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, [bleep].
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 ass.
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, [bleep] yeah, right where I left it.
This whole area, it just seems [bleep].
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 [bleep] 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 [bleep] 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 [bleep] 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
14-inch nozzle, it can be a bitch.
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 kill 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 [bleep] scared of you, little [bleep].
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,
21 feet long, 3 feet wide,
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 [bleep] 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 bitch look better.
It looked like it was out of World War II last week.
- This-- - It still does.
No, it doesn't. This thing looks like a bad [bleep].
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 [bleep] 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 [bleep] work.
Good morning [bleep].
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 [bleep] killing 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, [bleep].
I'm gonna have a great day today.
What the [bleep], man?
I think my generator just died.
This sucks.
This really sucks.
We're on hot gold,
everything's going good.
[bleep].
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 [bleep] 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 [bleep].
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 [bleep] 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 [bleep] 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, [bleep] damn it!
Come on.
These winds are getting to be a real pain in the ass.
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 ass right now.
One good thing about this crawler
is once it's up and running you can sit on your ass
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 ass 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-ass 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 ass 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-ass 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 killer, 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 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.
♪ Do you see what I see? ♪
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 [bleep], 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 [bleep] 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 [bleep] 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,
11.04.
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,
7.4.
7.4 ounces 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 [bleep] 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 bitch.
- Oh... - We are definitely on gold.
So I'm not leaving without my [bleep] 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.
[bleep].
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 [bleep] do this.
Elvis Presley in the house, ladies and gentlemen.
He finally showed up.
Yeah, no red carpet either.
- What the [bleep]? - 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 [bleep].
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 15 hours in the box.
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.
13.9 ounces 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.
84.4 ounces 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 50 ounces earlier,
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 90% of my [bleep] gold.
Now, rock this until I get my gold back.
- It's actually working. - Yeah.
Thank God this [bleep] night is almost over.
Ah, that was [bleep] 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.
1 ounce.
3 ounces.
10 ounces.
16.
26 ounces.
28.5 ounces.
28.5 ounces is not 75 ounces.
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 [bleep] 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 [bleep]!
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, [bleep]!
Taking on water!
It's starting to stress me the [bleep] out.
- Oh. - Medic.
Oh, thank God.
Ah!