Wirtz, 
1963 
W. March 
ATF 
We arose early again this morning to t?ke advatage af the slightly 
cooler hours Just after dawn. Binion collected soine plant specimens to 
he pressed aboard the ship, I picked up traps, and we packed up our gear 
to get back aboard the ship about 1100. We had another harrowing 
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experience goingout in the surf from Howland. The tide wee low end 
we had to drag the loaded boet out to the edge of the rock ledge in 
order to get the motor down. There was about a 2 foot surf, end when we 
got ne r the edge of the ledge the under iow started dragging us out. 
As the boat went off this ledge it got caught in the back wash of a wave, 
and though we paddbd madly to keep the bow into the waves the next wave 
hit us and turned the boat sideways and sent it ack in toward the 
beach, catching Bob between the boet and the edge of the le ge. The 
rock was very sliprery, and it was quite difficult to maintain a footing 
in the undertow, but we were able to tiern the boet around end get it 
headed out into the surf again. This time we got it off the ledge and 
were able to paddle long enough to get it out over the next wave to a 
point where we could get the motor down and running. 
The MQCTQBI left Howland about 1130 and headed for Baker Island. 
We arrived Baker about 1615, but there was much fiddling 
around aboard the ship before they got the boat over board and loaded 
for the first trip. The landing is indicated alo g the northwest sand 
beech, and is termed poor for small hosts, \<rhich it certainly is. There 
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are rock flats all around the island, and they ere exposed everywhere 
except on this beech. We had s he vy surf of 5 or 6 feet today, and 
decided to maketwo trips. Bob and I went in first with MATT. We had 
a very rough and wet ride as the swells were working diagonally across 
