This week's monster high tides claimed this truck left overnight at Dillingham's Kanakanak Beach. The skiff trailer wasn't immediately found.
KDLG: A Dillingham man launched a skiff for Clark's Point Monday night, and parked an Isuzu pickup truck and trailer on the beach.
Parking far up the beach is often suitable for most tide changes. A vehicle's tires may get wet on a 20' tide. But on Tuesday, the Nushagak River saw one its biggest (and one of its lowest) tides of the year, and this Isuzu's swamped interior can now attest that parking up the road would have been the wiser course.
Beach goers Tuesday afternoon were shocked to see the outline of a truck appearing as the water receded on the afternoon ebb, and called police. The surf, fueled by 30 mph southwest winds, continued to pound the truck until police and harbor staff were finally able to tow it out around 2:15 p.m. Tuesday.
Initially, police suspected the vehicle might have been stolen and left on the beach after a joyride. It took just a few phone calls (after the license plate became visible) for the owner to clarify that wasn't the case. The vehicle had been parked Monday night to launch a boat, was apparently swamped on the Tuesday morning high tide, and dragged perhaps 75 yards seaward with the ebb.
According to NOAA's Tides and Currents page (used by KDLG), the Nushagak River's high tide Monday night was 18.5' at 5:47 p.m. The low tide went down to -2.8' at 12:29 a.m., one of the lowest tides of the year. At 6:55 a.m., a monster 24.1' high tide smothered beaches and climbed shorelines, including several feet up Kanakanak Beach. That tide receded to 3.0' by 1:26 p.m. Tuesday, revealing the missing truck.
The city's harbor office and several local businesses have free copies of tide books available, and KDLG airs weather and tide information frequently throughout the day on AM 670. <-- Don't turn that dial.