Jackson, C. D. 1965 Journal 25 February 3 Baker Island The boat crew disembarked onto the island to pick up some sections of aluminum pipe and to set the navigation lights up on the side of the island while we set up camp. When they returned at 2 pm the surf was really booming in and there were no regular, calm periods. The 10 of us then spent the next three hours trying to launch the raft. Everytime they'd just get started they'd run into an 8 or so foot wave just as it broke and would get swamped. Six attempts all ended the same way - with the raft full of water + powerless. Each time we'd drag the raft back to the beach, detach the motor + gas can and then dump the water out. An extremely strong undertow made the operation far more difficult. Finally, in desperation Merrill and I walked down to the south end to check surf conditions time and found them almost ideal. We then carried the raft, motor and gas about 800 yards across the island and made a successful launch at 6 p.m. Dinner - After 4 solid hours of being pounded around by the surf while struggling with the raft we were all feeling slightly euphoric with various assortment of bruises and aching muscles. The surf was so bad we decided to postpone blood sampling until tomorrow in order to eliminate 1 full series of boat runs. The extremely bad surf conditions are being cursed by a change in wind direction. Normally the wind is easterly throughout this area. At the present time, however, the wind is running out of the NW at about 15-20 mph. This means that, unless the