The Bay is the kind of place where you really need friends. Your productivity, your peace of mind and your safety often depends on them. It is also the kind of place where you learn who your real friends are. I ran with the same radio group from 1982 to 1999. This was a group of around 10 or 15 boats who shared fishing information on a common and hopefully secure radio channel..It also served as a sort of floating dinner club. These were the guys you called if you had web in your wheel, if you were drifting dead in the water with a blown engine….or if you needed a cup of flour. My log for May 17, 1988 is an example of the kind of situation that often came up on the fishing grounds. Big Ron and I were fishing herring in the Togiak District on the Sea Wolf..the water temp. was 38 degrees f…….”May 17 4 hour opening / calm / fished E. Side of Nunavachak Bay. Put on 24 ton…almost lost the boat. Forward (bow) compartment flooded w/ 1000 gal. water draining from the flooded fish holds thru small pipe carrying fuel lines to stern. Boat lost buoyancy and started to go under at the bow. I was up to my asshole in ice water and herring….Ron put out a call to the group and gave our position…..TwoTonTommy on the Katie Blu came along side, tied off our bow cleat to his side cleat and ran us in towards the beach. The bow lodged on a rock pinnacle and we were able to shovel/bucket +3 ton out of the bow-this gave us enough buoyancy to keep water from coming over the bow…then we shoveled several more tons towards the stern. Pumped out forward lazarette of about 1000 gal…..unloaded 21 tons w/ low roe count…5.8 to 6.5 per cent….the entire incident took 24 hours to stabilize the boat. The Sea Wolf was like some large animal mysteriously dying before our eyes. The boat had a built in booby trap..(the pipe into the bow compartment)…when it was heavily loaded the fish displaced water in the holds which ran into the “watertight” bow compartment. Had the weather been anything less than absolutely calm and without the assistance of the Katie Blu, we would have sunk within 5 to 10 minutes.”……..”May 18-21…worked to clear the boat of ruined nets, water in fuel, tracing and fixing problems brought about by the near sinking. Much like bringing back a patient who has suffered a severe trauma.”…..”May 22… At anchor off Right Hand Pt. Calm / Bright / Sunny/ waiting for more fish.”