Nothing makes
the Bering Sea
more unbearable
than the winds.
As they rile up the water
and cause havoc for miners.
At 15 miles an hour,
divers begin to feel the pull
from building swells.
I'm just getting
yanked around
every which way
and I don't understand why.
At 20 miles an hour,
suction dredges
will feel the pain...
...as equipment
is put at risk.
Hang on.
Oh, .
By 25 miles an hour...
Get out of the way,
get out of the way.
...even barges
aren't immune
to the wrath
of the wind-whipped waters.
We gotta get
out of here
before we'll drift
into the shore.
And beyond that? Well...
Josh!
My engines are swamping!
Anything can happen.
Abandon ship!
Now,
as the first major storm
of summer approaches...
Big storm's gonna kick in.
It's white-capping.
The miners
are in a race
against the mounting winds.
We only get so much time.
Let's get as much of it
as we possibly can.
Before Mother Nature
blows away their chance
for gold.
Stop! Whoa!
Stop! Stop!
Hey!
Today is gonna be
a great day, boys.
Every morning, you gotta
wake up with a great attitude.
Every morning,
what are you gonna look for?
Gold. That's what
we gotta do today.
We're gonna keep
that gold rolling in.
We're gonna my wallet,
aka sluice box.
It's not your ordinary
Louis Vuitton wallet.
It's a bigger kind of a wallet
I got right here.
It's more... It's custom,
custom-designed by miners,
I would say.
So I'm stoked, really am.
With winds
from the oncoming storm
expected to build
throughout the day,
first out of the gate
is current gold count leader,
Chris McCully.
So we got today,
the big storm's gonna kick in,
and then we're down, so...
we're gonna pound in
some more hours
until we get blown in,
so that's the mission.
We are on a hot streak.
Three hundred ounces
is my goal this season,
storm be damned.
We got a limited time window.
The first wave of the storm
is gonna be winds.
Eventually, the swells
are gonna get too gnarly
for us to operate on water.
But until then, we're gonna
push it hard as we can.
So, good morning.
So we're here,
we're gonna get suited up.
Um, we're gonna get
some more gold
because time is money,
and we only have
limited time out here,
so we gotta make use
of our time.
Let's go pound out
some more dirt, and, uh,
yeah, I'm gonna get suited up
and get ready.
You know, we could be
shut down by any time,
but I'm not backing down.
We're going for three dives
today, seriously.
To hell with Mother Nature.
She can kiss off
until we get our gold.
Wanna fire up
that generator, Cam?
I'm gonna go down there first,
and then Cam will hit it next.
And Bobby, the night guy,
will complete the third dive.
Yeah, dive suit on.
You gotta wear your special
uniform, you know, every day.
You got your socks,
your shoes.
You gotta shave.
You know, it's like
going to school, baby.
School of rocks is what it is,
school of rocks.
We're gonna keep mining
on Wall Street
because that pay streak
is really hot.
And we're gonna keep
cashing it in
until the closing bell.
All right, all right.
Let's go.
Kick some a*s.
I see some rocks there,
there's little rock here.
I'm seeing bunch of rocks
over here.
This is a very good sign
that there's gold in here.
Just the way how
it's formed, it's virgin.
Roger that.
Yup, Chris is down there,
we just--
Oh, he's on the gold,
I told you.
Yeah, yeah,
right where I left it.
This whole area,
it just seems .
Like, we could
spend another month here
or something, hopefully.
Yup, everything good, Chris?
I'm on the gold...
As Chris tries
to get a jump
on the weather...
across the water...
I'm headed back
onto the drift.
We got some nasty weather
coming in.
Whipping winds.
Mr. Gold
is hoping Mother Nature
will allow just enough
time for him
to overtake
the gold count lead.
Got everything
serviced, fueled up.
My plan for the day is to pile
up the gold in the sluice box,
and then burn and turn
buckets in the box,
buckets of gold.
I'm gunning
for 3,000 ounces this year.
That would be the most
of my career.
But so far this season,
we're way off the mark.
Hey, hey, hey.
We got a problem.
Cracked spud, it's bad.
The Myrtle was down
at the start of the season
because of a cracked spud.
Water pump is up.
And mechanical problems
kept us from hitting
our full stride.
so we got to limp it along.
Now, there's a storm coming,
so we gotta milk as many hours
as we can today
before those winds
send us packing.
Here we go.
That looks like
it's holding up good.
We dug here yesterday,
the night shift dug there,
now we're back over here.
Roll on out a little
bit further,
try to find some fresh ground.
Yeah, I'm trying to figure out
exactly where I wanna go.
There's a hot drill hole
just in front of us.
Oh...
Looks like hardpan.
Let's go ahead and, uh,
we'll take some pans here.
Let's see what the hell
is on here.
What we got down here?
When you're taking buckets
of material
from the seafloor,
it can look promising.
Black, rocky ground, untouched,
the kind of place
where gold hides,
but the only way to know
if you're on the good stuff
for sure
is by taking a test pan.
Come on, baby. Come on.
Shaking out the material
and seeing if we see any gold.
Oh, yeah,
this is some good stuff here.
The test pan is amazing.
This is feeling like
it might be
the best ground
I've hit this season.
If so,
it's exactly what I need
at exactly the right time.
We just gotta push till these
swells get overpowering.
Luckily,
The Myrtle is a big girl,
and we should be able to hang
for a long time.
Well, it's good ground, fresh.
You can tell
by the way it feels
when you're digging, rocky.
Oh, yeah.
Easy cheesy.
Oh, yummy, yummy.
Chew it up,
eat it up,
fill it up.
Time is money.
I wanna load this box up.
Ooh, yeah.
There's gold in the box.
On the deck?
Let's shut down
and clean them out,
ain't no sense in running.
The nozzles on the spray bars
are jammed up.
That means the material
is not being properly
processed in the wash plant.
The winds are gonna start
getting bad,
so we don't have time
to spare.
But now we have to shut down,
clean the nozzles.
I don't know how long
it's gonna take,
but this is bad timing.
The night shift guys
didn't clean the nozzles out.
That's these kids
being lazy,
it's pissing me off.
There ain't no room
for lazy around here,
that's doing nothing
but costing me time and money.
If material is coming out
dirty at the end
of the wash plant,
your wash plant ain't working.
That means you ain't washing
the gold out of the dirt
and it's going back
into the ocean.
You're just doing
all of this for nothing.
You can see, there's nozzles
with no water
coming out of them.
They're plugged up.
We need to pull the nozzles,
shove the material
out of them.
The bottom ones
are plugged, too?
We need some love
from the Bering Sea.
As the winds
begin to build...
In the harbor...
Mining is about
to brew at the Tenhoff camp.
Morning, Zeke.
I'm not a morning person,
but today,
we gotta hit it early.
With this storm coming in,
the winds are gonna be
picking up throughout the day,
and the swells are gonna get
rougher and rougher.
And that means limited hours
that we can mine.
Looks a little swelly,
but it's really hard
to read the forecast.
It looks super jacked,
actually, though.
Dude, for sure.
Yeah.
So if we can get, you know,
a full day in today...
I mean, tomorrow,
it's gonna be a big
- north wind, so...
- Yeah.
we'll have
to just play by it ear.
I'm up against the wall here.
I've got a hundred-thousand
dollar boat payment
that I gotta come up
with by September.
So, my goal is 55 ounces.
I started off strong
with 9.3 ounces,
but I still have to hit
that 55-ounce mark.
Otherwise,
I'll lose The Synergy
and my hundred-thousand
dollar down payment.
I can't just attach a note
that says,
"The waves have been
too gnarly,
I'm sorry, I can't pay."
This will probably work.
It looks like our anchors
are holding for now.
The visibility
is not very good.
I don't know where I am
on the top.
There's a...
There's a nice little
gravel layer right here.
When I get to the hardpan,
I definitely see color.
Yeah, for sure.
This is great stuff.
I mean, there's kinda like
gold all over here.
It's just a matter of,
like, is...
You know, is this a place
where we can make a hole
where we can keep
the hose pretty full?
I think our port anchor slid,
'cause the current is really
ripping from that way
and so that's causing us
a lot of trouble.
So he's trying to, like, make
the most out of his dive,
but the conditions are really
marginal underwater.
Yeah, I wanna take
the current into account
next time 'cause when I...
When I decided
where to put these anchors,
I didn't even think
about the current,
and that was a mistake.
Yeah.
The Synergy is a beast.
It takes three anchors
to hold it in place
over the spot that we choose
to go mining.
The problem is this wind
is having
a field day with these lines.
Throw in trying to control
that giant
it can be a b*tch.
And as these winds pick up,
it's only gonna get harder.
You know,
we're just trying to...
make the best out of, uh,
out of every dive we can.
Let's get as much of it
as we possibly can.
We're definitely
ripping some material.
Back in Nome.
I wanna get
my people inspired.
I want them to wanna
k*ll it.
To feel they are gonna make
a lot of gold
and everything
is gonna be great.
With winds growing,
Kris Kelly is looking
to inspire Reaper Nation
to greatness in a hurry,
including one team member
who's hitting close to home.
Andy needs to step up
and run the All In
with the gold trawl.
Andy needs to take care of it.
So my empire
is expanding rapidly.
We already got the Mistress
and this winter,
I added
the underwater crawler.
I made a deal
to run the All In,
this giant boat to launch
the crawler on the open water.
But it still needs
to be outfitted
properly to pull that off.
That's where
my brother comes in.
While I'm working
on the Mistress,
I need Andy to get
the All In running.
Okay. Let's do this.
Andy, I'm glad
you're back, buddy.
Are you ready to work?
Well, like always, you show
up when the work is done.
No, of course,
that's the Kelly way.
Yeah. Well, it's your way.
Not my way.
Andy Kelly serves
a host of roles
in Reaper Nation.
He is a part-time diver...
Oh, look at the gold.
I'm coming.
A real nautical handyman...
Time to play.
And from time to time,
the muscle of the operation.
- I'm scared of you.
- Yeah, you better be.
Yeah, I'm scared
of you, little .
I'm gonna--
- Oi.
- Go!
you.
- Yeah.
- Get in the truck.
Let's get going.
I got a hundred things to do
and we're already late.
Honestly, I'm not doing
too hot so far this season.
The All In was supposed
to be ready a week ago,
so I need Andy to step it up,
like immediately.
We're falling behind fast.
My goal right now
is a thousand ounces,
but we have nothing
like that so far.
It's time
to get Andy inspired.
You know what, I need you
to see my vision right now.
Nice...
huge box,
'cause you know what,
this boat is set up
to run 80 feet deep.
The sluice slot is made
for a 10-inch,
slick plate, three stage box.
Okay. Come on.
Let's go in here
and I'm gonna show you
where you're gonna be spending
all your time
and where the magic happens,
my arcade center,
because basically,
this thing is like a big
video game.
So, this is where all the
magic is gonna be happening.
In here, we're gonna have
a little fridge,
we're gonna have a microwave,
we're gonna have a...
Maybe a hot plate.
You... There's bunks.
We're gonna change out
some of those bunks
'cause that's disgusting.
We're gonna paint
that other room.
But this is what I want you
to see, right here.
So this is gonna be nice,
and it's gonna be warm,
and it's gonna be dry,
and you're gonna be
very happy.
You're gonna stand here
and you're just gonna play
this thing.
I'm gonna have two screens,
one here, one here,
and maybe one more
screen here.
So I'm planning
on having this thing
completely automated where
all some has to do
is just do this.
And that's it!
I don't mean to get excited,
but I'm excited.
You know, like this
is the greatest thing
I've ever put together
and it's just the start.
Let me show you my engine that
we're gonna use in as a pump.
- Okay.
- 'Cause you need something
Superman style.
Okay. Lead on.
Get ready for the biggest
pump engine
you've ever seen in your life.
- That's the pump engine?
- Yeah.
It's a 7 BTU Cummins diesel.
This
will break your arm.
It was a slow boil,
but Andy is getting
into the vision of the All In.
I can feel it.
You know, so I'm just telling
you that you better not
me over because
this thing is my future.
This is our future
for the next 20 years.
Now, it's time
to make the dream a reality.
This is the new standard
of Reaper Mining.
You know,
I'm excited about this.
- So am I.
- I'm excited.
I'm excited you're gonna be
on the Mistress.
Well, you know what, you.
I don't wanna work.
I wanna work on this boat.
I need you to be
over here painting,
taking care of
whatever you can
and there's really not a lot.
You came when all the work
is done, you know?
So it's just, uh,
making it look better,
getting it dialed in.
There's no making
this b*tch look better.
It looked like it was
out of World w*r II last week.
- This--
- It still does.
No, it doesn't. This thing
looks like a bad .
You're gonna be so happy
when you're running
this thing.
It's a miner's dream
come true.
The fleet is in a rush,
trying to get in hours
before the mounting winds
make the sea unminable.
We got some nasty
weather coming in.
Time is money and we only
have limited time out here.
And on the Tomcod...
Hey, Jeff.
Why do you think
the vision is so bad today?
Lead diver,
Jeff Orzechowski
is approaching his third hour
and the Tenhoff crew
is already battling
the building currents.
Well, he's been working
on a hole, opening it up.
It's not the easiest
right now,
but if it was bad...
Really bad,
he'd be complaining more.
And I think
that there's a lot...
There does seem to be good
gold through all this stuff,
so if we can work it,
we probably could.
Let me know
when to come up.
You're just about done.
Jeff's an A-list diver.
He put in a lot of hours
despite getting knocked
around really good,
then it'll be my turn,
but these swells
are just gonna keep
growing and growing,
and it's gonna
get even rougher down there,
especially with that huge nozzle.
But I need to make sure
we keep putting ounces
in the box for this
whole thing to continue.
It's all about
my next boat payment.
Hey, I think...
I think I'm gonna call you up.
Yeah, meet you at the top.
You see some color down there?
Oh, yeah.
Oh, buddy.
Oh, man.
Dude, that's the good stuff
right there.
Its just, like,
piling up.
- High five.
- It sucks 'cause it's...
Literally, it's just...
...five feet in time.
It's good, right.
Yeah.
It's real rough down there
because of this wind
and swell.
But Jeff, he did his job.
He got us on some seriously
good gold.
Now, it's my turn
to keep it going
even though the swells
are getting bigger and bigger.
Test, test, test, test.
How's, uh, how's that ground
looking down there?
It's pretty good stuff.
There's a really
nice consistent, uh,
Yeah, that stuff will.
Yeah, this is
how it should be going.
As Zeke presses on,
so do the oncoming winds.
And on the McCully Claim...
How is it going
down there, Chris?
...despite increasing swells,
the captain still
has his sights
on a three-dive day.
Right now we're on the gold,
so everything's good.
He's happy.
Yup, our generator
is down, man.
Hot water is the lifeblood
for the Bering Sea diver.
The sea water
is about 40 degrees
and if the hot water runs out,
you're gonna get
hypothermia fast.
Huh? Oh, Cam?
Cam, he has to watch my hot
water while I am down there.
If he's not on top of it,
I can be in danger in a hurry.
Okay.
Do I need to reposition it
so the exhaust
ain't going towards it?
The wind
is getting so strong
that the exhaust is blowing
back into the generator.
And that triggers
the CO2 alert
and it shuts it down.
So, there goes my hot water.
The winds are making it
tough for me down there
and also top side.
You okay?
Roger that.
Across the water...
Here we are
on our way to work.
Best part about going
to work on the ocean
is that there's no traffic.
You know, you gotta love it.
Okay. We made it.
Let's go to work.
Good morning .
The Mistress
is standing tall
in the mighty swells.
So, we... There is
a line of gold, okay?
So from that ditch
right there,
that way,
there's really good gold.
Okay?
And her captain
is prepared to go
as long
as the beast will allow.
We are getting gold.
I know that.
Hey, are you ready to go?
We knew today
was gonna be a tough one.
So the Mistress
got out there early.
Now we got Andy up
to speed on the All In
and Joe was
absolutely crushing it.
Reaper Nation is firing
on all cylinders, baby.
Yeah, baby.
We're k*lling it.
That's why I am the boss.
We're in the money.
Sometimes you just
have to plan right
and I feel we did that.
Honestly,
I couldn't be happier
with the way
things are going today.
It's borderline perfect.
Right here, .
I'm gonna have
a great day today.
What the , man?
I think
my generator just died.
This sucks.
This really sucks.
We're on hot gold,
everything's going good.
.
I think
my generator just died.
So just give me a minute.
I don't know what's going on.
Oil alarm.
Low oil.
What does it say?
Low oil pressure.
Oh, my God,
that's the worst thing
that can happen.
So the generator broke down
and it says
it has low oil pressure.
If you see that
on the engine of your truck,
you're in trouble.
What I should do with this
warning is shut it down.
We could destroy that hundred
thousand dollar generator
if I keep running it.
With these building winds,
we have limited time.
Let's face it,
we got to get gold now.
My real problem is
if I pick up
my generator,
I'm in a lot of trouble.
I'm not a mechanic.
I'm good at getting gold.
I'm good at making sure
we stay on gold.
The smart thing to do
is stop running the generator,
take it into port,
figure out what
the problem is and fix it.
But screw it,
I'm just gonna
start it up again
and we're gonna
keep pressing forward.
Yeah. We're ready.
Okay. Let's go.
Everything seems to be up
and running and doing okay.
I might as well do a test pan.
You know,
try to stay positive.
Really chunky, dude.
That's some
really chunky stuff.
Look at that.
Yeah.
We got a working
generator again
and only a couple hours left
before the winds
pushes off the water.
We're gonna push it.
I think the generator
just died again.
We're .
And we're on gold.
Well, that was
less than 15 minutes.
This is like
a giant red light flashing.
Don't keep restarting
the generator.
You're probably
doing long-term damage,
but screw it.
Please, Lord help me.
Please Lord.
I'd like to last
another seven hours
to be honest with you,
and make some gold.
'Cause you know, like,
right now the gold is so hot?
I think that if you still
get half an ounce an hour,
even though
we're stopping all the time.
Just for the record,
I should not be doing this
with a hundred
thousand dollar generator.
That being said,
I need to make some money.
Hey, we're back up
and running.
We're not gonna let
a little thing like sleep
for a generator slow us down.
At least we're getting gold.
...
We still got
a long ways to go.
While Kris looks to
keep the operation going...
back in Nome...
Here we are
sitting at the dock,
had some repairs.
I thought would only
take a couple of hours,
and damn,
it has been taking all day.
But here we are
sitting at the dock.
One miner
hasn't gotten going at all.
I can't rush him.
It, what... it's just counterproductive.
But he's about finished.
But it's just taking
a long, long time.
We had to do a minor repair
to the sluice box,
but it's taking forever.
Slide it towards you
about three inches.
The problem is this is
a wrong day for losing time.
With these winds
building fast,
we'd be lucky to get
three or four hours in
at this point
and we're hurting.
We're in it
for 250 ounces this season
and we've barely made a dent,
but we got to get moving.
All right. Good enough.
Ready to go.
Let go of the stern line.
Yup, bring them in.
Say when.
Yup. Push us off.
Everything's fixed,
ready to go.
Getting out of port
it just damn,
it's like being
stuck in the mud.
We get done
right when the wind picks up.
We're on our way.
We'll get back out there
and we'll try
to make up a lost time,
but you can't make up
a lost time around here.
You only get so much time.
Some pretty
good waves right here.
So I put that
sluice box in the water
with these waves coming
and hitting
the starboard side.
It takes the sluice box away.
It's too sloppy to put a diver
in the water right now anyway.
The hose would be jerking him
all over the place.
So the only thing
we can feasibly do right now
is just wait it out.
Just as I thought,
we got out to 56,
the winds pick up,
and it's not safe to dive.
But damn it,
I didn't spend all morning
fixing the dredge
and coming out here
to just turn tail and run.
So we're gonna anchor here
and hope the hell
we get a short break
from the wind.
I don't care if it's
two hours or two minutes.
If we get some calm weather,
we're gonna get a diver in
and make the most of it.
We ought
to just stay out here.
Everybody set up your bunks,
gonna have to calibrate
when the weather permits.
So unless I get outvoted,
I'd say let's stay.
I got sandwich material,
I guess.
I've got
some bread and baloney.
I don't have any mustard.
- We got any mustard?
- I got mustard.
All right.
Just find yourself
a clear space
and set it up
and flake out.
Try to get rested up
as best you can.
For right now, we're just
bobbing on the water,
watching the waves go by.
While Vernon
waits it out on Claim 56...
Oh, it looks
way better.
Way better.
All the nozzles
are spraying now.
We'll get a nice wash.
We're making
some money right now.
Mother nature's knocking
on the back door
and Shawn Pomrenke
has his nozzles
cleaned up and The Myrtle
back in action.
This stuff
looks amazing.
Now, we just got to keep
dirt going in the plant.
Keep washing.
On days like today
when you got limited hours
and you don't know how long
you're gonna be at the dock,
you better
make every second count.
Carelessness really hurt us
and that's not what
I'm used to in my operation.
The good news
is we got the nozzles fixed,
we're back to mining,
back to making money.
We're hitting
on all cylinders right now.
Christine Rose
is over there, making gold.
Myrtle's right here
making gold.
Inland's running.
We're getting
this area cleared out,
running dirt, making money.
With a barge
and an excavator, and spuds,
when the weather gets bad,
you can't mess around.
The Bering Sea
is pretty unforgiving.
Right now, everything's
working good.
Still making gold.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
No. Shut everything off.
Stop! Stop!
Hey!
Stop!
Gravel pump,
shut it, damn it!
Come on.
These winds are getting
to be a real pain in the a*s.
One of the lines
snapped in the swells
and broke the tugboat loose.
And that creates
a host of problems.
First of all, it's slamming
upside The Myrtle.
That could damage
the tugboat and the barge too.
And even worse,
if we don't
get this tugboat tied up,
it could float off
into the sea.
Damn it.
Our safety boat
was almost not that safe.
It's like bouncing
around on here.
One thing after damn another.
When you got wind
that's getting worse
by the minute,
you can't afford to have
stuff like this happen.
We have to get back
to mining ASAP.
All right.
Well, we got the tugboat
secured back to the barge,
got the roll cage
straightened back out
for the most part.
Maybe we can make
some gold again.
Back to mining.
Let's see.
Spray nozzles plugged,
tugboat coming loose.
And now, I have to poop.
I might have
a mess on my hands.
While there's
movements on The Myrtle,
back in Nome harbor...
Okay.
I just got here
not too long ago.
I'm getting
a feel for everything.
See how everything operates.
From the safety of shore,
Andy Kelly is trying to get
the All-In moving too.
It's almost ready.
It's got a couple
little things to do.
Little odds and ends.
I love the sluice box though.
So Kris basically
put me in charge
to get this boat ready,
so we can launch
the sea crawler.
Honestly,
I'd rather be on this,
because the crawler
is gonna crush the Mistress
in getting gold.
Right now, we're doing
all the little maintenance
repairs that we got to do,
like, the flap.
I got to screw
that right to my jet flare.
I got to strap up
my engine on top
for my hydraulic system.
I got my hydraulics
hooked up to my crawler.
Get it in the water
and show my brother
I could beat
the Mistress on this thing.
It might look like
a piece of
but it doesn't
have to be pretty.
Just has to work.
The Mistress
can get a lot of gold,
but it's an excavation barge.
It can only go so deep
and a lot
of problems can happen.
It's the total
pain in the a*s right now.
One good thing
about this crawler
is once it's up and running
you can sit on your a*s
and make gold
and smoke and do nothing.
All day and night
I'll be putting the Mistress
and my brother to shame.
That's the railing system
so nobody falls off.
If you fall off,
you're an idiot.
I'm excited to not have
my brother on the boat
with me,
but it's gonna be really nice.
This thing's
gonna go really deep
to where my brother
can't get to.
And I love that,
because I'm gonna get gold
that he can't touch
and I'm gonna rub it
in his face.
Like, my brother says,
he's going for crumbs,
I'm going
for a whole loaf of bread,
so I'm really stoked
to run this thing.
Yeah, it's gonna go good.
Taking the nozzle off
our suction hose,
'cause we don't
need it no more,
'cause we're done with that.
Those days are over.
There's no more going
under the bottom of the ocean
until we gotta send Daniel's
a*s down to do something.
Yeah.
You gotta jerk it up
and down, dude.
Yep.
There you go. Come on.
Pull it.
A little bit more.
Come on, do it like a man.
Yeah.
I don't wanna do all these
tedious-a*s repairs
and everything else.
I don't care what the boat
looks like.
I don't care if the boat's
painted.
That's not gonna
make me any money.
We're just gonna do
the basic
get her on the water,
get out working
and then we can have
plenty of time to do
maintenance
and everything else.
I need the boat
to just work. That's it.
Plain and simple.
Not much longer
until this in the water
and we'll start
making my money,
that way
I can laugh at my brother
when he's over
in Tomcod, shallow.
I'll be nice and deep
getting the real good gold.
It's gonna be a good season.
Back out on the water...
For Vernon Adkison's team,
it's now or never.
We came out
with the intention
of, uh, diving,
then the wind kicked up
so we went on weather hold
for a couple of hours.
It finally died down.
So here we are.
We're finally getting started.
We're gonna hammer it
as much as we can
while this weather window
allows us to do it.
When we came out,
the winds were too strong
to start mining.
But now, there's a dip
and we're gonna
get a diver in.
But I'm not naive.
This won't last for long.
Could be two hours.
Could be two minutes.
We'll just get in
as much as we can
while Mother Nature lets us.
Okay.
Whoa!
Well, we got him down there.
I don't know if it's right
where we want him
but we'll find out
pretty soon.
Hey Scott, do you hear me?
How's the gold looking?
Yeah. Okay.
So Scott is saying that
he's seeing gold down there.
The only way
you can really tell
is by, uh,
rinsing out the test mat
and panning it.
We are going to check
the test mat.
Okay.
Hey Kevin,
let's check the test mat.
We're panning the test mat.
We'll let you know
what you're into.
Well, there's gold.
There's lots of gold here
but it's really fine
and hard to see.
It's fine gold.
but there seems to be
plenty of it.
I'll take the fine stuff
just as readily
as I'll take the coarse stuff.
I don't care.
Ah!
What's up Scott?
All right,
I don't know what to...
Let me go see
if I can do something.
Stand back.
Ah!
Our stern anchor let go.
The current must have changed.
The current must be changing
but he's still in some cobble.
The winds are already
picking up again,
but I finally got a diver down
and he's on gold.
We're gonna push it
for as long as we can,
but I don't know
how long that's gonna be.
Right now he's on gold.
Scott, Scott?
Okay.
After starting the day late,
Vernon Adkison is determined
to sneak in a second dive
in spite of
the building winds.
The winds shifted
and picked up speed.
It died down and now
it's starting back up.
The winds are
already picking up,
but this season's been such
a dumpster fire so far.
I gotta try to sneak
another dive in.
Once this storm hits,
we're likely
gonna be off the water
for a couple of days.
So basically
it's now or never,
which means it's time
for the Russian rookie.
All the right material underneath,
it kind of makes it
hard to get on the gold
and stay on it
when you can't see it.
Emil, what are you
seeing down there?
Emil, did you hear me?
So Emil is not only
just a rookie
for mining on the Bering Sea,
he's also not proficient
in English.
Translation?
He doesn't know what the hell
I'm talking about.
So anytime he dives
could be dicey.
So Emil,
I think he understands...
pretty good
what we're talking about
but he doesn't talk much.
It's hard
to communicate with him
because he doesn't
speak English,
which is good in a way
because you don't have to
listen to a lot of chatter.
But every now and then
you need to communicate.
I told him
anytime he gets on something
just point your finger
like that.
Give me a thumbs up.
The ground that
I'm seeing, like, right there.
That's really
a hard tack, untouched.
That's new ground.
When he starts going like that
and then he starts...
And then he
rams the nozzle on it,
I know he's on gold.
We could do
a test pan right now
and see what in the hell
he's into.
Oh yeah, a test pan
would probably be a good idea.
Well, let's do that.
we are doing test mat.
Give me a thumbs up
if you heard it.
- He got it.
- Okay, he got it.
With these winds building,
we need to find out
if Emil is on the gold.
We're running out of time.
If he is, we'll see how much
longer we can push him.
If he's not, it's time
to get the hell out here.
We're just doing
a real quick test pan.
We're gonna just see
if he's on it or not.
This is gold
but it's not the kind of gold
we want to see.
That should be lighting up
a lot more than that.
Yes.
Not good.
So I think
part of the problem,
we got a weak test mat,
might be that Emil is just not
reading the ground properly
due to lack of experience.
Some people never develop
the gold eye,
but a person
that's got the potential,
he still gotta have
the experience
and you don't get it overnight.
The ground Emil is on
is a dud.
He's a decent diver
but he's a ways away
from having that sixth sense
that tells him
when he's on the gold.
With the swells picking up
and us on crappy ground,
it's time for us to vamoose.
We're gonna go ahead
and pull him up.
Bag a*s back to town.
It's time to pull the plug.
Okay. Emil, come on up.
Come on up.
We're done, we're finished.
Everybody was dead-a*s tired,
frustrated.
Bottom line,
we got another day in.
We got some more gold
in the box.
You can't quit.
If you quit,
you don't get the gold.
While Vernon
heads for shore...
Do you copy?
I'm looking at
the forecast right now
and, uh, the forecast says
it's only gusting to 10.
Um, but clearly,
this is gusting more than 10.
Rising swells
are making life tough
for the Tenhoff crew.
Got it.
Okay, yeah,
there's a little bit
of gold in there.
It's getting rowdy out here.
It's getting rowdy
for sure.
These winds
are getting super intense.
But the good news is
we were able to sneak in
two really solid dives.
And it looks like
the ground was stellar.
Now we just gotta
get outta here in one piece.
We got a lot of gear to haul
back through these rough seas.
Is that all the way up?
Cool.
Let's get out of here.
Let's go home.
Yeah. So we're just kind of,
like, you know,
watching the wind here.
It's still pretty
windy and choppy out there.
It's white capping
and big swells.
With seas
getting higher by the minute,
the Tenhoff Team
preps for a clean out.
You just gotta rinse
these out into the basin.
These winds are gonna give way
to some really serious rain.
I think it's gonna be
a hot minute
before we get back out here.
So we need to check
and make sure
that ground we've been running
is as good as we think it is.
We really gotta stay on pace
for that 55 ounces.
Ooh, that's a nice...
This is a nice little nug.
It's probably a tenth
of an ounce,
probably couple
hundred dollars' worth.
Right?
I wanna say
pretty close to a quarter.
Yeah. 0.2?
You guys wanna just put this,
just in case, if we dig it,
we'll lose it.
I'll put it
in a little jar of nugs.
Before gold turns into money,
it's nice because then
it's harder to spend.
Damn, look at that.
That's what I'm talking about.
Look at this penetration
right here, dude.
There's a bunch of gold
in here, Jeff.
Damn, this is a good spot.
I like it.
I think we're really happy
with what we're seeing.
Do you wanna throw this
concrete in the bucket?
Sure.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, dude.
Damn, dude.
There's so much gold in here.
It's all spent...
but it's still fun to look at.
Back out on the water...
Yeah.
How is everything anyway?
Chris McCully
may have his sights
set on three dives,
but with increasing winds,
Mother Nature has other ideas.
Yeah, I'm here, Chris.
Yeah.
Wow, that's a long
five-hour dive.
So the goal was
to put three divers down.
And, yeah, I'm disappointed
it didn't happen.
I wanna be the best.
I don't wanna fail,
but the currents
are too strong right now.
Honestly, over five hours
on a day like this
is something to be proud of.
And the ground is k*ller, too.
At the end of the day,
I'll take it.
I'm gonna go check this box
real quick.
Oh, yeah.
It's starting to build up.
It's starting to build up.
It's paying, dawg.
Damn, it feels good
to be big gold,
you know what I mean?
It feels so good, man.
It feels damn good.
While the suction dredges
are all heading in...
Yeah.
Oh, it looks way better.
Way better.
Don't wanna send that one
through the plant.
Oh, that was big one.
The excavator dredges
are still pushing ahead,
and Mr. Gold
has hit a hot streak.
Now, we can just
keep the tugboat
tied to the barge,
keep the nozzles
clear from dirt.
We'll be in the money.
Crazy day.
So many things
were thrown in our face.
It could have easily
screwed up the whole day.
But we just fought them off,
we kept going.
Now, we're on the cheese,
the good stuff.
Even though the winds
are getting rowdy,
we're still out here
making money.
Been a pretty good day
of mining.
I ended up
doing a pretty big move
out to the north of us.
Yes, now we're back
into some really good pay.
There's a little bit of sand
over the top
of some really good gravel
and gold.
Oh, yeah.
This stuff looks amazing.
Weather's changing right now.
So let's go ahead
and we're gonna
shut this baby down.
These swells are hitting
a tipping point.
Even for a big little girl
like The Myrtle,
there's a limit.
It doesn't make any sense
to push for a couple
extra thousand bucks
and possibly destroy the hull
or the spuds,
so we're headed in.
But first,
I wanna check the box.
I have a feeling
that it's gonna look good.
We got a bunch of gold
in the box.
Carpets are starting
to get hard.
The Myrtle eats up
a lot of material.
And, uh, today,
we fought through it.
Had a few problems,
but now you look in the box
and it was all worth it.
There's a
gold in there.
It looks pretty damn good.
For what we had to
deal with today,
the limited time
and all the problems,
I'm happy.
This was a good day.
That's why we keep pushing.
Dealing with all the ,
and it pays.
Um, oh, thank you.
And now,
another episode
of Social Hour with Vernon.
All right. Okay.
Let's see what we got here
on the chat sites.
At MamaRocksTheSlots...
Scott Meisterheim,
I would describe him
in one word.
bum of the lowest order.
- You wanna go, Vernon?
- Oh, you damn right I do.
Woah, woah, woah!
Jason Walker,
way the out there.
First thing you have to do
is get that foul language out
and the positive energy
just comes in, on its own.
- Mmm.
- Without need to do
anything else.
It'll just happen.
Steve Riedel.
Steve Riedel is unhinged.
You're not in charge
of this boat.
- Please,
stand your ground.
- You don't have the expertise.
Stand your ground with me.
Back off.
- You--
- Back off, Mr. Vernon.
You're over by the transom.
- Get off the boat.
- The water. Sir,
I'm off the boat.
- You're off the boat.
- Okay.
And Hurricane Dave,
he is a hurricane in a bottle.
Somebody on this boat
is going to die.
That somebody hasn't already
is only by the grace
of whatever God exists.
None of those was my favorite.
My favorite deckhand diver
of all time
would probably be Gary Panos.
Gary's a hundred percenter.
Got no problem with Gary.
We found a nugget.
We found a nugget. Yeah.
I go through a lot of divers.
So does
everybody else up here,
goes through a lot of divers.
They come and dive
and then they move on.
It's hard enough
just dealing with one
This has been
another episode
of Social Hour with Vernon.
Just outside of Nome...
I need to make a couple
payments on some things.
With debts looming,
Zeke Tenhoff is hoping
the mounting winds
were winds of fortune
blowing on the scales.
Money in, money out.
The end of this summer
might seem
like it's a million
miles from now,
but it always gets
on top of you
quicker than you think
it's gonna.
And that's when
I gotta come through
with this $100,000
boat payment.
So today was super critical
to make sure
I don't fall behind,
fingers crossed.
All right. Here we go.
Two ounces, three ounces,
four ounces,
five, six,
ten,
Eleven ounces
is worth over $20,000.
A hefty sum,
and more than enough
to keep Zeke on schedule
to make his payments
and keep the Synergy going.
I'm stoked
about this cleanup.
I'll take that.
Honestly, 11 ounces,
that's pretty sweet.
Jeff and I started this season
pretty strong
and even with these
high winds picking up,
we really got the job done.
We kept the gold coming in
and I'm stoked about it.
I have to pay some bills,
so in order to do that,
I need to take the gold,
turn it into cash,
it's a bit of a process.
Back in the harbor...
How's it looking?
You guys done?
The boys have been down there,
panning and cubing.
And right now, we're ready
to dry it and weight it.
Vernon Adkison's
hoping that the swells
didn't stop him
from making a windfall.
I'm hoping we're catching
that fine gold.
It wasn't the total hours
that we were hoping for,
but at least
we got in some action
before the wind shut us down.
Fingers crossed,
we got something
to write home about.
We're ready to dry this gold
and weigh it out.
And then the tale
will be told.
That's pretty hefty.
I'm liking it.
We got some gold here.
So there's two, three,
four, five,
six,
seven,
is worth nearly 14 grand.
And despite the rough seas,
the captain still made waves.
All right.
That works real good to me.
I'm more than happy
with this, honestly.
I figured we'd get
shut down completely
with the storm blowing in.
But we were able to put
something in the kitty.
Not gonna complain
about this one.
This is a good kick start
by our season.
I'm liking these numbers
just fine.
We're in the money.
Yeah.
We're in the money.
As the winds grow,
all the miners
have headed for shore...
except for one.
It's really tough,
we're on hot gold.
Everything's going good.
Generator's giving me
a little bit of a problem.
Despite the building swells,
and the generator
that's giving in fits,
Kris Kelly is still refusing
to throw in the towel.
Still got a long ways to go.
I don't want anybody
to say that Kris Kelly
went down without a fight.
This generator
keeps shutting down
and then we gotta
start it back up again.
I'm losing a lot of time
right now.
Each time, we lose momentum.
I have no idea
what horrible damage
I'm doing to the generator.
But at any minute,
these big winds
could push us off the ocean,
so I'm gonna
keep rolling the dice.
But we are getting gold.
I know that.
It turned off again.
That wasn't very long.
My choices are simple.
Go home and admit defeat
or keep running and make gold.
And I really need gold.
I hope I'm getting
a lot of gold.
This is a b*tch.
- Oh...
- We are definitely on gold.
So I'm not leaving
without my gold!
Need to get my crawler
in the water.
Hey, I'm just gonna
fire it right back up.
Come on,
get in that chair.
So that last run
was about 16 minutes.
So let's see how long this
piece of crap works this time.
Truth is, we're running more
than we're shut down,
so we're still good.
So that was about
a half an hour
that it stayed running.
I think it's getting better.
Hey, it lasted 30 minutes.
That was pretty good.
Whoa! Whoa!
I'll start this right back up.
I know.
But you know what they say,
ignorance is bliss.
.
So, we got a little
bit of a problem.
So the high pressure line
sprung a leak.
I'm not gonna do
anything about it.
I got a quick fix
you're gonna love.
You like that, huh?
It is... Hey, is that good?
If that didn't work.
No, we're not fixing
one thing.
We're almost done mining.
Bad weather's coming.
We're almost out of fuel.
I'll fix everything tomorrow.
It really is getting very, choppy.
The wind picked up
a little bit from the south,
which means big waves
are coming.
Yeah, I'm a little worried.
It's starting to get
a little rough.
We pushed it
as far as we could,
but my investor, Kevin,
is heading out in this weather
and I know
it's gonna be the end of it.
Just everybody
at the harbor
was just saying
it's time to come in.
The storm's gonna get here
a lot faster than normal.
We might've been able to still
dig for like two hours,
but then we're risking.
We don't know how big
it's gonna be and how rough.
I don't want to start breaking
spuds with the pressure.
No, that's... You know what--
But you know, which I think
it's a smart move.
We did good enough.
I'm exhausted.
I wish I could have ran
a little bit longer,
but I'm proud.
I'm proud I didn't give up.
Most captains would've bailed,
but not me.
Not this season.
We're going home.
I'm running on fumes.
Take a look at that.
It's on you.
And we're doing it.
Let's do this.
Elvis Presley in the house,
ladies and gentlemen.
He finally showed up.
Yeah, no red carpet either.
- What the ?
- Red carpet?
We just need to take you
to All-You-Can-Eat buffet
and you'll be fine.
Today we're at the Mistress
doing our cleanup.
There's a lot of gold
in the box.
Everybody's in a good mood.
We're just beat to .
I just hope we get today,
my target's 50 to 75 ounces.
The season's early.
So this right here
will kind of predict
the way that my... Rest of my
season is gonna work.
I'm really proud of the people
I have around me.
I'm proud that
everybody came together
and made this work.
Even my brother Elvis Presley
showed up to finally help out
this season.
So everybody's in a great mood
and it's all hands on deck.
Elvis Presley, huh?
You want me to call you
Elvis Presley, Jr.?
We need to get you a wig
and some sideburns.
Yeah, how about just sideburns
and you'll be the new Elvis?
All with big pork chop sideburns.
I think that should
be your new look.
- Yeah?
- We need to start
a poll out there.
If you think Andy
should grow, chop...
Big chopped sideburns,
press 2 now.
In Nome...
Payday.
We cleaned some gold.
We're gonna
get everybody paid.
Whoo.
God, those buckets
weighs like an elephant.
If they're not that heavy
that means there's not much
gold in it, you know?
So heavy is good.
Heavy is great.
Chris McCully
is hoping his trip out
in rough winds
kept him on top
in the gold count.
Yeah.
While they're doing that,
I'm gonna go ahead
and set up the, uh,
the gold cube count.
I wish I could've gotten
Three divers, hell yeah.
We didn't get it,
but we're still crushing it.
I seriously wonder
if anybody out there
is keeping pace with us.
The gold on Wall Street
is too good.
Perfect.
We are just hitting
bulls-eyes, baby.
- Oh, yeah.
- Wow!
Every scoop has gold in it.
Yup.
Looks like we got two trays
combined together.
Not bad.
Oh, oh.
Yeah.
So, here we go.
We're gonna pour it,
there's one, two, five, six...
- Whoa.
- ...eight, nine.
There's 10, 13.
Come on.
- 13.9 ounces.
- That's fine gold
in there.
Never get tired
of seeing that.
Absolutely.
Good job guys.
rings in at over $25,000
and Chris McCully
may still be the man to beat.
- Good work. Good job team.
- Mmm-hmm.
- We about to get paid.
- Put us back on that ground.
Without you guys,
it's not gonna happen, right?
So I really, really
am grateful to you guys.
That's a respectable number.
Wall Street keeps on paying
and all we gotta do
is keep on cooking.
My goal is 300 ounces
this year
and we're definitely on pace
to do it.
Can't wait to get back
out there.
All we gotta do now
is go out and get it.
Suck it up.
Yeah, let's get paid, eh?
Down the road...
The fruits
of our labor.
Let's see if we made it count.
After an
up and down day,
Shawn's hoping to vault
to the top of the gold count.
Well, it wasn't
a trouble-free day,
but the ground we were
on looked amazing.
If we banked
what I hope we did,
we'll be okay for the next
few days on the sideline.
And hopefully, we'll get
some space between us
and the rest of the fleet.
We'll see how it goes.
Ten, twenty,
and forty, fifty,
eighty-four.
It could be way better.
banks about $156,000.
A healthy haul,
but due to the heavy winds,
not all that Shawn
was hoping for.
We probably got more gold
than everybody else,
but we started this season
late on The Myrtle.
We're gunning for 3,000 ounces
and we need every haul
to be huge at this point.
And especially with this
storm shutting down mining
for a few days.
And this one was a little
light in my book.
It ain't horrible,
but it ain't what we need.
We need twice as much.
Next time...
Next round we'll get it.
Across town...
First couple of scoops,
we definitely got
a lot of gold,
but is there 75 ounces?
And I know I said
but now I'm aiming for 75.
But if you're gonna dream,
dream big.
Well, I don't want
to go home either.
The time has come
to find out
what Reaper Nation's
really made of.
It's looking
like a Rolex watch.
It's a good start
to a great day.
Well, here we are.
We finally put in
a bunch of hours
and we moved a ton
of material.
Today we're gonna learn
what the future
of Reaper Nation looks like.
Are we gonna be one
of the big boys,
or are we gonna be destined
to be a bottom-dweller?
I'm seeing a lot of gold
right now.
I'm pretty sure
where we're headed,
but we'll see.
That's kind of cute, huh?
I just need a thousand
more to go with it.
You could definitely
feel that the...
The wind's coming
from the south,
so the storm's coming in
and so we need to hurry
this process along.
It's been a long day.
Clean outs usually
take a long day,
so we're gonna try to make
things go a little faster.
We're gonna use
the green table.
We technically don't know
how to run it,
but I've seen it ran,
so I'm pretty sure
that we can do it.
Okay.
Come on, baby.
Show me what you got.
Uh-oh.
My master technicians
are having a little
difficulty, but we're...
I think we'll work it out,
because this is
not that complicated.
Whoa! Joe, why are you pulling
it so hard, bro?
We got the water right there.
Yeah, but it's not
working right, dawg.
It's supposed to be
shaking like that, dude.
Okay. Let's at least get
Now, rock this
until I get my gold back.
- It's actually working.
- Yeah.
Thank God this night
is almost over.
Ah, that was tough.
I wouldn't exactly
call this a success.
You know,
I'd call it a learning curve
just like everything else
in mining.
We are gonna figure it out.
Maybe not today,
but we are gonna
figure it out.
Let's weigh it.
Let's see what we got, boys.
Okay, here we go.
It's not even 50 ounces,
but it is worth about $53,000.
It was terrible.
I'm not disappointed.
Okay, well, I'm disappointed.
This isn't really
what I wanted.
I mean, it's not horrible,
but it's not making it either.
Yeah, there were some
mechanical issues,
but this is not
what an excavator operation
should be pulling in.
Do you think Shawn
has 28 ounce cleanups
from The Myrtle?
Hell no.
Okay. Well, it's not
the end of the world.
There's no point
in letting this bum me out.
- It is going to get better.
- Right.
It better
get better, man!
Let's go home.
Shawn Pomrenke
rises to the top
of the leaderboard
while Chris McCully
stays close
and Vernon Adkison
barely makes a ripple.
Next time
on Bering Sea Gold...
I'm gonna take Dave
out and check the box.
Yee-haw!
We're doing something wrong.
Where's the gold, Mr. Gold?
Here's the new excavator.
Yeah, baby.
Eight feet longer, dig that.
Reaper Nation
is going to the next level.
Reaper Nation !
No matter what, I'll fix it.
Kris!
I can't even find nobody.
Hand over fist hemorrhaging money.
That name has got to go.
Cheers to the El Dorado.
Oh, !
Taking on water!
It's starting to stress me
the out.
- Oh.
- Medic.
Oh, thank God.
Ah!
Welcome to our World! Where we serve you cookies to ensure you get the best viewing experience on our site.
Did you know that you can remove censorship board-wide, use our advanced search functions, be notified when new content is posted, join our memberships, set episodes to show in any order you want & more if you are logged into your account?
Register or sign in here: ucp.php?mode=register
Did you know that you can remove censorship board-wide, use our advanced search functions, be notified when new content is posted, join our memberships, set episodes to show in any order you want & more if you are logged into your account?
Register or sign in here: ucp.php?mode=register
17x03 - Gone with the Wind
Watch/Buy Amazon
The show follows boats equipped with various setups to achieve gold mining in a summertime, cold northern latitude, shallow water, ocean environment.
The show follows boats equipped with various setups to achieve gold mining in a summertime, cold northern latitude, shallow water, ocean environment.