In an operation with as many moving parts as the South Kuiu Cleanup, when one thing goes awry, everything that it is connected to begins to unravel. By the ferry canceling its Friday run, all kinds of havoc has been unleashed to the schedule and the supply chain. The fire is being contained at the moment but it’s interesting to see the flare-ups that continue from that initial shock.

As far as the cleanup goes, nothing has really changed. All the supplies for that part of the mission have already been sent up by barge and are waiting for us in Wrangell. All the volunteers were planning on flying in anyway, so a cancelled ferry has no effect there. Jet boat schedules remain the same.

It will have an impact on the kayaking, however. There will only be three boats up there instead of six and with all this turbulence, the route we had planned to do around Coronation Island before the beach cleaning operation is now in doubt. There are back-up plans, to be sure, but if that part of the trip doesn’t happen, it will certainly be missed.

There’s a part of me that likes the mad scramble, working to get all the pieces back together again, adapting and changing, trying very hard to make chicken salad out of chicken shit. I like the frenzy, sort of. It will make it all that much more rewarding when it all comes together.

Which is what I tell myself.