[narrator] It's coming.
They're saying this is gonna be a hundred-year storm.
[woman speaking]
[narrator] In less than 48 hours,
the storm of the century
will strike the Nome mining grounds.
This is our last window
before we got a historic storm coming in.
[narrator] Now, the deadly sprint begins.
I got two things running through my veins, cold water and gold.
[narrator] One shot at a golden payday
before time runs out.
They're coming into the worst spot.
It snaps, they could go into the rocks.
[narrator] If they can make it back
in one piece.
[Vernon] Conditions are getting too rough.
It can be a man-killer.
Final stages!
Get away from that line.
[man] We're gonna smash into the Christine Rose.
Go! Go! Go down.
[man 1] Oh, man!
[man 2] Kris!
Oh, yeah.
There's a pretty serious storm
that's about to come in.
So the plan is I'll just pound out my dive
as much as I can.
I'll do five hours today.
[narrator] The fleet is in an all-out race
to keep their mining operations alive
and Chris McCully is first out of the gate.
[Chris] I like when it starts to get a little rocky,
but yeah, we're gonna get some more.
I'll just play it by ear.
And, you know, I kind of developed
a sixth sense already,
so once I hear things, sounds, and sights,
I just... I just bail out.
This is really intense.
Since I've been living in Nome,
I never heard storm warnings like this ever.
It's crazy.
So we know we got less than a day
before we get knocked off our mining grounds
for a long, long time.
From the sounds of it, maybe we won't be able
to mine again this summer.
So we gotta make today count, like big.
You wanna fire up the generator?
[engine revving]
All right.
The last time we were out,
we were able to tap in a new pastry.
It's a hot ground, so me and the night crew
are getting it,
but today, this gotta be the best gold
that we have seen all season.
Oh, yeah, that's perfect.
I'll try out here first
and if I don't like it, I'll just come right back up.
Reset.
So far, we've been having a really good season.
I'm gonna get changed.
And we're on pace to hit 300 ounce this summer.
It would really suck if the storm kept us
from reaching it.
I got two things running through my veins,
cold water and gold.
Good?
All right. Here we go.
-How's the visibility? -[Chris] Uh...
[Chris speaking]
Okay. Here we go.
[Chris speaking]
[Cam speaking]
Keeping an eye on the weather.
Everything is good right now.
Looking good down there?
[Chris speaking]
I think it's like one, two, three, four, five,
six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
11, 12, 13, 14.
Whoa!
Damn.
We're killing it.
[narrator] While team McCully zeroes in on the gold,
back in the harbor...
[Kris] Go out there, work properly,
stay safe and get that gold.
[narrator] The Mistress is setting sail
for Reaper Nation.
Okay. We just broke lines,
getting ready to pull the spuds.
We're going mining, baby.
[narrator] But without its fearless captain onboard.
[Kris speaking]
This is the last day I'm gonna be able to mine
before that storm hits.
We could be sidelined for a while...
and I'm nowhere near my goal.
We gotta make today count on all fronts.
I'm sending James out first to captain the Mistress
and grind as long as he can.
[James speaking]
Bye.
Have a great day at school.
While that's happening, I'm gonna get the crawler
actually making money.
Last time we got it on the water,
it didn't actually go that well.
And we lost the crawler?
[man speaking]
[Kris] The hook that was holding
my crawler came off.
[man speaking]
Andy, pull that [bleep] crawler up.
I'm never gonna let this happen again.
Today, this nonsense has to end.
It's gotta become a money-maker.
Are you ready?
[man] Let's go.
[engine revving]
I'll see you guys pull off,
then I'll jump in the skiff and follow you.
We wanna be at 45 feet deep.
If we're not gonna have divers,
then let's use that to our advantage.
We're on the Tomcod,
we can only dig about 18 feet with the Mistress
and Shawn can only dig about 26 feet with the Myrtle.
Suction dredgers almost never go
more than 40 feet deep.
That means if I can go deeper than 40 feet with my crawler,
I will hit something amazing that's untouched.
That's what the crawler will allow us to do.
See if Andy will go out there and do a fathom check.
-Fathom check? -Yeah, captain's check.
All right.
Looking for 40 to 50 feet deep.
Thirty, 35... 40.
And I'm on an angle,
-so it's pretty close. -Mm-hmm.
[Kris] Beautiful.
Let's do it.
Let's start off at 50 feet.
There's no chance
that anybody's mining at 50 feet.
And I know the crawler has been giving me problems,
but with this storm coming, there's no time.
Let's go for it.
We're on a good spot.
We're at the right depth.
Everything's going good.
We are operational.
[Andy speaking]
[engine revving]
[Andy] The anchor on bottom?
I feel click, click, click.
It feels like the anchor's dragging.
[Andy speaking]
Well, we've just set a GPS coordinate
so we can find out if we're slipping or not.
Now this is the location of the boat.
In just a few minutes, we've drifted that far,
about 60 feet.
[Brad] They're not holding.
[Andy speaking]
You can feel it each time it hits the rock and drives.
Okay, so I have a bit of an issue.
I can't get the anchor to catch
because we don't have enough line to it.
[Kris] So the crawler can go deep, real deep.
But here's some basic aquatic engineering.
If the anchor line isn't long enough to keep us in place,
this is all worthless.
So right now, the anchor line is just long enough
to reach the bottom of the ocean,
but it's not long enough to catch and hold us in place.
So the All-In right now
is just drifting all over the place.
These are 400-pound anchors, let's just chill out.
Everything's fine.
But we've gambled to take the time to get here
and get this set up.
So now we don't really have the time to move
to a completely different spot.
We have to figure out a way to make this work.
So everything's fine.
Don't let today get us clouded.
Everything's gonna be a good day.
Let's just work through it, be in a good mood
and make this happen.
[Brad] All we can do is bring it all the way in.
We'll do it again.
[Andy] Bring it all the way in.
[Andy] Man, I'm not making no money doing this [bleep].
we got a massive storm coming
and it's supposed to be massive.
I gotta make something today.
[intense music playing]
There's like a massive front out there to the west.
[Shawn] Oh, yeah.
[narrator] With the clock ticking,
Mr. Gold is pushing for one last big day
of some much-needed gold
before havoc strikes.
We got a little short weather window.
Both the dredges are really
kicking ass right now,
piling up some gold.
We're making money.
Well, this is gonna be the last gasp for a while.
Nome's gonna get its ass kicked.
Hopefully there'll be some mining left
at the end of the season,
but we'll see.
Where are you at?
There's... It's pretty good...
It's pretty good gold all day.
Meanwhile, the night crews have been going at it nonstop.
Cody and I will pick up where they left off.
We're gonna get the Myrtle
and the Christine Rose on the pay streaks
and grind until Mother Nature says there's no more.
And we need every second we can
because we're still behind the pace
to hit our 3,000 ounce goal.
Looks pretty good.
[Shawn speaking]
[Cody] Wow.
[whistles]
I'm pretty sure that this box has got way more
than the Myrtle.
That's a lot of gold.
It's like plastered in there.
[Shawn] Cody got into a pile of gold yesterday.
Both boats are kicking ass right now.
Good news, the night crew got on good gold.
Now we just gotta pound it out and load up these boxes.
[Cody] This was all really good yesterday
so this should be really good again today.
[Shawn] Fire it up.
[engine revving]
[Shawn speaking]
[Cody speaking]
Rock and roll.
Whoo.
[Shawn] Oh, this is gonna be fun.
Stuff looks amazing.
Yes!
Hold on tight.
We're gonna hunker down on our excavators
before we have to hunker down on our houses.
[Cody] Keep throwing dirt.
[Shawn] You always fear, though, knowing it,
and that's what's coming.
We're gonna fight it out.
[narrator] While Shawn gets the Pomrenke empire moving,
back in the harbor...
[Vernon] We're ready to go.
Got all the crew aboard.
According to the weather forecast,
we do have a window of opportunity.
We'll go out here and get some gold.
[dog barks]
[narrator] Vernon Adkison's hustling his team.
Here. Sit. Sit.
Right there. Sit.
Well, ain't this always the way.
The first half of the season was for the dogs.
[Vernon] So the only thing to do
is just go on back to the dock.
The boat's ready to go.
I got gold on my claim
but I've got no divers.
I had some repairs.
I thought it would only take
a couple of hours
and damn if it hasn't taken all day.
But now I've got a full, strong team.
I got Gary, my ace in the hole,
my gold gorilla.
Plus Brad, who's a very seasoned diver.
He's definitely got an eye for the gold
and we've got a bold new strategy
to go deeper than any other dredges have gone,
over 40 feet,
and it's paying off.
[Gary speaking]
[Vernon speaking]
I finally got all my ducks in a row,
but now we got the storm headed our way.
So we got to squeeze out what we can
while there's still time today
because we are way behind on our goal
for the season.
All right. We're ready to push off.
[Gary] We're getting gold today.
We're going out 40 feet.
Nobody here in Nome dives 40 feet,
so it's all virgin ground.
That's why there's so much gold down there.
[Vernon] Okay. Here we go.
[intense music playing]
Now, we're going to go up here
and drop a camera,
see what the bottom looks like
and then we'll put a diver down.
[man speaking]
-Drop it? -[Vernon] Drop it.
[Gary] We're just looking for some,
you know, decent-looking cobble...
-See the cobble? -[Vernon] Uh-huh.
[Gary] You... It's mixed in with sand a little bit,
-but I-- -I don't care about that.
-That's good, actually. -Yeah.
[Gary speaking]
[Vernon] Yeah. That's perfect.
All right, coming down with it.
Watch out.
Going down this deep, over 40 feet,
is risky as hell.
That's why divers won't usually attempt it.
If anything happens,
it's a long ways to the top,
and with lines going down that far,
it only adds to the trouble.
There's no margin for error.
[bleep] call it. Good.
[Gary speaking]
[Vernon] With this storm looming,
those swells are gonna start building anytime.
So we're playing with fire here.
Time is definitely not on our side.
All right.
Getting ready to send a diver down.
Time is getting short.
Chances are better in the deep water
than in the shallow water,
but it's dangerous.
[man] All right. Get her done.
[intense music playing]
[breathing heavily]
[Vernon] So just take your time.
Make sure you're safe.
No sense to get in a hurry.
[Brad speaking]
-[Vernon] More umbilical. -[Kevin] More umbilical!
[Brad exclaims]
[Brad speaking]
[Vernon speaking]
[Brad speaking]
[Vernon] Okay. All right.
Well, just do the best you can.
He's got zero visibility, but he's gonna keep going.
He likes the material.
That's an indicator that we're in an area
where there's good gold.
It's tough working down there.
Hey, just keep going until you can't go anymore.
[Brad speaking]
[narrator] In Nome,
it's a battle to get the final hours in
before the storm of the century
makes its descent.
Out on the water...
[Emily] This is like our last window
before we got a frickin' historic storm coming in...
[narrator] Emily is pushing to get the newest diver
on her expanding team into the water
while there's still time.
-[Dan] Whoa. -There's a micro buoy over there.
So we're on the spot.
Let's do it.
I realize that after this storm,
nothing in Nome will ever be the same,
but I'm still determined to get a solid dive team going
for the rest of the season.
Let's go ahead and drop it.
I've already got Dan and David,
and now I'm adding Mark Gordon.
Mark is a jack of all trades.
I mean, he can do frickin' anything.
He's a boat mechanic.
He's a fishing boat captain.
He's a pilot and he's got a lot of dive experience.
He's super competent in everything he does.
Mark's a pro, he can do anything
and he's up for anything.
And so gold mining
is just gonna be the next thing
that he tries his hand at.
But he's never mined for gold in the Bering Sea.
[Mark] I feel pretty good.
Ready to get her done, man.
[Emily] The problem is we're already pretty far
behind our season goal right now.
That storm's gonna steal viable days,
maybe even weeks from our schedule.
Mark's got to be brought up to speed immediately.
Like, there's no time to kind of figure this out.
He needs to be a proficient gold miner ASAP.
Yeah. We'll see how it goes today.
[Mark speaking]
He's doing good so far.
[Mark speaking]
He's at the end of the hose. Perfect.
[Mark speaking]
[Dan speaking]
So he's gonna start dredging right where he's at
and see what happens.
I bet you he sees gold.
[breathing heavily]
[Mark speaking]
Oh, he's working.
Not quite, he's dredging.
[Mark speaking]
[dramatic music playing]
[Mark speaking]
[Emily speaking]
Oh, hell yeah.
[Mark speaking]
[Emily speaking]
[Mark speaking]
Mark's diving. He's on gold, which is awesome.
Now, we just have to make every second
of that dive count
because Mother Nature is coming.
I know, dude.
He just jumped right in the saddle and went for it.
[Mark] Ooh!
There's definitely gold here.
[Chris speaking]
How's it looking down there?
[Chris speaking]
[narrator] What started as promising ground...
[Chris speaking]
[narrator] ...has grown cold
at a bad time for Chris McCully.
[Chris speaking]
[Cam speaking]
[Chris speaking]
[Cam] Okay.
So after about an hour and a half,
uh, he's on his way back up
and we're gonna re-anchor and...
go from there.
[Chris] This is really bad timing.
There's no way around it.
[Cam] Good.
[Chris] The storm of the century
is lurking around the horizon,
so we're gonna be down for who knows how long.
And now, I have to look for gold.
This is the last thing I wanna be doing right now,
but I've really got no choice.
There's, like, worked area over there
and then there's quite a big boulder patch over there...
[growls, laughs]
[Cam] All right.
Round number two.
Chris just got in the water.
I'll throttle him up here pretty soon.
-[Chris speaking] -There it is.
I'll throttle him up now
and see what we got down below.
[engine revving]
[Chris speaking]
I'm thinking about a good 15 minutes,
he'll have an idea if there's gonna be enough ground
around here to work or, you know,
he should be seeing gold by then.
[Chris speaking]
[Cam speaking]
Keeping an eye on the weather.
[tense music playing]
[Chris speaking]
[tense music playing]
Area looks good.
Oh, this stuff looks amazing, actually.
[narrator] As the storm creeps ever closer,
the Pomrenke team isn't giving an inch.
There's a big base streak right here.
[Cody] Yeah. That's real good-looking right there.
That nice gravelly clay.
It crumbles up on its own
and we're trying to stick
in this channel where the good gold is
and I'm just trying to stay in it.
Like the stuff we're digging right now,
nobody's ever touched it.
It's good when you're on good gold.
Just keep hammering it, keep going, keep going.
Just dig nice and easy and keep the wash plant going
and be nice to the old excavator.
These swells are starting to get a lot bigger.
That storm's not too far out at this point.
As much as I wanna keep on grinding,
the priority now is to keep the empire intact,
and I got to make sure every vessel in my fleet
is secure before this storm hits the shore.
[Shawn speaking]
[Cody] It's going pretty good.
How's it going with you?
[Shawn speaking]
[Cody speaking]
[Shawn] Right now, I'd rather be digging,
but I have to run the business.
I'm not gonna take any chances with something
they're calling "the storm of the century."
I put my nose to the grindstone
for way too many years
to get careless and greedy
and put my fleet at risk.
I need to come out of this thing
on the other end as strong as I can be.
This is how we make a living.
We got to protect what we...
what we worked so hard to get.
[narrator] Ten miles east.
[pensive music playing]
[Emily] Hey, Mark, how's your first dive in the Bering Sea?
[Mark speaking]
[Emily speaking]
I can see that...
[Mark speaking]
[Emily speaking]
[Mark] Sounds good. Here I come.
There's definitely a problem with our air supply
and it's not safe for him to be diving
at like 50, 40 PSI,
so we've got to kind of halt the dive
until we can figure out what's going on.
All right. Kind of a--
So this right here kind of slid up.
Oh, sliding up on you, huh?
Sliding up on the chin.
[Dan speaking]
[Dan] That means...
See this?
This is all jammed back in there, so maybe--
[Mark] That might be the problem.
[Dan] Maybe that was part of the problem.
[Emily] The rubber seal around his mask
was kind of folded down, so that might've been
contributing to the problem we were having
with our air pressure.
And this is not a safe situation
when you're in over 20 feet of water.
I'm ready to go, if you guys were good.
-Give it a whirl? -Yup.
We made an adjustment to the masks,
so hopefully that does the trick.
Good, good, good.
[Emily speaking]
So that fix to the mask
better do it because the swells
are starting to build and we don't have
a lot of time left out here.
All right, man. Go get 'em.
[dramatic music playing]
[Emily speaking]
[Mark speaking]
You know what...
[Mark] We got five pieces of gold here on this spot.
[Emily] Uh, yeah, yeah, roger that.
Just keep working.
[narrator] While Team Eroica
tries to keep ahead of the storm,
across the water...
[dramatic music playing]
[Vernon] Waves are picking up.
[Vernon speaking]
He's just been trying to hang on.
[narrator] Trying to snag gold at plus-40 feet below...
[Vernon] Damn it.
[narrator] ...Vernon Adkison's fighting
to keep Gary Simpson on the target.
[Vernon speaking]
Waves are picking up. It's white-capping.
I think it might be the end of the show.
[Gary] Yeah.
[Gary speaking]
[Vernon] Well, Gary, at this point,
there's nothing we can do to stop the dragging.
I can nab more anchor chain,
but you're gonna drag until it fetches up.
[Gary speaking]
[Vernon speaking]
Let me do that, I'll let out about 30 or 40
more feet of chain on both anchors.
So just be prepared to move.
[Gary] Roger that.
[Vernon] Okay, here goes.
[tense music playing]
Okay, that's it.
We're not letting out any more.
[Gary] Okay.
[Gary speaking]
Uh, guys, I am hauling ass across the bottom.
All right. If, uh...
If that's the case,
I'm gonna give you a couple more minutes
to see if you fetch up.
If not, we'll have to pull you.
[Gary] Okay.
We've added more anchor line,
but Gary's still getting pulled
around like a ragdoll down there.
[Vernon speaking]
He's dragging,
we've let out anchor.
That's about all we can do.
I'mma give him a couple more minutes
to see if he fetches up.
So we're gonna pay out some more anchor line
and hope that anchor gets caught on
some rocks down there.
[Gary] Whoo.
[Vernon] And keep Gary
from getting drug away
like a runaway train.
[Gary speaking]
But even if it doesn't, that guy's not gonna quit.
I know him. He's fearless.
[upbeat music playing]
[Vernon] Damn, I just saw a great white shark
just went by the boat here.
[Gary speaking]
And you're down there trolling like a damn
piece of meat on a fish hook.
[Gary speaking]
[Kevin speaking]
[bleep] damn, I didn't know they had
great whites up here.
[Gary speaking]
[Vernon speaking]
[dramatic music playing]
We gotta keep feeding the wash plant.
It's all about yardage.
How many yards you can move.
[narrator] As the storm creeps ever closer,
Cody Moen is holding on
as long as possible for the Pomrenke empire.
[Cody] Biggest thing though is just know
when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em.
[Cody speaking]
Yeah, I think we're gonna have to get back,
it's picking up real fast, it's gonna get real rough.
Oh, yeah. You can see the big waves way out there.
It's gonna get real rough. These swells are getting big.
You don't wanna get caught out in it,
that's the big thing.
We're gonna take off.
That's a really good two days of mining.
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] Nearby...
[man] Yeah.
[narrator] Another dredge
is in a losing battle with the rising swells.
[radio static]
[Cody speaking]
[radio static]
It's gonna get real rough.
I'll call Shawn real quick.
[tense music playing]
Hey.
Hey, uh, dude, it got...
It's gnarly out here on the west end.
That Patriot looks like they're having a problem.
I tried calling them on the radio,
but their prop is just standing
and they're heading like straight out now.
Okay. Thank you, bud.
[Shawn speaking]
All right, bye.
Cody just called, said the Patriot
looks like that the boys are having some trouble.
He can't get ahold of them on the radio.
We're gonna go see if they need some help.
[dramatic music playing]
Patriot's another mining rig.
Looks like their engines are struggling in the swell.
Cody says they're having trouble
getting back to the harbor.
So I'm gonna go check it out,
see if they need help.
It's the miner's code out here.
We take care of each other,
especially with a storm like this coming.
So here we go.
To risk my life to save somebody else's, again.
Oh, there's the CR right there.
Yup, I'll go get 'em.
That looks like the Patriot boys.
[tense music playing]
And she is angry.
[bleep] Yeah!
[laughs]
This is the [bleep] I live for.
Hang on.
It got big real quick.
We were just out here a couple hours ago.
[Shawn speaking]
[man speaking]
[Shawn] Sixty-three?
[man speaking]
[Shawn speaking]
[man speaking]
[Shawn] Yeah, once they get the line straightened out,
I'll come over and grab it.
[man speaking]
Worst-case scenario, these guys blow up their motor
and then get blown out to sea.
You got a tow rope?
-[man speaking] -[Shawn] Chuck it,
chuck it, chuck it.
[man speaking]
[Shawn] [bleep].
[indistinct shouting]
[Shawn] Oh, [bleep].
Let's go get these boys
into the harbor where it's safe.
Get away from that line.
[man] Huh?
[Shawn] Don't be around that line,
it could snap!
[man] It's just a rope.
[rope creaking]
[Shawn] Hang on.
[dramatic music playing]
[rope creaks]
[metal creaks]
They're coming into the worst spot.
This is the Bermuda Triangle.
The current hits the rocks from the jetty and come around
and they get big and they get big fast.
We got a little tiny line onto this boat.
And it's creaking, it's making noise,
and if she snaps, they could go into the rocks.
[rope creaks]
And we still got four,
five-foot waves coming at us.
Not the best situation to be in.
Hang on.
Oop, oop, oop.
[tense music playing]
We're good now.
-[man] Thank you, Shawn. -[Shawn] Yeah.
Got them into the harbor.
They're all good now.
[over radio]
[Shawn] No problem.
That's what we're here for, buddy.
Never a dull moment on the Bering Sea, boys and girls.
[Shawn speaking]
[upbeat music playing]
[Brad] Hey. We're on a lead drag.
We're coming up on the stern anchor.
Give it a lead drag.
We're coming out on the stern anchor.
[narrator] As the winds gain strength,
Reaper Nation is aiming to go 50 feet below.
But so far, they've gone nowhere.
[Brad speaking]
They're not holding.
[Andy] This is a fun day, huh?
I'm making so much money right now dropping anchors.
[Kris] Okay. The situation is not great.
So we have a storm of the century moving in
and this is our last day to mine here.
We got the Mistress out. That's good.
But we spent all day long
trying to hook the anchor onto anything
on the bottom of the ocean
without any success.
The depth is too much
and the anchor line is just too short.
If I had known we were gonna spend
the whole day on anchors, I would have faked
an injury and stayed home.
[Brad speaking]
The anchor is not holding us.
I don't have the anchor line to set here.
It's too deep.
What do you wanna do?
[Andy] Okay.
Hey, my brother said just pack it up.
Let's go in.
It's gonna get a lot rougher.
So that was a disaster.
I rolled the dice and it came up snake eyes.
We don't have time to do anything.
We don't have time to set, move,
not with the storm coming.
The swells are already getting big.
[Andy] The winds picked up.
The waves have picked up.
My anchors aren't holding my boat.
So here we are, going back in
with our tail between our legs.
It sucks, dude.
[narrator] As the All-In heads in,
across the water...
[man on radio] Extreme weather advisory.
Dangerous conditions expected
off the coast between Golovin and Nome.
How's your visibility, Chris?
[Chris speaking]
[narrator] With increasing swells
making conditions worse by the minute...
[Chris] I can't really see what's going on around me.
[Chris speaking]
[Cam] Roger.
[narrator] Chris McCully
is still searching for a hotspot.
[Cam] Yup.
[Cam speaking]
[Chris speaking]
I'm gonna come up.
[Cam] All right.
Yeah, McCully's gonna come up here and...
To get an idea of what the plan is.
[Chris] Whoo! The viz is not that great
but this is it.
No time to mess around.
We're gonna see what I did on that two hours
and 45 minutes.
We're running out of time.
I've got to know if we're really on good gold or not.
So if we are, I can keep pushing
for a while longer.
But if we're not, I've got to be honest,
it might be time to bail and head on
to the shore with our tail in between our legs,
and that would be tough to take.
So far so good. I like what I'm seeing.
[Chris speaking]
-Look at that. Whoo! -[Cam] Hey, hey!
[Chris] It's like a little banana.
Seeing that kind of gold in the box
shining like that, that's all I need to know.
Back on track, baby.
We ain't slowing down. Ain't no storm gonna stop us.
I'm gonna finish my dive.
We're gonna get the last bit of hours of diving
before the storm kicks up. You know what I mean?
So the mission is clear.
We're on good gold and the time is ticking.
So we need to get as much as we can
and as fast as we can.
All right. Good luck.
[Chris] Whoo!
[Chris speaking]
[Cam] Roger.
[Chris speaking]
[narrator] While Chris presses his luck,
back in the harbor...
[man speaking]
[Kris] Very sexy-looking boat.
Looks like a rich dude owns that boat.
I don't know how the [bleep] I got it.
Okay. There is the Mistress.
I'm glad it made it back in safe.
Let's get to position so we can get bowlines.
[narrator] The Mistress returns
as Captain Kris Kelly prepares
for the mighty storm.
[Kris] We're bringing the Mistress in
and we're calling it a day.
We gotta make sure that boat's tied up right.
If it gets trashed, we have no insurance
and it will ruin me for the rest of my life.
Boy, [bleep] it's gonna be
a little dangerous bringing this in.
I'm a little worried.
Are you guys okay?
[man speaking]
[bleep] I hope everything is gonna be okay.
[man speaking]
[Kris speaking]
So, right now, the Thrustmaster is out
and we can't really control it.
So it's headed right towards the barge parked next to us.
And, of course...
it's the Christine Rose.
'Cause I'm, like, that close to losing
my $2 million operation.
-[man speaking] -[Kris] [bleep] man.
This is [bleep].
[dramatic music playing]
[Kris] We're gonna smash into the Christine Rose.
Watch out. Watch out.
[bleep] man.
[man] Kris!
[man speaking]
[man 2 speaking]
[Kris speaking]
[man speaking]
Go down. All the way down.
[Kris speaking]
[Kris] Oh, you [bleep] piece of [bleep], start.
Come on. Come on. Come on.
[Kris speaking]
[man speaking]
[Kris] No, he doesn't have [bleep].
We're gonna smash into the Christine Rose.
[man speaking]
-[man 2] Kris! -[man 1 speaking]
[man speaking]
[Kris] Get out of my way.
[Kris] Andy!
Andy, help!
[Kris speaking]
[man] Yeah, baby!
Oh, my God. I was scared.
What happened?
So coming into harbor, Kris, right when we made that turn,
go to throttle back, everything out.
Lost all my [bleep] steering.
All electronics went out.
So it's bad enough right now that this giant storm
is blowing us off the water,
but then to worry about my barge
being damaged before it even gets here.
Well, it doesn't get closer than that.
What the [bleep] huh?
Everybody's ass was puckered on that one, baby.
[laughs]
It's insane that we almost wiped out
our dredge and Shawn's.
But you know what?
No one really saw this.
So as far as I'm concerned,
this didn't happen.
Now, it's time to batten down
the hatches and prepare for the storm.
[man] All right.
[Kris speaking]
That... Man, thank you very much.
Oh, my God. That scared the [bleep] out of me.
Were you scared?
You're the man. You could--
[Kris] Scared the [bleep] out of me
something fierce.
Lost another five years off my life right there.
But [bleep] this has been a bad year
for that [bleep]. I've aged about 20 years.
-[man] That was close. -[Kris] That was way too close for me.
[narrator] Back out on the water...
[dramatic music playing]
[Emily speaking]
[narrator] With the safety of her crew on the line,
Captain Emily is keeping one eye
on diver Mark Gordon,
and the other on the fast-approaching surge.
[Dan speaking]
[Mark speaking]
Yeah. He says there's definitely gold.
Definitely gold on the mud.
[Emily speaking]
[Mark speaking]
I mean, I think that's--
Okay.
-So-- -Okay.
[Emily] This is the question that every captain
of a gold-mining dredge
has to wrestle with in their career.
It's like how far can you push it?
We desperately need the gold in our sluice box,
but conditions are getting a lot worse by the minute.
When do you finally decide to call it?
What is that breaking point?
For me, with this huge storm coming in, that point is now.
Hey, Mark.
[Mark] Yeah.
[Emily speaking]
[Mark] All right. See you at top-side.
[Emily speaking]
[Mark] Oh, yeah. I got you.
[Mark] Nice and slow coming up.
[Dan] All right. There he is.
-[Emily] Nice job. -Whoo!
Time to go.
-[Dan] We got it now. -[Emily] Yeah. We're out.
[Emily speaking]
[narrator] As the Eroica throws in the towel...
[dramatic music playing]
[Vernon] You still dragging, Gary?
[Gary speaking]
[Vernon] It's white-capping.
We got a pretty nice swell thumping in here.
[Gary] Okay.
[narrator] Vernon Adkison and crew
are still holding out.
[Gary speaking]
[Vernon] Okay. That's it. That's it.
[Vernon speaking]
[Gary speaking]
[Vernon] All right. Places, everybody.
Come up slowly. Come up slowly.
We gotta pull the diver.
Conditions are getting too rough and he's dragging.
Coming up for the nozzle line.
He's not doing any good down there.
Look, we desperately wanted to get a good,
long dive down there today.
We know what's coming.
This could be our last shot
for quite a while.
But we're no match for Mother Nature right now.
Turn off the engine.
I'm just glad Gary was the one down there.
He muscled through more than anyone else could.
Well, I did what I can do.
The guy's a beast, but even he has limits.
Okay. It's getting pretty frisky out here, guys.
Y'all gotta be careful.
Now, we just gotta hightail out of here
before this storm gobbles us up.
Battle stations.
I wanna take the anchors in first.
That's it.
Pull it up.
[Vernon speaking]
All right. Hold it. Hold it. Hold it. Hold it.
That's [bleep].
Let's just... Everybody take a deep breath.
[Brad speaking]
Six-foot waves all of a sudden.
This is fun.
[Vernon speaking]
Okay. All right.
[Vernon speaking]
[Vernon] Well, this kind of work we do,
this is pretty rough.
Getting this gear aboard is...
If you don't do it exactly right,
it can be a man-killer.
[Vernon speaking]
[Vernon] Get the [bleep] out of here.
See how Gary did today
and, hopefully,
finish the season out with a bang.
[dramatic music playing]
[Cam speaking]
We got a fishing boat over here.
They're getting ready to head back into the harbor.
We might not be able to see the storm
coming along on the horizon.
Yeah, I'm gonna go let Chris know
that this fog's rolling in.
[Cam speaking]
[Chris] Okay.
Like right after you jumped in,
the swell started picking up.
[Chris speaking]
[Cam speaking]
He'll come up and get dressed and we'll start
pulling the hose and head into the...
Head into the harbor.
[Chris speaking]
Nice. That was a good run.
It wasn't perfect
but we pushed it as long as possible
and we put some more gold in the box
while we still could.
But it's a serious one. I can't [bleep] around.
I know my limits.
But I know when it's time to call it.
With what we're about to face,
it's time to go.
[Chris speaking]
You can already tell just
from the atmospheric pressure.
You can feel it in the air
that this great storm is about to happen.
Mother Nature will kick
your ass back into the harbor.
Yeah. All right.
But we're the last ones out,
so I feel good. You know what I mean?
It looks good that we were able to squeeze
every dive hour we can get.
Not much days left in this season,
so really happy that we're making the most
of our time here.
The ocean gets pissed off.
[Vernon] Looking pretty juicy.
[Gary] Let's see what we got.
This is gold that we got out
at the deep water end of 56.
[Gary] Oh, yeah. This looks good.
[narrator] After fighting the elements in deep water...
[Vernon] At this point in time, I don't know
what it's gonna weigh out at.
-I really don't. You never can tell. -Good.
[narrator] Captain Vernon Adkison
is hoping to see a knockout on the scale.
This is my favorite dish right here.
That storm is rolling in
and it's gonna be a killer,
so our mining window is shut down
for who knows how long.
I just hope the risk we took today
was worth it on the scales.
Do you see the smoke that's coming off?
Most likely, it got a little mercury mixed in with this.
Mercury, in large doses,
it makes you go crazy.
But if you just get...
a few sniffs of that mercury,
it just speeds up your brain processes
and it makes you just, like, really sharp on the uptake.
[exhales] That'll tighten
you right up in the morning.
We're just about done.
Okay. That's good enough.
That's one...
two...
three...
four...
five.
Come on, baby.
6.53.
All right.
[narrator] 6.53 ounces
is worth over 11 grand.
Not enough to get the old skipper
on pace to hit his season goal
but not a bad haul in rough conditions.
That's what I'm talking about.
The gold is good, but it's complicated
diving in those depths,
40-plus feet.
It just gets real complicated
and it's dangerous.
It wasn't easy, but I'll take it,
especially with the storm of the century coming in.
It's better than a poke in the eye.
That's all I gotta say.
All we can do now is just hunker down
and hope we still have a season ahead of us.
With this team, I think we can do great stuff
the rest of the way if Mother Nature lets us.
All right. Well, let's get this bagged and tagged.
It's all coming together.
I'm feeling pretty good about this.
I'd say we got a team here.
Okay.
That's it.
[narrator] On the other side of Nome...
[Emily] Yeah, this is it.
This is the last bit of gold before the way out.
[narrator] Emily's team has been pushing hard
before the storm.
Now, it's time
to make it rain on the scale.
Let's go burn it off.
[Dan] Oh, man.
This is where we find out how rich we are.
[Emily] We've been having a rough go of it.
Like we're trying to make up for the losses in the early
part of the season and now we're trying to get everything
that we can before the storm hits.
-[Dan speaking] -[Emily] All right.
We've been on the water every hour that we can,
but we are finishing off with a rookie diver
as the last gold in the box,
so we're gonna see where we stand.
We really need a strong showing
before the storm comes.
-Weigh it out. -Okay.
You ready?
[Emily] All right. Emotionally, spiritually.
Five...
10...
15...
20...
27...
35.
Oh, oh.
-Oh, 40. -[Mark chuckling]
-[chuckling] -[Dan] Wow.
-40.3. -Nice.
[narrator] 40.3 ounces
is worth over $72,000,
and the Eroica team
may be peaking in the nick of time.
[Emily] And a lot of those hours were on, like, a diver
-who had never dove before. -[Dan] That's true.
That's pretty good.
We finally got a ride in the second half.
We have a solid team and we're putting in the hours nonstop.
And that's exactly what we did today,
and so I think we're in a good spot.
Now, it's just a matter of seeing
what the damage from the storm is gonna be.
Okay. I think you guys did great.
Yeah. That's just killer.
[David] Yeah. All right.
Let's divide this up.
[Emily] That's super exciting.
[Dan] That was good.
[dramatic music playing]
It's gonna be 70 miles an hour gusting
and 44 miles of... windstorm.
So, that's pretty extreme.
The good thing about it is
I have an ocean dredge, you know?
I'm able to pounce right through
this nasty swell, you know?
You gotta have a nice dredge when you're out here.
That one guy, the rumor was
he built a six-inch dredge
and that he crushed it one day
that his sluice box was full of gold
and he was trying to get through this big swell
that ultimately he sank his dredge, you know?
And he didn't have GPS at the time
so he wasn't able to track his dredge down.
So all that hard work,
just back into the ocean.
That's the fine line between
the dredger and Mother Nature,
that storm.
But one of these days,
I'm gonna go find that dredge.
[chuckles]
Gonna be good stuff.
[dramatic music playing]
[man] Security. Security.
Myrtle Irene, inbound, home harbor.
[Shawn] Myrtle lost both engines on the way in.
Had to help them come in.
Pretty nice, we're in the safety of the harbor now.
When it rains, it pours.
With a storm like this coming,
everybody's worried as hell.
We're just trying to get everything
in the operation ready for it.
Then I get a call, the Myrtle's engines have gone out.
Not the end of the day I wanted
but the end of the day I got.
I went out and got her, but it's just the way
the season has gone.
One thing after another,
and, right now, it couldn't be a worse time.
Frustrating.
Everything was running exactly the way it's supposed to.
We are on good gold. Everything's working well.
And then, boom, here we go.
One thing after another.
I can't get a break with this thing.
I'm getting frustrated.
I wanna give up but I'm not going to.
I'm gonna get it fixed.
But we're at the end of the season.
Can we get it fixed
and then get it running?
I don't know.
[bleep]!
The Myrtle, big piece of [bleep].
[narrator] Across the harbor...
[Kevin] This is the calm before the storm.
They're putting wind warnings out.
They've got evacuation notices up
all around town. And even Vernon's apartment
got an evacuation notice.
But he's on the top floor,
so we could run a skiff.
Run the skiff to his front door and pick him up.
[narrator] With all boats off the water,
Vernon Adkison's team is hoping to keep
the gold ship safe from the giant storm ahead.
Yo, Kevin, we gotta really get prepared
-for some serious, serious [bleep]. -[Kevin] Uh-huh.
It might come up over this rail here.
We'll put double lash and triple lashings on everything.
Anything that's not heavy
is getting battened down.
We're all going into the survival mode.
Getting our rigs tied down,
trying to do everything we can
to make sure we survive the storm.
There's potential of this whole area flooding.
[Vernon] It's all unknown right now. How bad will it get
and how much damage will be done?
It's pretty stressful.
I'm not gonna lie.
Right now, I'm hearing...
Expecting a 17-foot surge.
-Oh. -[Vernon] That's a lot.
-[Kevin] That's a lot. -I mean,
that'd put our boat up here somewhere.
I'm expecting we'll probably
be taking seas over this mooring here.
Hope we don't end up with the damn thing
over here on the beach.
This is a storm for the record books.
[Vernon] It's gonna get hairy.
[narrator] As the winds build...
The Myrtle is gonna be our protective barrier.
Land it. Let's hit it.
[narrator] The miners brace for what lies ahead.
[Shawn] It's coming and it's gonna come in
with some fury.
[narrator] In less than 36 hours,
the storm of the century
will hit the Nome shores
and their world will be turned upside-down.
Next time on Bering Sea Gold...
Right now, it looks like an absolute warzone.
[sirens blaring]
Well, my sailboat has cut loose.
This is coming over the seawall.
That's 20 feet.
[Chris] We're gonna have to evacuate.
[Kris] If my boat breaks off,
it'll start wiping out buildings.
Hey, watch out. [bleep].
Flying off the building.
[Shawn] This is crazy.
[woman] Oh, damn.
-This thing could explode. -Move back.
They're trying to get us out. So let's just move back.
[Emily speaking]
[Vernon] It's gonna be a wipeout for this town.
[Shawn] Everybody is screwed.