Goat Island

Weston Davis (0:00)

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It's a kayak. It's a slip, but it's floating. For now, anyway. We can't last. We can't last out here. Not long.

SPEAKER_2 (1:31)

This water is too cold.

Weston Davis (1:34)

Look. See? Over there. No. Over there.

A dark shape. It's land.

It's our only chance.

SPEAKER_2 (1:47)

No.

Weston Davis (1:49)

No. We can't push the kayak.

Got to let go.

SPEAKER_2 (1:53)

Swim.

Weston Davis (1:55)

Swim.

SPEAKER_2 (1:56)

No. I'll come.

Weston Davis (1:58)

I'll come behind. Don't stop. Don't look back. Go. Go. Swim.

Over here.

Yes. Yes. Yes. There you are.

Oh, man. Oh, you made it. When I lost you out there, I thought... I can't stay here.

I'm gonna have to go back. Yes, it's a narrow little strip of gravel. There's no shelter. Tide coming up. Waves are gonna be crashing against that bluff soon. Night's coming down. Hey, look, the only way is up that slope. It's steep, but hey, there's something. What's that hanging down? A root or a vine, or it might help us climb.

Oh, no, it's a wire cable. It's a thick, old, rusted cable.

No. What? Yeah, no, of course I'm gonna climb up. I'm just, I'm just wondering. I'm wondering where we are. An old cable, like this, hanging down the bluff. Is that a building up there? I see up there, that concrete. It's like a ruin? No. We couldn't be. I'm sure we're not. I'm sure we're not on Goat Island.

No, we couldn't be. We must be on the Camp Monsters podcast.

Yeah, starting to warm up a little bit now. Just a little bit with this fire and a roof over our heads. Ooh, funny when the cold gets right down to your marrow like that, how? As long as it sticks around. I'm just glad we found this shelter in there. There were some dry sticks in it. And I'm glad you had the matches in that little waterproof container you bought at REI. I just wish we'd bought a bigger one and put our cell phones in it. And I wish... I wish I hadn't got us into this mess. I wanted to kick off season 8 of the Camp Monsters podcast with something special. So I dreamed up this sunset kayak tour on the Puget Sound, north of Seattle. I never thought the weather would turn so bad so quick. It was only supposed to be a three hour tour. A three hour tour.

What? No, no, I'm just thinking. I'm not being quiet to listen. I'm not listening for anything out there in the night, in the rain. It's just... What if these ruins were in? I mean, this isn't some old shack, boat house or something.

SPEAKER_2 (6:09)

This is huge.

Weston Davis (6:11)

All these great, big, low buildings poured in thick concrete, gouged, crouching down here in the earth, right into the bluff. This little room, this vault we're huddled in, with graffiti leaping around in the firelight, raindrops streaking orange in front of all that dark outside the little door.

There's only one place we could be.

This is Fort Whitman. The ruins of Fort Whitman. We're shipwrecked on... on Goat Island.

I jumped a little. Of course, the thunder picks that moment to let rip. I didn't really mean to make it sound so ominous. There's nothing ominous about Goat Island. I mean, not really. It's just that, well, it's abandoned, for one thing. You know, totally uninhabited, so there's no way we can hike for help, and no one's going to find us tonight. But all the same, we're lucky to be here. We're just lucky to be alive and have this fire. So we'll just try to stay warm and keep feeding the fire and keep waiting, just waiting for dawn.

Jumpy? No, I'm not, I'm not jumpy, I'm... This isn't pacing, I'm just trying to get comfortable. I'm still trying to thaw out from our unexpected swim tonight, and what are you trying to do anyway? You scare me or what? You're the one acting all... Look, you're putting words in my mouth. No, no, I don't know any scary stories about this place. About Goat Island, or this old ruined fort, or... And even if I did, I wouldn't tell any of them here, now, after the night we've had. I mean, anyway, people always make things up about empty, lonely places like this, so...