[classical music playing]
[narrator] To make beautiful music,
all instruments need to play in harmony.
The same is true in gold mining.
The grounds, crew and equipment
all need to work together.
If just one piece is out of tune,
the whole symphony falls apart.
[dramatic music playing]
So which miner...
[Kris] Good luck, buddy. Get that gold, baby!
[narrator] ...can hit the right notes...
[Vernon] We're in the money.
I'm not gonna kick that out of bed.
[narrator] ...to make their operation safe?
Ship it!
[Chris N speaking on radio]
[Chris N groans]
-We've got lots of ground to work-- -[Andy speaking on radio]
Check is the air compressor going?
-All right, I'm telling you. -[Chris N] Why are you [bleep] yelling at me?
-Just listen! -[Chris N] [bleep] idiot!
It feels really hot.
[steam hissing]
-[water gushing] -[man exclaims]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Vernon speaking]
[Chris N speaking]
[narrator] For Vernon Adkison,
the sweetest music the captain can hear
is a full band of divers.
Plenty of [bleep] gold right here.
You've just gotta find it.
[narrator] So, today he's bringing a rookie to the stage,
hoping his premier performance strikes just the right chord.
[Chris N] I'm gonna jump in,
I'm gonna grab that nozzle,
I'ma go under here and I'ma start dredging.
And I'm gonna find gold.
[Vernon] So far this season, we've only been using one diver, Gary.
But it's never a good idea to rely on just one.
If anything happens to him, even just for one day,
we'd be shut down.
[Chris N] The last time I was under the water was six months ago,
so I'm super excited.
He's enthusiastic.
He's got an eye for the gold.
And he's done quite a bit of dredging.
That's why I'm breaking in our rookie, Chris.
I know you've done a lot of dredging
in the rivers and creeks,
but this is a whole different ballgame here.
And for one thing, you're gonna be about 25 feet deep.
Deeper than you've ever been.
And for another thing, a big thing is
you're gonna be under the ice.
And so, if you've got a problem,
you've gotta beat it back to that ice hole.
You can't just pop up
like you can in the rivers and creeks.
It might be a little bit stressful
until you've done it a couple of times.
He's gotta listen to what we're telling him,
otherwise, that safety is gonna be at risk.
[Gary speaking]
[oxygen tank hissing]
[Gary] Are you on bottom?
[Chris N speaking on radio]
[Gary speaking on radio]
[Chris N speaking on radio]
[Gary speaking on radio]
[Chris N speaking on radio]
[Vernon] He tends to be a little bit excitable,
but hopefully he doesn't get into the panic mode down there.
Panic is what kills.
[Chris N speaking on radio]
[Vernon on radio] Yeah, okay.
[Chris N speaking on radio]
[Vernon on radio] Well, yippee ki-yay.
That's what I like to hear.
[Chris N speaking on radio]
[Vernon] You can definitely tell that he's been dredging before.
I think he's gonna do okay.
[Vernon speaking on radio]
[Chris N speaking on radio]
[Vernon on radio] What is it?
[Chris N speaking on radio]
What's he saying?
[Chris N speaking on radio]
-[Vernon speaking] -[Chris N groaning]
Come back... Come back on that.
[Chris N speaking on radio]
[exhales] Okay.
[Vernon speaking]
[Chris N] I know. I know.
It went around that twice. It's my fault.
I shouldn't have done that.
-I'm learning-- -[Vernon] That's the kind of [bleep] that'll kill you.
If we had to pull you up, we couldn't pull you up...
[Chris N] I realize that...
[Vernon] Chris got his umbilical tangled up with his hose,
and instead of staying calm and untangling it,
he panicked.
That kind of thing can cost you your life out here.
He's gotta understand that he needs to relax
before he goes back down.
Chris, when you get under there,
it goes without saying,
-get that damn umbilical unwrapped first. -[Chris N] I will.
And as from now, that's number one priority.
-Don't get that [bleep] thing wrapped. -[Chris N] Okay!
All right, I'm telling you!
-[Chris N] Why are you [bleep] yelling at me? -Just listen!
-Just listen. Just listen, will you? -[Chris N shouting]
-Are you [bleep] kidding me? -I'm telling you... I'm telling you
-that's number one priority. -Get that [bleep] thing off of me.
[bleep] idiot.
[Vernon] Well, Chris is done for the day, maybe for good.
[narrator] 12 miles west...
[Chris] Put the dive hole right here.
We're moving to a new spot.
We've got a new motor,
a new diver,
I'm feeling good about this.
[narrator] ...as the back half of winter gets underway,
the current gold count leader
is fine-tuning his operation
to get the perfect pitch.
[narrator] He's bringing in top of the line new equipment...
[Chris] It's gonna be the real deal.
[narrator] ...and a top of the line new diver.
Yeah. Get back after it.
[narrator] Jeff Orzechowski is one of Nome's premier dredgers...
[Jeff] Good ground, buddy.
[man] Yeah, that's as good as that's ever looked.
[narrator] ...who's served time with numerous teams in the fleet.
[Jeff exclaiming]
[Chris] It's all coming in place. Like...
The gold gods, once again, are looking over me,
and I'm quite blessed.
So let's get to it.
I ended the first half of the season strong,
and I'm only getting stronger.
I've got a stronger pump engine,
and I've got Jeff Orzechowski.
He had other plans this winter,
but I was able to convince him to come work with me.
-Sweet. Yeah. -Sweet.
[Chris] After what happened earlier this season...
You guys don't even know how to put a spark plug back on.
I couldn't be working with better people.
I might have to go through a crew change.
...I wanna make sure I bring two pros
to replace the crew that I had earlier.
With Wilson and Jeff, I've got it.
With this crew and the equipment that I have right now,
I'm aiming for more gold
than I've got any day this season.
I've got the whole crew firing on all cylinders.
I'm pretty confident today that everything is gonna work,
including the motor that we just got out here.
[motor starts]
There's a lot more water in the box, so I'm happy.
I'm gonna go down first
and then I'm gonna send Jeff next.
We are on a great pay streak,
and our equipment's gotten supersized,
so we are gonna kill it.
[Chris speaking]
Get it, bud!
[Chris speaking on radio]
All right. See what we got here.
[man] Well, let me know if you're ready for the pump.
[Chris speaking on radio]
[motor whirring]
[Chris speaking on radio]
[man speaking on radio]
[Chris speaking on radio]
[man speaking on radio]
I mean, he's down there, he's moving material.
[Chris speaking on radio]
Whoo!
We're making money now. Whoo-hoo!
[Chris speaking on radio]
Oh, [bleep].
[motor whizzing]
[Chris speaking on radio]
[man speaking on radio]
[Chris speaking on radio]
[man speaking on radio]
[Chris speaking on radio]
[motor whizzing]
[man speaking on radio]
[Chris speaking on radio]
[Chris groans]
Did you guys figure out what the problem is?
[man] No, dude. So, I'm not really too sure.
It sounded like it kind of knocked because it got too hot.
-So... So, I think... -Okay.
Yeah, so I I have the fan running, but...
But what I'm assuming is the load we're generating on that motor,
-that radiator is too small. -Too much?
-Too small. -[man] So...
[Chris speaking]
I think we need a bigger radiator.
Yeah, man. I was just...
-Having a good time. -[man] I know, dude.
You were so stoked, man.
[Chris] We went with a big pump engine and a longer hose,
so it turned out
it was too overwhelming for the radiator,
so we had to shut it down.
So we're gonna have to go back to town
and see if I can find a bigger one.
You know, I was hoping for the biggest day of this season.
Now I don't even know if I can mine today.
Damn, dude.
[Shawn] Special delivery.
[narrator] Entering the back half of winter,
Shawn Pomrenke's season
has been playing like a broken record.
This'll give us a couple more days in the hole.
[narrator] Down to his final royalty free days,
the golden maestro is going deep
to get his operation singing.
[Shawn] Hopefully, we'll make some money today.
Get the hose in the water.
It's the only way you make money around here.
We need to get on to something real quick here.
Vernon says 56 is loaded,
but I haven't seen it yet.
[man] Let's try this new hose out. Whoo!
[Shawn] We only have two more royalty free days left,
so here's my plan.
I moved away from Vernon into deeper water.
Yeah, baby!
Which should have more gold.
I also picked up 35 feet of extra hose.
We can search a wider area without cutting a new hole
and moving the whole operation.
So we should be able to cover more ground.
I'm nowhere near my goal. This better work.
I need gold to get the inland project going.
[man speaking]
[Shawn] Right on. Have a good dive, Joe.
[oxygen tank hissing]
How's it going, bud?
[Joe on radio] Air is good.
Water is good.
[Joe speaking on radio]
[man] Yep. Throttle up.
[motor whirring]
[Joe speaking on radio]
[man speaking]
[Joe speaking on radio]
[Shawn speaking on radio]
[Joe on radio] Hell, yeah.
[Joe speaking on radio]
[Shawn speaking on radio]
[Joe speaking on radio]
[narrator] As the Pomrenke team starts warming up...
[Chris N] Look, for me, diving is mental, and I'm focused,
and when someone starts screaming at me, it throws me way off, man.
I know you're trying to keep me safe. I know that.
It's just real hard for me, mentally,
when you're screaming at me,
to focus on getting back in the water. You see what I'm saying?
No. I was trying to tell you something and you weren't listening.
[Chris N] But you told me a bunch of times
that's the most important thing
-is to go under... -[Vernon] Yeah, but you didn't do it.
I'm not gonna be nice about it.
Either do it or get the [bleep] out of here.
That's critical.
-If we gotta haul your sorry ass off the bottom... -[Chris N] I know.
...and that damn thing is wrapped, we can't do it.
-That bothers me. -Okay.
I don't want any dead bodies on the bottom of the ocean.
[Chris N] I know I [bleep] up about that part. I know I--
Yeah, all right. All right. So, you know...
So are you done for the day
-or are you done forever or... -[Chris N] No. I was gonna let Gary go poke...
-No. I wanna dive. I love it down there. -[Vernon] All right.
I just... I'ma let him poke a few holes in
-and maybe I'll go back down. -[Vernon] That's fine.
I just... I gotta get my head in the game.
Are you good?
-Well, I'll go down. I'll see what I can do. -Okay.
[Vernon] My plan was to have two divers
every day for the rest of the season.
But I'm having second thoughts about Chris.
The guy's emotional. A bag of nerves.
He did get us on gold right away.
Are you good?
[Vernon] So I'll let Gary go down on this pay streak for now.
And if Chris can calm down,
I'll give him another shot today.
Hell, he was only down there for a few minutes.
[Gary on radio] All right. [exhales] Whoo!
Yo, Gary, just keep moving. You know what to do.
[Gary speaking on radio]
[Vernon] All right, you're seeing gold. Okay.
You're my favorite nozzle man.
[Gary laughing on radio]
[narrator] While Team Adkison changes their tune...
[man] All right, Chris...
I got this radiator done, bud.
[Chris] Pump, pump, pump. Pump it up.
Here we go.
[motor starts]
-[motor whirring] -Nice!
It's working.
Yeah! That's what I'm talking about.
All we gotta do now is get wet.
We've got the upgraded hose.
We've got the upgraded pump engine.
Now we've got the upgraded radiator.
We've got the best team on the ice.
Time to get the highest gold count all season.
Yeah!
Ship it!
[oxygen tank hissing]
-[man speaking on radio] -[Chris speaking on radio]
[man on radio] All right. Here we go!
[motor whirring]
[man on radio] All right, bud, you got it. Full throttle.
[Chris speaking on radio]
[man on radio] Attaboy.
[Chris speaking on radio]
[Chris on radio] Whoop! Whoop!
Everything looks to be running really good.
You've got really good suction.
The engine's running really good.
The temperature's low.
I mean, just hear that.
That's the sound of money right there.
[Chris speaking on radio]
[Kris] Okay. Ready?
Okay, start the engine.
[motor starts]
[Kris speaking]
I'm done. That's it. It only takes me a second and bam!
You hear that, ladies? It only takes him a second.
[narrator] The optimism may seem premature...
[Kris] Okay, we're ready to start the day
and make a lot of gold.
[narrator] ...but after a disastrous first half,
Kris Kelly is aiming to finally get his instruments humming.
Okay, you know what to do.
I don't have to tell you your job.
-Nope. -Okay.
-I'm good. I know where I'm going. -Yeah.
You know where you're going? Go and get me gold.
-That's where you're going. -I will.
Okay. I know you will. Okay.
Get changed.
The first half of the season sucked.
It took us forever to get on good gold,
but when we finally did,
we have equipment problems that screwed us.
We're leaking gold out of the front of the box.
We had a sluice box that leaked like a faucet.
[Kris speaking on radio]
[Kris] And we had a janky air compressor that kept shutting us down.
I could feel that air compressor running out.
Okay, the air problem is fixed.
So we did some MacGyver fixes on both of those,
so now we should be firing on all cylinders.
Now we need to start making up for lost time.
We need to see double digits on the scale.
Good luck, buddy. Get that gold, baby!
[oxygen tank hissing]
[Andy exhales]
[Andy on radio] Let's see. Where's my nozzle?
OK, that's beautiful. Are you seeing a lot of gold over there?
[Andy speaking on radio]
[Kris speaking on radio]
Okay, put a number on it. You're making me happy.
I'm not putting a number on it, dick.
[Kris on radio] Okay, well, keep up the good work.
I'll talk in, like, 20 or 30 minutes.
[Andy speaking on radio]
-We've got lots of ground to run-- -[Andy speaking on radio]
[Andy groans]
[Kris on radio] Hey, are you okay?
[Andy speaking on radio]
[Kris on radio] Check, check, check.
Can you hear me?
[Andy breathing heavily]
[Andy speaking on radio]
[Andy breathing heavily]
[Kris on radio] Say again?
[camera diver speaking on radio]
Check is the air compressor going?
[motor whirring]
[Kris speaking on radio]
[Andy speaking on radio]
[Andy breathing heavily]
-[man speaking] -What happened?
What happened?
[Andy] I can't breathe.
[Kris] Are you okay?
[Andy speaking]
[Kris] Okay.
I heard you.
Okay. Come and sit over here.
[Kris speaking]
Andy got a freeze in his regulator.
It's the valve inside the mask that creates the airflow.
Sometimes moisture from your breath
causes the valve to freeze up.
When that happens, you have no air,
and it can be terrifying.
To fix it, you have to pour hot water on it to thaw it out
and hope it doesn't happen again.
[Andy speaking on radio]
[Kris] Don't worry. Don't worry about anything.
If you wanna come up 20 times, everything's fine.
Any problem, let me know.
[Andy on radio] Okay.
[oxygen tank hissing]
-How's your air feeling? -[Andy speaking on radio]
-Everything good? -[Andy speaking on radio]
Okay, so are you ready to put a dollar figure on it?
-[Andy on radio] Nope. -Put a number on it!
[Andy speaking on radio]
[mumbling indistinctly]
You know what? He's lucky he's my brother.
I would have fired that [bleep] a long time ago.
[narrator] Four miles east...
[Vernon] Yeah. Hey, Gary.
[Vernon on radio] You got your time in. That's four hours.
[Gary on radio] Copy that.
[narrator] ...after Chris's brief dive got them on gold...
[Vernon] It's going good in the direction you're stretched out in, right?
[Gary on radio] Oh, yeah.
[narrator] ...Gary's been working the pay streak all day long.
[Vernon] All right. Well, come on up.
[Gary on radio] Copy that.
[narrator] And now it's time for what will undoubtedly be
Chris's triumphant return to the diving stage.
[Chris N speaking]
-[Vernon] What happened? -I put some of this in my right ear.
I don't know what the [bleep]...
Holy [bleep].
[Vernon speaking]
[Chris N] Yeah. I was fine down there.
This one doesn't hurt. But I put some of this in my ear
and it felt like someone just stuck a spike in my ear.
[Vernon speaking]
[Chris N groans]
Yeah, I cleared multiple times down there.
My ears were having a little bit of a problem
when I came up kind of fast.
[Vernon] Chris is complaining about pain in its ear.
Believe me, I know what this is.
On his dive this morning, he panicked.
[Chris N speaking on radio]
[Chris N groans]
[Vernon] He rushed to the top too fast.
Oh, man, it hurts so bad.
[Vernon] That can cause pressure in your inner ear
and stretch your eardrum to the breaking point.
I've seen it enough times to know his eardrum is shot.
It can take weeks for that thing to heal.
And that, my friends, is the end
of the shortest diving careers
in Bering Sea history.
He blew out an eardrum.
Uh...
It's... [chuckles] It's unfortunate.
We're only at about 20 foot of depth there,
but you've got to come up at a controlled rate.
I don't want him in any pain and discomfort,
but bottom line, I need two divers
to make this operation, the wheels go round.
I cannot die for weeks.
It's just how it says. You cannot dive.
And I'm letting these guys down.
I'm letting myself down.
Like, this is what I wanted to do, you know? I love it.
-I'm sorry about that. -No, no.
[Chris N] All right. All right.
So, we'll have to work around it.
It's just part of the drill up here.
All of what we're doing is hard on equipment,
it's hard on people.
And I'll have to get another diver up here.
[Shawn] How's it going, bud?
[Joe speaking on radio]
[Shawn speaking on radio]
[Joe speaking on radio]
[narrator] After three hours covering expanded ground,
Shawn's starting the second half of the season
on a sour note.
[Joe speaking on radio]
[Shawn on radio] Well, that sucks.
Joe, just come on up.
Let's get the hell out of here.
Frustrating.
We moved to deeper water,
we've got a longer hose,
and we've searched the whole area we can reach.
We did everything we could and we still came up empty.
[Joe speaking on radio]
[Shawn] This isn't good.
The royalty free days are ending,
and we're still not on gold.
This hole's a dud.
It may be time to move on from 56
and find something else.
Tired of it.
[Joe speaking]
It's not going well at all.
[narrator] Three miles west...
[Kris] Everything's going great right now.
Andy's underneath the water doing his dive.
He's on gold. I don't know how much yet because he won't [bleep] tell me.
But other than that, everything's on gold.
[narrator] Reaper Nation has avoided any more freeze ups
and the band's played on.
[Kris speaking on radio]
How are you feeling?
[Andy speaking on radio]
[Kris speaking on radio]
Feeling icicles, ice chunks hitting him when he's breathing in,
which means the air system is freezing up a little bit.
It might break free. It might close up.
[Kris on radio] Okay, well, don't kill yourself.
Come up any time you're ready.
We're gonna have to do something about the system.
[Andy speaking on radio]
-[Andy on radio] I'm on my way. -Okay. Come on.
Okay. Andy's done his dive.
He did a great day. He found a lot of gold.
It looks like we found a home for a couple days.
Yeah, it's really good down there.
There's gold all in between the boulders, underneath the boulders.
I'm happy with the ground.
[Kris speaking]
[Kris] The regulator kind of screwed us,
but overall, a nice long dive,
and a good way to start the back half of the season.
I just need a big number on that scale.
[Kris speaking]
Good job!
[narrator] As Reaper Nation calls it a day...
[Chris] Such good ground, man.
[exclaims] Look at that. Wow.
Whoo-hoo! [exclaims]
[narrator] ...things are getting hot for Team McCully under the ice...
[Chris speaking on radio]
[man speaking on radio]
[narrator] ...and above the ice too.
[man] One-sixty-five.
[Chris speaking on radio]
[man speaking on radio]
One-seventy-five.
Obviously, we're still just getting too hot.
[man speaking on radio]
[Chris speaking on radio]
[Chris on radio] But the day is not over yet.
There's still a bunch of ground left.
I mean, these lines are just [bleep] hot.
Everything's hot.
[Chris on radio] There's so much gold.
[steam hissing]
[water gushing]
-[water gushing] -[motor roaring]
[man exclaims]
[Chris on radio] Oh, what the [bleep] ?
I've got no suction.
[steam hissing]
[man] Holy [bleep].
Hey, you need to come up.
[Chris speaking on radio]
[man speaking on radio]
[Chris groans]
[bleep] always happens every time I get on the [bleep] good ground.
All right. I'm coming up.
[motor whirring]
[bleep]
[water splashes]
What the [bleep], man? [bleep]
First, the radiator overheated.
Now the high pressure pump hose
blew off the pump engine.
I don't know if the pressure's too much or it just got loose.
[Chris groans]
So now we're not gonna have the biggest day of the season.
Dude, I don't even know anymore, dude. [bleep]
What is this? What is this I'm experiencing?
I couldn't even put a word into it.
I think this is the cue for me to call it a day.
[narrator] Meet Vernon Adkison...
[smooth hip hop music playing]
...Bering Sea baller.
-[Vernon] Harry. -[Harry] How's it going?
Well, I got something here for you.
Oh. [chuckles] Harry. My new best friend.
[chuckling]
I like the look of it too.
-Nice coarse, chunky stuff. -[Vernon] Yeah.
That's the chunkiest, coarsest gold
I've seen around here in a long time.
Five ounces there.
[coins tinkling]
-You're a gentleman and a scholar, Harry. -[chuckles]
I'm kinda on your team.
I want you to make more because I like those royalties.
This has been a tough one.
[Gary] I mean, at least we're making money.
-True. -Doesn't hurt, you know.
[narrator] Down to a single diver,
Vernon Adkison is looking for good news on the scale.
You know, it's talking to me here.
[kisses] I love you too.
My plan to have two divers for the second half
just got thrown in the garbage.
At least Gary had a strong dive on gold,
so hopefully, we'll see a big number.
Okay, let's see what we've got here.
Come on, baby.
[both] One...
[Vernon] Two,
three, four,
five, six, seven,
eight, nine, ten...
No!
9.77. I'll take it.
[narrator] 9.77 ounces
banks the salty skipper nearly 23 grand,
and despite losing his rookie,
Vernon starts the back half on a good note.
[classical music playing]
[Vernon] 9.77 ounces.
-I'm not gonna kick that out a bit. -[Gary] No.
-[Vernon] All right, so we're in the money. -[Gary] Yep.
[narrator] Across town...
I'm looking at the gold and...
[sighs] it could look a little better.
[narrator] Looking for a big haul from their thrifty operation.
Kris and Reaper Nation are about to face the music.
There's nothing you could say at this point, so it is what it is.
I'm hoping for 10 oz,
but it's looking like we're gonna be light.
Maybe the quick fix on the sluice box
didn't quite cut it. We'll find out.
Okay, here it is.
Okay, there's one, two,
three...
Oh, where's those chunky pieces?
Here. Here we go.
And so, with the big, big chunky piece...
That didn't do [bleep], really.
3.701
[claps] with our chunky gold.
[narrator] 3.7 ounces banks almost 8,700 bucks,
and Reaper Nation is still not in harmony
to start the second half.
[joyful fanfare music playing]
[music fizzles out]
[Kris] I don't know how to make this sound good.
I'm a whiny bitch when I don't get gold.
But I'm trying to keep that all inside right now
because we don't need a lot of negativity.
What we need to do is just get out there and just work harder.
This is not how I wanted to start
the second half of the season.
Number one priority is inspect this sluice box
and see what we missed.
But I'm not gonna lie.
We're gonna have to pack it in if we can't turn things around.
To cheer everybody up, we could go for Chinese food, on me.
Bring up morale.
Some fried rice, pork balls.
[narrator] By the harbor...
Getting to this point isn't easy, I tell you that.
But since we know that there's big gold in that spot,
we've pushed everything we can do and...
Wow, look at that.
Job well done for us.
I didn't think that I would get this much gold, to be honest.
That's insane.
I'm surprised at the amount of gold that we're seeing.
I was on great gold for a long time today,
so maybe we're in for a nice surprise.
Let's try it out, huh?
There's five.
There's ten.
Nineteen.
Yes, we hit 20. 20.9.
20.9, baby!
[narrator] 20.9 ounces is worth over $48,000.
And despite the hiccups,
Team McCully has bagged their biggest day of the season.
[dramatic music playing]
[Chris] Wow. This new team and the new equipment...
This is the real deal.
And we're just gonna get stronger as we go.
We're gonna be putting up numbers
that I wouldn't have even dreamed of this season.
Take the whole hole next time, huh?
[Chris speaking]
-[Wilson speaking] -[Chris speaking]
Yeah.
[Chris chuckling]
[Chris] Sweet, man.
[narrator] Chris McCully speeds away from the pack
and Vernon pulls ahead of Mr. Gold.
Next time on Bering Sea Gold...
Today is TJ's make it or break it day.
Words of encouragement.
Don't die.
This is Boden Jupiter Tenhoff. He's gonna be hanging out.
About 6.56.
[Vernon] I don't know where the hell Shawn's going.
Maybe he's done for the season.
Let's roll the dice.
[Zeke speaking on radio]
[Gary speaking on radio]
Take in the slack!
[man speaking on radio]
-[Andy speaking on radio] -[Kris on radio] Yeah, baby!
Ride that [bleep].
[Zeke] I think we can finish this ice season strong.
[baby screeching]
[Vernon] That's a nice one right there.
Awesome.