PILE DRIVER DAY

Now this was an exciting day..... the piles are being driven for the
dock. It took years to get all the pieces together. First apply for
the Army Corp. Permit, survive the public hearings ("... he will kill
all the fish in the harbor!"), appeal initial rejections of
consistency with the Coastal Zone Management Plan (... well... if
everyone in Alaska built a dock like mine then the habitat for Salmon
would be seriously jeopardized and make impossible Fish and Game's
management of the resource!"), refloat the old Cost Guard Dock, then
retrieve the old cast off floating ramp from Taku Harbor, put all
the pieces together on the beach, and wait for Bob File. The luckiest
part was getting Bob File to assemble his old gear together, get it
running, and come on out and drive the piles. A fabulous job......
just fabulous......, he accomplished so much with so little, so
smartly.

THE BEGINNING

Here is how it all started. We anchored the Kiki Dee in front and
lived aboard while the work on the frame began. The timbers were chain
saw milled where they fell on Shelter Island and towed to the front
beach where they were stacked and worked by the trained crew flown in
from Maine. All lived on site in a large army tent and were fed by a
cook we hired. It was a great summer with lots going on.... and
little conception of the amount of work ahead us.