[narrator] In gold mining, the question is always...
when to roll the dice?
[Chris speaking]
[narrator] While the rewards can be great...
That is what we're looking for.
What?
Seems like it's getting pretty shallow, pretty quick.
[narrator] ...failure can be devastating.
Worst case scenario,
I might snap my anchor line
and get drifted to the [bleep] rock.
[waves crashing]
[narrator] Now, for every miner...
We're gonna try something we've never tried before.
[Shawn] I hope I made the right move.
[narrator] ...it's time for gut check.
Maybe I have like a kind of a gambler's mentality.
Just all in, dude. Why not?
[Chris] I'm out here by myself.
This is the borderline right here
and I'm pushing it.
[narrator] Who will make the right move?
[Shawn speaking]
[narrator] And whose move...
[man screams]
...might be their last?
I'm literally left for dead and that's what it feels like.
I'm being left for dead out here.
[birds chirping]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Shawn coughs]
Everybody's here this morning on time?
[bleep] damn.
I just have that weird feeling in my stomach.
Energy drinks, nicotine?
Hell.
Feel like I'm gonna [bleep] my pants.
You know what it'll take to fix that, right?
Nice big pile of gold.
[narrator] So far this season,
Shawn Pomrenke's gold output
has been, well, crappy by his standards.
[Shawn] Head in to the Tomcod,
and this run looks like it's gonna be a good one.
We had a couple this year, but then Myrtle broke down,
and it broke down, and it broke down.
[Shawn] I gotta be honest with myself.
This season's been a disappointment so far.
I'm aiming for the biggest haul of my career,
but the Myrtle's been falling short
time and time again.
Equipment issues, weak paystreaks.
It's just not cutting it.
I'm gonna check out what the night crew did.
We should be on great ground.
If not, I'm gonna have to do something drastic.
Get those buoys.
-[buoy thuds] -Ouch.
[coughs]
I'll tell you in a second how nightshift did.
They didn't have any breakdowns.
Everything's still working.
Man.
We're making gold, but...
I wanna make a lot.
This gold would be good enough for most guys,
but not for me.
Especially considering where we're at in the season.
Not coming in as fast as I wanna see it come in.
It's time to take a big gamble.
[over radio] Let's jack these spuds up and see...
[man over radio] Copy that.
[Shawn] We've been digging deep,
but right now
we're gonna try something we've never tried before.
We're gonna go in shallow.
I got drill logs that tell me where potential hotspots are
all over the Tomcod.
There's one we've never tried and there's a good reason why.
It's one of the hottest holes on the whole claim,
says about 10 feet of water.
That's at about the minimum of water depth we could go in.
The deepest part of the Myrtle drafts
6 feet of water.
And if you go into water that's 10 feet,
there ain't much room for error.
We're definitely rolling the dice.
The seafloor isn't perfectly flat,
so a miscalculation,
we could damage the hull or break a spud.
If it's bad enough,
it could put the Myrtle down
for who knows how long.
This might be the break we need.
We need a big cleanup in a short amount of time.
But I can't play it safe anymore.
I need a monster haul now.
So it's time to use every ounce of skill I got
to pull this off.
Well, I got the maneuvering thrusters up
that I've taken the bucket
and I'm using it the claw along the bottom.
It seems like it's getting pretty shallow,
pretty quick here.
I wanna take it nice and easy.
You don't want to run your boat
on the bottom at all.
It's all a little less than 700 feet away right now.
So instead of driving the Myrtle
into the shallow water,
I'm gonna use the bucket
and put it on the ocean floor
and pull myself in.
This will give me better control.
So I'll just creep it in real slowly.
So far, so good.
Every time I use the bucket to pull us in shallower,
I got to make sure it's safe to keep moving forward.
There's no margin for error.
If I misjudge the depth, it could be too late.
So I'm gonna start this process
about 700 feet away from where the drill logs
say there's a hotspot.
300 feet away from our point.
Fifty meters,
forty meters.
Seem to be floating good yet.
Twenty meters,
seventeen.
[sensor beeping]
We're here.
That's good there. Let's drop the spuds.
[machine whirring]
[Shawn] First time in shallow with the Myrtle.
We're on the second hottest drill hole
on the whole claim.
If this works, I'll be a genius.
If it doesn't, I'm a idiot.
Right now, it's time to dig.
[intense music playing]
[Shawn speaking]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Shawn speaking]
[narrator] While Shawn gambles on shallow ground...
[upbeat music playing]
[narrator] ...back in the harbor.
[Chris] At this point, you know, it's really hard
to get good help in town.
I'm just gonna go out there without a tender.
Oh, yeah.
And today is the day.
Hopefully we can keep the gold rolling in.
[machine whirring]
[narrator] Chris McCully is also rolling the dice
as he dares to try another solo dive.
[Chris] Let's go.
So the one great thing about the Tata is the hydraulics.
I built the Tata so that one person could do everything on it.
I can run it and I can dive on it.
That's assuming if there's no major hiccups.
But on my first solo dive,
there was a major problem.
[Chris speaking]
I got this really nasty rock jam
that I couldn't clear it myself.
It really killed my dive,
so I had to call in for reinforcements.
I need you guys help here
because I'm out here by myself.
[man speaking]
Bottom line, this can't happen again.
[Chris] So the goal today
is gonna have a full day's worth
on that good ground
and don't get a jam today.
That's the biggest thing, never get a jam today.
I'm gonna work hard.
I'm gonna work hard moving those rocks out of the way
and then just do a smooth ride,
you know what I mean?
So I still don't have a tender.
I still have to dive solo
and everything has to go flawless.
I got a goal of 300 ounces,
so if I don't turn around quick,
I'm never gonna hit that.
So today, there's no excuses.
Let's go.
[whistles]
[intense music playing]
[laughs]
I got it.
Ooh, it's hot, it's hot today.
Okay. Let's see what the guys did last night.
Oh, a lot of... Lot of notes.
So the big dogs like Shawn,
have night crews to go around the clock
to keep the gold rolling.
I have Cam and Bobby,
so those guys dredge through the night
and they also record their dives through the dive log.
6:45, 7:45, 8:45,
two hours, only two hours.
Wow.
Cam did only three and a half hours.
This is not good.
They didn't do very well.
Look at this big jam.
Two-hour jam. Holy [bleep].
They might as well work with the Kellys
if they keep doing what they're doing.
Last night, it wasn't very good.
They only got five hours of diving time,
five hours out of that [bleep] two shifts.
You know, Cam and Bobby have years
of experience in dredging
and this is very unacceptable,
like doing this
two-hour micro dive shift here and there.
Anyways, let's get back to the groove, baby. Let's go.
Let's not get... Let's not get hindered
by all these little things,
because these are little things,
they can be corrected.
All right, let's go.
So I was really relying on my guys
to crush it last night.
So I really wanted them to push six-hour dives,
but if the cat's away, the mice will play.
Yeah, see, it's looking... It's starting to look good.
I like this. You know, a lot of pickers,
a lot of [bleep].
Very good, very good. I like it.
They're on it, but they're not putting their hours in,
you know, they're not putting their weight in,
you know what I mean?
The good news is we're on the gold,
but there's barely any dive hours.
That's even way more pressure on me.
It's all resting on my shoulders.
Put my two and a half hours,
come up, refuel,
and then come back right down.
[machine whirring]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Chris exclaims]
[Chris] All right, let's head back to the nozzle.
Okay...
[Chris speaking]
[narrator] In Nome Harbor...
[Jeff speaking]
[Zeke] Good to go.
[narrator] Zeke Tenhoff is looking to try something bold.
[Zeke] Yeah.
[Jeff] We doin' this.
We're gonna lower that hose into the water.
We're gonna make it a great day.
[Zeke sighs]
So far this season, things have been going pretty well,
but my goal was 55 ounces for a reason.
We've got $100,000 boat payment coming due
at the end of the season.
If I don't make it, we lose the Synergy.
So today, I'm gonna attempt something I've never tried before
to try to keep the gold coming in.
I'm gonna do four dives with the two-man crew.
Go out and get, uh... Get four dives today.
We're gonna dive all day, for sure.
So Jeff and I are gonna do two dives each.
Diving that many hours on a 14-inch dredge,
you really run the risk of wearing yourself out.
When you're super exhausted working at those depths,
things can get dicey,
but I'm willing to take the gamble on it.
[Jeff] Let's go to work!
[Zeke] We are ready to rip.
Yeah, get back after it.
Two dives for each of us in a day is kind of ambitious,
but we've been building up
on our endurance through the season.
I think we're both strong enough to keep doing this
without any major problems.
At least that's what I'm hoping.
I found good gold out here.
I think this is probably a big sandy patch here,
so there's gotta be a lot more gold under that sand.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Jeff] All right.
Perfect.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Zeke] Hey, Jeff, can you hear me all right?
[Jeff] Yeah. Right here at the bottom of the hole.
[laughs] Perfect.
[Zeke] Perfect.
[Jeff] You know, it definitely looks like really good material down here.
It's all just 8-inch layer of sand.
And then we got about a 2-foot layer of gravel.
Nice little rocky hard pan, super dense.
Let's see what's in it.
There's a little picker.
There's definitely G everywhere.
[Zeke] Yeah. I'm glad it's going well.
I mean, if there's gold
in the box after a couple hours,
then we just need to keep doing what we're doing.
[Jeff] Yeah, buddy. It's gonna be a really good looking box.
[Zeke] Woo.
[narrator] While the Tenhoff crew aims for four dives,
back in the harbor.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Kris] We're 10 minutes late for our crew check. Let's go.
[narrator] Captain Kris is late for a date
with his Mistress.
Hopefully everything goes without a problem
and we get over 50 ounces
for all of our hard work and suffering.
Well, the night crew made it,
well, at least I didn't get a phone call
saying anything blew up.
So everything's good.
I hope we get there.
And everything's running.
They say they made a lot of gold.
We get on here, we take over.
They come back at the end of the night
and now it's just a cycle.
So the operation is online and making gold.
[Kris] The big plan for the season is to get the all-in
up to speed so we can launch the crawler.
That hasn't happened, yet.
So what's happened though,
I have a strong enough crew of operators
that we can run the Mistress 24 hours.
Day shift and a night shift.
How you doing?
Everything good?
[man speaking]
[Kris] Good job.
That's a huge accomplishment.
But considering where my gold is right now
and what would need to be at the end of the season,
we're not there.
We can't afford a single ship down.
Okay, report.
[man speaking]
-All day? -[man speaking]
All on gold, constantly?
-Yeah. -Okay.
We're in a good spot.
Okay, everybody get on that [bleep] boat.
Let's go to work.
Hasta la vista.
James and the night crew crushed it.
They were on gold the whole time.
So now we just gotta keep bringing in that material
and make that gold.
-Are we ready? -[man] Yeah, baby.
Cab and idle up. Let's do it.
[upbeat music playing]
[Kris speaking]
Okay.
Well, I think a lot of hard work,
a lot of planning,
a lot of second-guessing myself
and spending half a million dollars
on a new excavator.
After all that, we have a fine-tuned operation
that I hope will make me a million dollars this year.
-[man] Wow. -Wow.
The truth is that Cat
is putting more material in that box
than any excavator that we've ever had.
[Kris speaking]
Like watch when he dumps it in,
the box will be filled with material.
So we got a new excavator and it's awesome.
It can reach 6-foot deeper
and it's got a way bigger bucket.
We can work even more material,
which is awesome.
[Kris speaking]
So what's not awesome, it's too much material
for the sluice box to handle.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Kris speaking]
Hold on...
[Kris speaking]
We're kind of coordinating with the operator
to make sure that he's not overfeeding the plant
because we want to make sure everything gets processed.
We don't want our gold to go over the material in the box,
so we need to process the material in the box
before we add more material to the box.
I'm starting to wonder if adding the bigger bucket
was a bad move.
If we're putting too much material
through the sluice box, it doesn't process correctly.
And all that gold goes right back into the Bering Sea.
So right now, what's the problem is
you get a lot of small rocks.
Yeah.
[Kris speaking]
So my gut is it's the kind of material
that's causing the problem.
What you generally want is clay, untouched,
thick, heavy clay.
That's where the gold gets trapped.
Right now, we're in a great patch,
but there's also a ton of gravel in there.
It could be it's too tough for the box to process,
but I have a good solution.
Now, the plan is to move
about 20 feet south.
I'm gonna move us to easier ground
so the box can handle it.
Yeah, go there and spin us around.
The problem is we're on good gold right now,
so I could be taking us off a sweet spot
and putting us on a wild goose chase.
We'd essentially be back to hunting for new ground.
[suspenseful music playing]
Hey, hold.
Hey, let's see what we got.
Sand.
Hey, spin us. Go here.
Okay, take another scoop.
Let's keep going.
Couple boulders on sand.
Another scoop.
I hope I made the right move
because that hole was still paying me.
That's good.
Okay. Throw it in the box.
Wow, Kris,
look at that.
[cheers]
That's what we're looking for.
[Kris speaking]
What?
Yeah, baby.
Yeah!
The best part about moving spots
is we're not in a lot of pea gravel,
which means my scoop box is gonna clean out properly.
We can go back to running full cycle time,
45 seconds a cycle.
Let's put the hammer down.
[bleep] yeah!
Oh, yeah, baby.
[Jeff] Okay.
Definitely good ground.
It's where the money is.
[narrator] Three hours into the first
of four planned dives,
Jeff Orzechowski is moving and shaking up the seafloor.
[Jeff speaking]
Out on the stern, in on the port, 5 feet.
[Jeff groans]
[groans]
There you go. I'm back in the cabin.
[Jeff] Okay.
[Zeke] Yeah, the swell's getting big,
honestly, like it's not like that choppy,
but I mean, you know, it's a big swell.
[Jeff speaking]
We just got these big chunky rollers coming in.
[dramatic music playing]
[Jeff] Oh.
[Jeff sighing]
[Zeke] The truth is, is that it's always difficult
to move that nozzle around even in calm waters,
but we're starting to get these isolated swells
and it's banging Jeff around down there pretty good.
[Jeff groans]
[Zeke] We're both supposed to get two dives in
but with these swells beating us up down there,
it's gonna take even more to get it done.
Today, I think a four-dive goal
might be even tougher than I had imagined.
[Jeff panting]
[laughs]
[Jeff groaning]
[Jeff] [bleep].
What I noticed is guys with really big muscles,
it just... Things go really easier to me.
You'd think it would be way easier.
I don't know what's up with that.
[laughs]
[Jeff groaning]
I think you just have to flex harder
to do the same thing.
[mimics groaning, laughs]
He's tired.
-Tired. -[Jeff] [bleep].
[Jeff speaking]
That was a rowdy dive.
-Bro. -[laughs]
Yeah, look at these things.
You're like, whoa.
[both laughing]
Easy to do if it's calm.
Yeah, I guess.
It's just a little rough.
[dramatic music playing]
All right. Well, the current knocked Jeff off the bottom
a little earlier than we had hoped,
but we still had a strong first dive.
Now I'll do my shift, the second of hopefully four.
[Jeff] It's good ground, buddy.
[Zeke] Yeah. That's good as that's ever looked.
These random swells
are not gonna make things easy,
but we're on nice ground.
[dramatic music playing]
If this gold keeps up for four dives,
we're gonna have a solid clean out at the end of it.
[dramatic music playing]
[Jeff] Can you hear me?
[Zeke] Yeah, I got you.
Uh, can I get an idle cap?
[Jeff] All right. You got it, buddy.
[Zeke] Thank you.
[groans]
How's the hose management going?
[Zeke] Uh...
I got to get a lot stronger...
[Zeke speaking]
Yeah.
[Zeke] Yeah. You really have to bring a lot of energy to it.
Yeah. We got to hit it hard though, um,
because I wanted have a fat cleanup.
[Jeff] Yeah. Just, I guess, hit it hard,
and then we'll switch out.
-[Zeke] Okay. Sounds good. -[Jeff] All right, buddy.
[narrator] The two-man Tenhoff team is hitting it hard.
And across the water...
[Chris speaking]
[narrator] Two hours into his second attempt
at a solo dive...
[Chris speaking]
[narrator] Chris McCully's luck is still holding out.
[Chris speaking]
[engine revving]
[man speaking]
[Chris] I'm gonna come up.
[panting]
Woo!
[bleep].
I'm having the time of my life, baby.
I gotta go fill up the air compressor
and generator,
and then I'm gonna take a little break,
and then we'll go back down there,
there's so much ground to be worked on.
Woo!
[Chris] So the secret to diving solo
is you need to be really in tune with the dredge.
That's almost empty.
It was perfect timing.
You have to know every sound, every movement,
even when the boat rolls, even when the wind blows.
You have to be familiar with these things.
Oh, yeah.
I have two and a half hours in,
and I'm gonna put two and a half hours more,
and right now, I can already see it
shimmering over here, which is really good.
The best is yet to come right here.
[tense music playing]
Oh, [bleep].
[dramatic music playing]
I can see the swells are starting to come in,
all these little white caps on top.
I don't wanna be in that situation
where I'm alone and I can't pick up the gears.
Worst-case scenario, I'll lose my hose,
you know, and my jet.
Uh, all right.
So I'm gonna take that initiative,
I'm gonna let Bobby and Cam know.
So this is what I mean about being aware
of all the elements.
So the swells are starting to build,
that's a really dangerous situation
for me to be solo.
So I'm gonna call them right now
and then tell them what's up.
So I might be able to dive by myself right now,
but lifting up the gear back into the boat,
like the hose, the jet log, the flare,
so I can bring it back to the shore,
that'll take a whole team.
[dial tone]
-[Bobby speaking] -[Chris speaking]
[Bobby speaking]
Just a quick update,
I'm halfway through my dive,
um, it seems like the weather's gonna pick up.
I don't have a tender out here, so...
[Chris speaking]
[Bobby] Okay.
I'll be right there.
[Chris] Check the weather, too.
Just coordinate with camp.
[Bobby] All right. Thank you, sir.
Bye.
Cool. All right.
Reinforcements are on the way.
I hope they don't wait too long
and wait for the [bleep] swell to come in
and then come out here.
I hope they're not that dumb.
Let's not waste any more time up here,
we're gonna go back down there
and finish up the rest of my dive.
But first things first,
I'm gonna fill up the generator
and my air compressor,
then I'm gonna go back down there.
So these swells are bad,
but I think I could squeeze in
a little more bond time before the guys gets here.
So I'm gonna mine more while I still can.
[dramatic music playing]
[Chris] I'm gonna keep going.
I know where to, uh, go next.
Oh, yeah, that's the next spot right there.
Big stuff right there.
And I look at our area, we got a lot more to go.
There's no signs of it slowing down.
[Chris speaking]
Wow.
We're in about 15 feet of water.
The hottest drilled hole on the whole claim.
[narrator] Throughout the fleet,
captains are rolling the dice.
I'm really desperate to make the money.
[Jeff speaking]
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] And out on the Bering Sea...
[upbeat music playing]
[Kris speaking]
We're on really good gold,
so we've got enough of, uh, a line
that's gonna last us for the rest of the day
and make sure Tyson's on good gold.
[narrator] Kris Kelly is enjoying the benefits of his new excavator,
as it devours a new paystreak.
All right. The wind's starting to pick up,
the conditions are getting rougher.
But right now, we haven't got very big waves.
2-foot waves,
my boat can technically handle that.
[dramatic music playing]
[Kris speaking]
[Kris] The Mistress is an old barge.
She's got some serious years and rust on her.
So you've gotta check the hull constantly
to make sure you're not sinking.
If you're not on top of everything constantly,
a problem will sneak up on you and bite you in the ass.
I learned that earlier this season.
Oh [bleep], [bleep].
We're sinking!
Well, good thing I came down here
because we got about 6 inches of water
going through the whole boat.
[dramatic music playing]
[rhythmic metal creaking]
[rhythmic metal creaking continues]
[bleep].
[rhythmic metal creaking continues]
The hull is like a skeleton,
and it's supported by its ribs and backbone.
It's holding the weight of everything,
all the people, all the equipment, everything.
And it's keeping the water out.
And one of those support beams rusted out,
and now it's loose.
And it's just slamming into the floor of the hull
over and over and over.
[rhythmic metal creaking continues]
It's a tough call.
This support beam looks sketchy as hell right now.
If I keep rolling the dice, this could sink the boat.
It's that serious.
[rhythmic metal creaking]
[Kris] No, but I'm lucky as [bleep].
I'm Irish.
You know what? I know this is gonna work out for me.
Right now, I just hope it holds out
and we can keep grinding gold.
[machine rumbling]
[rhythmic metal creaking]
Well, you know what, it's not a problem
until we start leaking water.
[rhythmic metal creaking]
I need to start paying off debt.
[relaxed music playing]
[man sighs happily]
Welcome to Vernon's Social Hour.
It can't get more social than this.
[narrator] And now, saddle up
for another Social Hour with Vernon.
Let me see what the latest news is on the chat sites.
[notification rings]
"Something you want to say
but never had a chance to on camera?"
Not really. I pretty much say it all. [chuckles]
Whether or not they air it,
that's a different story, but I don't hold back.
Answer the phone!
I'm about to give 'em a [bleep] piece of landmine,
and then torch it off!
Hey, you wanna fight [bleep]?
There's no buffer on my mouth
and really, I don't have a lot of,
what do you call those, filters?
One of the greatest ways of relieving stress
is to fire all those [bleep] that really need to be fired.
[bleep] you [bleep]!
Get your ragged ass out of there
[bleep] snowflake.
I'm probably a liability.
I'm probably an extreme liability.
He's a snowflake, you can't take an attitude
because it hurts his little [bleep].
[bleep] the federal government!
This is it.
You can either take it or leave it
and I really, really truly do not give a [bleep].
Instead of pulling your butt, what else is going on, over?
[bleep] damn.
I can piss faster than this.
Crank that sucker up and start sucking.
You know, I'm right, my sexual pride.
I am what I am what I am.
And there ain't no changing it and I'm not [bleep]
damn not gonna start changing it now.
[announcer] This has been Social Hour with Vernon.
Well, do what you wanna do. I don't care.
Whatever color, green, purple, from Mars.
I really literally do not give a [bleep].
[Shawn] Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
First time in shallow with the Myrtle.
Up in here, close to shore.
We're right on top of the drill hole.
The drill hole says it's hot.
[Shawn speaking]
[narrator] Shawn's gambling on shallow water,
but with nothing yet to show for it,
he might be in deep trouble.
[Shawn] That's looking better.
I'm not quite through the clay,
but I'm scraping the top of the clay off
and as a little bit further I reach out,
the better it's looking.
The Myrtle can reach 30 feet deep.
But when you come in shallow, the cycle time bringing the arm up and down
is so quick.
I can cover three times as much ground,
but it's risky.
We don't wanna get stuck up close to the shore like this.
But if we can get on the hot ground
that I think is here, it'll be worth the risk.
Starting to see some clay,
but I really need to get into that hard ground.
Because if there's some gold here,
that's where it'll be.
[Shawn speaking]
More gravel.
Really liking what I see.
Yeah, that stuff is looking really good.
This might be the little break we needed.
That looks more like it,
but the only way to really know
is to take a test pan.
Oh, yeah.
It's in there.
We are good to go.
It took some patience, but we're on the good stuff.
This is what we came here for.
[Shawn speaking]
[Shawn] Now, we just gotta let the Myrtle
sink her teeth into it.
We need every ounce.
And the material is looking awesome.
Look at that stuff.
That looks amazing.
This stuff has not been touched.
When a dig's hard like that,
you know it's virgin ground.
Virgin ground means nobody has ever touched it.
It's never been mined.
We're in closer than the Christine Rose right now.
Up high, a little too hard to dig in for the CR.
But the Myrtle is a big old pig,
got a lot of horsepower
and a lot of weight behind her,
so you can actually dig this harder material up
and get the gold out of it.
That's a lot of fresh ground.
Perfect for the Myrtle.
This stuff is sticky, gooey.
Really liking what I see, but I wanna keep moving.
Put the gold in the box right now.
[Shawn whistles]
Oh, yeah.
It's hot.
[narrator] One mile east.
[heavy breathing]
[Chris speaking]
[narrator] Chris McCully's luck may now be running out.
[Chris speaking]
Wow, it's getting rough.
Time to go.
[bleep] guys are not even [bleep] here yet. [bleep]
Idiots, man.
[tense music playing]
They're not here yet.
[Chris] So, I let my crew know
that it's critical to get out here,
and still, there's no signs of them.
So, I'm stuck out here by myself.
They're putting me and the Tata in danger.
Look at all these [bleep] waves.
I'm getting swamped, man.
Look at my outboards, they're getting swamped.
I gotta call them back to get their asses down here.
[man speaking]
Yo, what up? Hey.
Are you guys gonna come save me or what,
are you guys just gonna watch me die out here?
[man speaking]
Yeah, dude, it's [bleep] picking up
20 miles an hour right now.
Are you guys gonna come out?
[man speaking]
All right. Dude, hurry up, dude.
[man speaking]
[bleep] sakes. They're still...
He's still on the couch for [bleep] sake, man.
[bleep].
I have no help.
They're gonna struggle going through out here
because, look.
It's whitecap.
It's like 3, 4-foot swells right now, dude.
Worst-case scenario, because my plan B
is I'm gonna drop everything in the water.
But I really don't wanna do that.
Last thing I wanna do is leave my gear
down in the water.
It's gonna go up to 32 miles an hour.
I can't be out here 32 miles an hour.
I mean, this is the borderline right here.
I'm pushing it.
I might snap my anchor line,
I get drifted to the [bleep] rocks.
I just hope that rear anchor holds on tight,
you know, because it's so much stress on that back anchor.
And I'm literally left for dead.
It's what it feels like.
I'm being left for dead out here.
[groans]
[Chris] And I'm literally left for dead.
It's what it feels like.
I'm being left for dead out here.
These [bleep] guys.
All I can do is just watch, listen.
[Chris speaking]
[bleep] where's [bleep] Bobby?
Where's Bobby?
Come on, let's go.
[Chris] I'm glad that Cam is here,
but getting all the gear up requires all three men.
Back it up, back it up.
Especially in these swells.
It's gonna be tough,
but we really don't have a choice.
All right. We gotta hurry up.
Yup.
It's [bleep] ripping.
A race against the clock.
We ain't got no time to go slow.
So, the main thing we need to do
is to get the jet log up and the hose detached.
Let's push it this way.
Pull it out of the water.
[grunts] Okay. Good.
And then, tie it back to the dredge.
All right.
So, if either one of them
was left out in these swells,
it'll be torn off for sure.
Pull it, pull, pull.
Keep pulling now.
Yeah, nice, nice, nice.
[tense music playing]
Keep pulling it.
Oh, [bleep]. No, no, no.
[Chris speaking]
You got it? Got it?
Keep pulling! Keep pulling!
Okay.
Yes! That's good enough. That's good.
-It's the last one. -All right.
Here comes the nozzle.
Nice. Woo!
Mission accomplished.
Whoa! Whoa!
[tense music playing]
Woo!
That was close.
[engine revving]
Oh, those big whitecaps coming in.
Look at that.
That's about to [bleep] hit us right there.
Big whitecaps.
[whistles]
Whoa!
[alarm beeping]
[Chris speaking]
[engines stalling]
No [bleep] way.
[suspenseful music playing]
My starboard side is stalling.
I don't know why it's stalling, but...
Woo! That was close.
So, I gotta admit, diving solo without a crew
is really risky.
That was a really serious close call.
But you know what, at the end of the day,
that boat is still in one piece
and I still got killer gold.
So, I think it was all worth the gamble.
I got off extra early this morning
and I was able to put my dive,
my full dive's work in today before the...
Before the wind kicked in.
And then, once this wind calms the [bleep] down,
then we're gonna go back out again and go get it.
I'm telling you, there's a lot of...
I mean, there's copious amount of gold to be sucked up.
We're just gonna reset and start fresh tomorrow.
I'm glad we got my gears up.
Job well done.
[narrator] Across the water...
[tense music playing]
The waves are getting a little bigger, the wind is picking up,
and it's getting a little rough.
Thank God I'm already in position
and my boat is angled right into the wave.
[narrator] Kris Kelly's rusty support beam clings to life,
as he hopes his big bet pays off.
And it is getting a little rougher.
I don't know what to do.
[rhythmic metal creaking]
When you owe a lot of money like we do,
it's gonna impact on how far you push things.
That's why in this situation, I'm gonna keep running
and I hope to God the beam survives.
Yeah.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
Looks like the all-in
is not going in the water today,
which is [bleep], you know?
I need to get that boat in the water,
do our final fixes,
get everything dialed in and start making money.
The seasons are short.
We don't have a lot of time to [bleep] around.
We gotta get this going.
The truth is, right now with the all-in
out of commission, I don't have a lot of options.
And the wind is picking up pretty hard.
We're starting to see whitecaps
and uh, keeps getting bigger, um...
So, even with the swells getting bigger, I just gotta roll the dice.
Bring in night crew and hope to God it makes it until the morning.
[man] [bleep].
[tense music playing]
[Kris] Right now, I just need my gold clean out
to be amazing, like amazing.
[Jeff] Yo, yo.
Uh, how's that ground down there still looking?
[Zeke] It's been super productive so far.
I can see gold.
[narrator] Dive two of a planned four-dive day
is nearly in the books for the two-man Tenhoff team.
[Zeke] It's super bomb.
Yeah. It's really good diving down there.
Make sure we don't leave any for the other guy.
[Zeke] Oh.
Oh, yeah, for sure.
[groans]
How's the weather looking up there right now?
Is it starting to pick up?
[Jeff] Definitely getting a little windy.
So, yeah, we definitely got the whitecaps coming in.
Uh, the rollers are kind of so-so.
[Zeke] Yeah, you really have to be able to show up for this.
If you're gonna make money with this,
you have to get strong.
Oh, I'm pretty tired.
All right, bud. You ready for me to pull your umbilical?
[Zeke] Yeah. I'm just gonna head up.
Yeah, sounds good.
[Zeke speaking]
[Jeff] Yeah, bud, in a white cup, sounds good.
[Zeke speaking]
Copy. I'll see you at the front.
Hey.
[Zeke] Dive number two is a wrap,
but our endurance is getting tested
so we're gonna have to dig deep
to keep it going for four.
At this stage, it's all about staying hydrated,
keeping well-fed and maintaining
a positive mindset.
Now it's time for dive number three.
Jeff's gonna go down for his second of the day,
and then I'll close it out.
We're just gonna keep pushing.
[Zeke] Going, Jeff?
Wait up till I'm clear.
Going down.
Yeah, I'd say this is a pretty good ground, Zeke.
There's so much gold in that.
[Jeff] Yes, right.
Yeah. There's a lot that's going well right now.
[Jeff] So, we're just gonna continue on this little hole that Zeke started.
What we're doing today may seem crazy,
but we have big bills to pay.
So, there's no slowing down.
We can't afford it.
Yeah. Gotta make $6,000 boat payment,
and then I gotta make a $10,000 fuel bill,
and then I just had to pay $6,000 to the port
and I had to make another $8,000 boat insurance payment.
You know, that took my bank account like [bleep] bam,
down, ow, gone.
It kind of hurts my brain
that I haven't saved anything.
But what I found is that, like,
I don't think I would take very much comfort
from my savings account.
If I have money in a bank account,
it makes me worry that I'm not doing enough
in the present to, like, propel my ideas forward.
I think that's where I'm seeing maybe I have like
a kind of a gambler mentality.
-[man] Yeah. -Where I'm like [bleep] just all in, dude.
Why not? I mean, like, what else are you gonna do
with your short life? You could be dead tomorrow.
[tense music playing]
[Zeke] Yeah. We still have lot...
A bunch of work to do in this area.
[Jeff] Oh, yeah, dude.
When I get to the hard pan,
I definitely see color.
So, I mean...
make the best out of... Out of every dive we can.
[tense music playing]
[Zeke] I'll meet you at the top.
You know, we're crushing it today.
-[Jeff] Yeah, bud. -[Zeke] I'll finish out.
I'll just dive until it's too rough.
[Zeke] Jeff just knocked out his second dive.
Now, it's up to me to pull off number four.
The pressure's on.
I should feel beat,
but I have all these endorphins going.
I'm just gonna hammer it out for as long as I can.
[dramatic music playing]
[Zeke speaking]
All right. Bud in the house. Can you hear me?
[Zeke] Yeah. Got you.
Copy.
Does that cut look like it's staying the same?
[Zeke] Yeah, and it's super bomb.
[Jeff] Awesome.
[Zeke] All right. Pretty much, you know,
I'm just carving into it
in pretty much in all directions.
He said the material is so good that he can work the hose
any direction and he's happy.
So, it's good to have a happy Zeke.
[dramatic music playing]
[Shawn] Looking really good.
[Shawn speaking]
[narrator] Twelve hours into chewing up shallow ground,
Mr. Gold's Hail Mary may be a game changer.
[Shawn speaking]
Right now she's firing on all cylinders.
Pretty spectacular.
[Shawn] We need to swing for the fences today.
And it looks like we might've hit a homerun.
This ground's hard digging.
It was just waiting for a beast
as big as the Myrtle to come get it.
Now, it's time to hand it over to the night crew
so they can keep hammering on it.
You want me to [bleep] wrap around this pole?
[man] Yeah.
[Shawn speaking]
That's hot.
Hot, hot, hot.
I've had enough.
I'm getting tired.
I've been up since 6:00.
All right. Let's get the [bleep] out of here.
We took a shot, it paid off.
It's a good feeling.
Hopefully, the number on the scale
will make me feel even better.
That's it. That's a wrap.
Do it again tomorrow.
[narrator] With the sky staying bright past 1:30 in the morning,
every captain is back on shore except for one.
[Zeke speaking]
[narrator] Zeke Tenhoff's pushing into the night
on his second dive of the day,
trying to log a staggering fourth dive for the team.
[Zeke speaking]
[laughs]
Uh, do you think it'd help if I turn the lights on?
[Zeke speaking]
I will definitely throw the cables
before you quit gold mining with me, buddy.
[Zeke] Okay.
All right, buddy. Cables are down.
[Zeke] Okay. I got them.
I'm coming up.
It's 2:00 in the morning.
Like, I mean, we definitely can't say we didn't try,
but at some point, you know, like I said,
it's just mind over matter, you know, and whatever.
Well, that might not have been the strongest finish,
but I'm still happy that we did it.
We got our four dives in and that's just stellar.
Hopefully, there's enough gold in the box
to prove that it was worth the push.
I don't know. That looks like a lot of hard work down there.
And, like, if it's, like, in the middle of the night,
it's dark, and it's murky and it's like, I don't know.
I just... When you're having a bad time like that,
it's like [bleep] if I'm gonna have...
You having this bad of a time doing this,
then like I should get another career.
[laughs] Like, how you start feeling.
[Jeff] Yeah. Well, you know, this is a long day.
You know?
[Zeke] I feel like such a cush little [bleep] sometimes.
I'm just like, "Ah, if I don't get my nine hours of sleep,
I'm cranky." [laughs]
[Jeff] We'll be sleeping like babies.
[dramatic music playing]
[Kris] Cleanup time.
Right now, we hope we get 35 ounces.
Right here, we got a little bit of proof
that we did pretty good.
[Andy speaking]
That's a nice piece.
[Kris] That's a nice piece. We got a bunch of nice pieces.
[narrator] The Mistress and her support beam survived the night,
and now it's time to reap the rewards from Kris's winning gamble.
[upbeat music playing]
It's looking really good today.
Oh, the box looks really good.
I'm happy for my brother and Kevin.
[man] I got you.
[Kris] The beam held on.
It's a Bering Sea miracle.
I took a big risk
and now, hopefully, it'll pay off on the scale.
[Jay] We have to make money.
We got real bills here.
Nobody gave us this operation.
We're making payments on it still.
We spent money on the crawler, the all-in, the new excavator,
all these are real costs.
That's why I set our goal at 1,000 ounces
'cause we can't see 5 or 10 ounces.
We're on an excavator barge for God's sake.
So, this is what we got
and no matter what it is,
it's never enough.
So, you know, here we go.
[Jay] Let's see what we got, baby.
Let's see what we got.
[man coughs]
-[Andy] Five. -Going five.
-Ten, baby. -[Andy] Ten.
[Jay] It's moving quick.
Twenty-five.
[Kris] Twenty-five.
[Jay] Thirty-two, Kris.
Keep going, Kris. Thirty-three.
Oh, he wants to get to 33.
[Kris] Okay, 32.95,
which is basically 33.
-Thirty-three. -[Jay] Thirty-three.
-I like it. Andy, we're good. -[Andy] That's great.
-That's not a bad number. -[Jay] Nope.
[narrator] 32.9.
Oh, heck, let's just call it 33 ounces.
It's worth over $59,000
and it's the Kelly's biggest clean out
so far this season.
I know everyone may look at this
like we didn't accomplish what we wanted to accomplish.
[Andy] That's still a lot of gold here.
-Two pounds of gold. I love it when we weigh gold. -Two pounds of gold.
Yeah, 33 ounces.
-That's pretty decent, right? -That's...
Dude, that's success.
That's proof right there
that the Mistress is gonna make us
$2 million a year
for the next 10 years
and that's what that is.
Okay. It may not be a Mr. Gold number,
but 33 ounces is still pretty good.
And we just keep getting better,
which tells me we're doing something right.
My confidence in Reaper Nation keeps growing.
[upbeat music playing]
Uh, we still have a lot to do
to make our operation better.
I think that we could get these numbers up.
Okay? Let's go.
Divide and conquer.
Let's get out of here, guys.
-All right. -Let's go make this happen.
Uh, we're going to Bill Potter.
We're gonna sell some gold
and we're gonna let him make fun of me for a little while
because we have some of the dirtiest gold
I've ever panned.
[Bill] Hey, guys. How's it going?
[Kris] Hey, good morning. How are you?
[Bill] Good afternoon.
Ah, hey.
[Bill speaking]
How much gold you say you have in here?
33 ounces.
I'm willing to bet whilst we're all done about 32.
[Jay] Yup, [bleep].
Well, we were expecting you to bring out your big magnet today.
[Bill] Well, let's see how much magnetite
we have in here.
Magnetite, 1.1 ounces.
-Wow. -I told you it was bad.
That's hitting on the money, yeah.
Tell you what, I'm gonna be real generous
and only nail you for a half ounce.
I'll even give you your jar back.
So, you're looking at 45,820 bucks.
You're the boss, Bill.
In that case, I'll offer you $40,000.
-[Jay] No, no. -[Kris] [bleep].
$30,000 will be fine, Bill.
I'm sorry I don't have a lot of a personality today.
We've been killing ourselves.
And $40,000.
[Kris] Oh, yeah.
[sighs]
-Thank you very much. I really appreciate it. -All right.
[Jay] Bill, thank you so much.
-And you're very nice, too. -Thanks very much.
Thank you so much for having us.
[Shawn] You have a great day.
Wow. Look at how much gold is there.
It looked like a fat cleanup.
[narrator] The Tenhoff crew is ready to see
how big their four-dive bet paid off.
[Jeff speaking]
[Zeke] I think we got about 30 ounces.
[Jeff speaking]
If we're already slapping down cleanup like this,
even if this is as good as it got, I'd be fine.
[bleep] yeah.
But I know it's gonna get better.
[Jeff] Weigh out this gold, see what we got.
[Zeke] Scale.
[Jeff] Okay, sweet.
-[scale beeping] -[sighs]
[Zeke speaking]
[Jeff speaking]
[scale beeping]
[Jeff speaking]
[Zeke] Oh, God.
Zeke, we can do a mad dash
and get batteries in town.
-And weigh it in town? -Yeah.
In your truck?
All right. Let's do that.
Let's put it in a jar or something,
and then we'll bust into town
and get some... Get some AAA batteries.
Yeah, we're gonna do this real quick.
Put it in that tin.
This is looking like it might be the biggest clean out of the summer so far.
There's no way I'm leaving this amount of gold
lying around in the yurt while I go look for batteries.
You have the scale, right?
This gold is coming with me.
It's nice. It's a lot of work, you know,
like that's like the essence of, like, a lot of labor.
We've got some new batteries for our scale.
Let's weigh out this gold, see what we got.
[Jeff speaking]
[Zeke speaking]
[Jeff] All right. Here we go.
2 ounces, 5, 6,
14, 15,
16, 17.
[Zeke] What are we at?
[Jeff] 29.4.
Right now, with this cleanup,
it's about 30 ounces.
[narrator] 29.4 ounces
is worth a hearty $52,000.
And Zeke is already within striking distance
of his season goal.
We're really early in the season
and we're pulling down 30-ounce cleanups.
I'll take it.
This is a huge number.
The four dives really pushed us
and it was exhausting, but it was totally worth it.
This might be shaping up to be my best season yet.
I couldn't be happier.
[upbeat music playing]
If we can keep slapping down 30-ounces cleanups,
things are going real well.
[tense music playing]
[Shawn] Well, let's see how we did on the Myrtle cleanup.
Hopefully, it's a big one.
[narrator] After risking it all on shallow water,
Shawn Pomrenke's hoping the gold goes deep.
[Shawn] It's getting in the right area,
trying to find that hot spot.
It's pretty damn good.
[Shawn] I needed something to reignite my season.
It took several hours to find it.
Pretty clean.
But hopefully, this hot spot
is the answer I've been looking for.
Let's see what we got.
Thirty, forty.
There's 50...
60, 70...
80...
86.82.
That's nice, Ron.
Pretty damn good.
[narrator] 86.82 ounces
is worth over 156 grand.
And shallow ground made deep pockets
for Mr. Gold.
[Shawn] All right, Myrtle.
Oh, that's a good one.
Doing really well.
It's enough to keep the lights on,
pay the fuel bill, pay the guys.
We were only on the hot spot for a few hours.
Seeing big numbers like this in that short amount of time,
not only tells me we're on the right spot,
but we're gonna be seeing bigger numbers
from here on out.
Hopefully, I'm right 'cause we need it.
That's a good cleanup.
That's more like what we're supposed to be doing.
We're so close.
We're gonna hit it big.
It's time to get back to work.
Let's go do it again.
[narrator] Across the fleet,
rolling the dice has paid off
as Shawn stays atop the leaderboard
while Reaper Nation and the Tenhoff crew
makes some noise of their own.
[narrator] Next time on Bering Sea Gold...
[Shawn] Waiting for dad.
There might be some yelling and screaming.
What's going on now?
[Shawn] We got some [bleep] to figure out.
[Kris] Today's the day, gentlemen.
We really don't want anything bad to happen
when all of your investment is hanging clean in the air like that.
[Chris] I'm actually falling behind.
I really have to stay focused.
[Chris speaking]
[Emily speaking]
[woman] We're gonna pop him down there.
See what happens.
[man speaking]
[woman] Oh, my God.
[Sarah] Woo!
I'm excited.
How's it looking down there?
[Zeke] It looks like we will have a fat cleanup.
[Sarah] So cool.
[Kris] Made it!
We made it! Perfect.
All these years in your future,
I still have to [bleep] make a living.
You wanna leave me with [bleep]?
It ain't my [bleep] fault!
Yeah, it is!
[Kris] Oh, my God.
This boat will sink from the back end
if we don't get that hole taken care of.
[Shawn] We're already taking on water.
[man yells in frustration]