like burning,
my ass [bleep] every...
It was just... [screaming]
[screaming]
What you want to do is just stay down there and ride it out.
It might clear. It might not.
I've seen people come out and there's like jellyfish tendrils
coming out of the hot water line
and they pull their suit up and they're just all over their [bleep] body.
And it's just all over you for months.
[Shawn speaking]
[narrator] Nearly 12 miles from shore,
Shawn Pomrenke, and his rescue team
are in a desperate search for a miner in danger.
The last point was over this way, just a little bit.
All right.
[producer speaking]
They're spotting.
They're looking.
They're looking, trying to see if they can see John.
[Joe speaking]
Got him?
[Joe speaking]
[Shawn] Okay.
I see him.
I got him.
I got him, Joe.
He's almost right where he gave you that GPS point.
[Chris speaking]
[Shawn] All right.
[Chris speaking]
[producer speaking]
Tell him to get the [bleep] on board and let's go.
[Shawn speaking]
[waves splashing]
[Shawn speaking]
[Chris speaking]
[Shawn speaking]
[Chris speaking]
[Shawn speaking]
[Chris speaking]
[Shawn speaking]
I don't want to get that close to them.
We'll end up putting a hole in this.
All right, turning again, guys.
-[Joe] Okay. -Okay.
[Shawn] After this...
Well, [bleep] no. I'm going straight.
A boat to boat rescue like this in seas this big,
it's not safe. It's not good.
It's easy for boats to slam into each other and lines to get tangled.
You don't want anything to go wrong with these kind of waves all around you.
[Chris] We're gonna throw the dinghy in the water.
Can you jump on the dinghy? And let it go fast.
[Yukon speaking]
[Chris speaking]
[Yukon speaking]
-[Joe] Okay. -[Yukon speaking]
-[Chris speaking] -[Shawn] All right.
[Joe speaking]
[Yukon speaking]
[Joe speaking]
[Yukon speaking]
[Chris] Let's wait till they're ready, huh?
-[Shawn] Yeah. -[Joe] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[waves splashing]
The plan is we're gonna deploy this dinghy,
so that we don't have to come close to their vessel
because that could get really dangerous.
So the smartest way to do is throw this out in the ocean
and hopefully they can get on it
and we can really back reel, reel them back into the boat.
[Chris] All right, guys... We're gonna throw you this.
One, two.
[Chris] Okay. Go grab it.
Just jump in it?
[Joe] Yeah, jump on it. Hurry up.
Hey.
We got 'em. We got 'em.
[Shawn] Okay.
All right. Grab the dinghy.
[Shawn] Nice job, boys.
-Good stuff. -Yeah.
[Yukon] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
-Mission complete. -I owe you one.
I owe you one.
[bleep] got swamped.
[Shawn] Miners are stubborn people.
We don't want to admit when we pushed it too far,
and the last thing we want to do is abandon our dredge
ten miles offshore.
These dredges cost a lot of money,
and some guys put everything they have into them.
But it's hard to admit when Mother Nature beats you and it's time to give it up.
[Yukon speaking]
[beeping]
[Chris speaking]
[Shawn speaking]
[Yukon speaking]
[Shawn speaking]
[Yukon speaking]
[Shawn speaking]
[Yukon speaking]
[Shawn] Life on the Bering Sea ain't no joke.
We're all up here trying to put some gold in our own pockets.
But at the end of the day, we're all a team up here.
We take care of our own.
It's a community, and we never forget that.
We're home.
[narrator] After a harrowing rescue,
Mr. Gold still takes the top spot.
Next time, on Bering Sea Gold.
We don't [bleep] see you in this [bleep] boat.
[man speaking]
I'm going out with or without you.
We shall come back rich, richer than our wildest imagination.
[clattering]
[bleep] Dammit!
[man] We hit the spot...
Come on.
[man] Yeah. Fire her up.
[man speaking]
[man screaming]
[bleep]
[bleep] man.
[man speaking]
[Shawn] We're still not moving.
We're not moving.
Yeah! Let's go make money.
Let's make money!