On board the Northwestern Captain Sig has a lot on his mind. Years of sleep deprivation, a bad diet and stress have certainly taken a toll on his body and his recent chest pains have only served as a reminder of his condition. Taking matters into his own hands, the Captain decides to try and quit smoking by relying on a nicotine patch. Of course, his decision comes during an approaching storm front and building seas. Unfortunately the crew will now have to deal with an even more cranky Sig as he quickly is overcome by his addiction. Although I give him credit for trying to quit and give his body a chance to detox, unfortunately Sig only lasts three and a half hours. With cigarette now in hand, the Captain pushes through the rest of the string and finishes filling his tanks in plenty of time to get back an off load ahead of schedule. Of course Mother Nature just doesn’t want to cooperate and after slowly struggling through the ice pack the Harbor Master informs the Northwestern that they won’t be able to enter the harbor as thick ice as the harbor closed off. With nothing left to do but wait, the crew drops anchor and wiats for the ice to clear in a race against time as the crab are slowly dying in their tanks.
Once again the fishing has been superb on the Time Bandit as Captain Andy continues to find plenty of crab on the family’s sacred crab grounds. After having reset his gear there time after time they continue to pull up full pots and already have their tanks filled. They decide to take a quick detour to check on the position of the ice to make sure their gear is safe. Although the ice is slowly making it’s way south towards their gear, Captain Andy decides to take the gamble and leave their gear put while they offload, hoping to race back in time before the ice covers it. Unfortunately this wasn’t how things played out on the Cornelia Marie, as after having been stuck in harbor in thick ice the time they managed to get back to their gear was too late. Their pots had been dragged out into deeper water by the ice flow and now many have their buoys below the water’s surface and will be lost. The ones that are still visible aren’t much easier either as they will need to be searched for having been moved from their original position. After a long and tedious effort the pots are finally relocated further south in safer waters. Using a mix of humor and luck, Captain Phil has placed all of his hope in an area where he swears is filled with bubbles from “farting crabs”. Using this information as well as his nose he sets his gear of prospect pots for a thirty five hours soak and when he returns he finds crabs in good numbers. Perhaps Captain Phil knew what he was looking for all along.
Lastly on board the Wizard Captain Keith has been playing it safe since the early season tarp fiasco that left his most seasoned crew members injured. However, the crabbing has only been mediocre at best while fishing south of the rest of the pack in calmer waters. There have also been more problems with the greenhorn, Josh who seems like he is ready to throw in the towel. Fearing for his safety as the waning productivity of the rest of the crew the Capatin calls him into the wheelhouse for once more chat. This time either his speech is more effective or the better fishing that has since turned around became the chief motivator, either way the greenhorn starts to show a little life. Soon he begins to reconsider coming back out for another trip on board the Wizard.
On board the Northwestern the exhausted crew is confronted with another serious problem, ice. The string they are about to haul has been covered by the approaching ice flow making it difficult work to find and haul their gear. They need to haul and stack it quickly before the twenty five thousand dollars worth of gear is lost. The only good news is the pots are coming up full, however Captain Sig is not willing to play his odds and reset his gear this close to the ice pack again. He decides wisely to move it further south where he dials in on even more crab. However hidden in the wheelhouse Captain Sig is battling his own health unannounced to his crew on deck. A strange sharp pain is radiating through his ribs but he struggles on regardless.
Things on the Incentive are certainly getting tougher as well. After decent hauls to start the season the boat and it’s crew are now in rapidly deteriorating weather conditions. The first few pots have been coming up with very few crab as well adding insult to injury. Now as the catches slowly begin to improve the seas are building to 40 foot swells in 70 knot winds tossing the 100 foot boat violently as the crew struggles to work on. The boys from Kodiak certainly are as tough as nails as Doug gets his hand snapped by the thick rope as it snaps out of the block. The Captain jokingly states that would have killed most men but Doug is like an old junkyard dog. After a few minutes he shakes it off and is back at work.
Over on the Cornelia Marie, Captain Phil struggles through the remaining two miles of ice that lies between his boat and Saint Paul. As he pushes the throttle to try and push his boat through the thick ice the extra load takes it’s toll on the boats engines and knocks one of them out, spurting oil out of the dipstick and bellowing thich black smoke. For the remaining distance he’ll have to do it on one engine. Finally he reaches the harbor and gets his mechanic to fly out from Dutch Harbor. After an eleven hour inspection he tells Phil one of his cylinders is scored and will have to be repaired at a cost of almost seventy thousand dollars. With a hundred thousand dollars worth of gear and the rest of the season at stake there isn’t much choice. The repairs are made and the Cornelia Marie now has to bust out of the ice in Saint Paul before it finally reaches the open waters to resume it’s season.
Although the fishing has been pretty good, the weather and especially the ice have been wreaking havoc on the boats and their crews. The Wizard returns to try once again to get their season strated this time with Monty left behind. Upon reaching his favorite grounds he realized Sig and the rest of the fleet already have their gear here. Now he’s forced to fish crowded grounds as an Artic front quickly approaches. Captain Keith is still an emotion wreck and is second guessing coming up here in this weather to drop his pots in 60 knot winds and 25 foot seas. Not an easy task to stay calm while keeing his crew safe so everyone comes back in one piece.
As the crew on the Northwestern wakes up from their five hour nap, they are hit with freezing temperatures and freezing spray that is quickly leaving an accumulation of ice on the decks as much as six inches thick in some places. In order to keep the boat from becoming dangerously top heavy the crew will spend the next four hours breaking ice with sledge hammers and baseball bats, barely making a dent.
As the Time Bandit pulls in with thirty six minutes to spare, it looks like Captain Andy pulled a rabbit out of his hat and got the job done. The exhausted crew decides to get some much needed rest, however they overlook their Captains wished to have someone keep an eye on the cannery crew and make sure the weights are accurate. Their complacency may have cost them about $8000 as the Hillstrands believe that they were short changed about 5,000 pounds during their weigh in. Captain Andy soon calls everyone to the wheelhouse and reads them the riot act, something the calmer Hillstrand rarely does.
Luck on the Cornelia Maire is also taking a turn for the worst as Steve, the latest engineer finds a pipe with a slow leak that delivers fresh sea water to the crab tanks. While attempting to prep the leak for repair it opens up some more causing the alarm to sound. While Jake takes over in the wheelhouse, Captain Phil decides to take a look for himself and orders the valves closed while the repairs are attempted. While turning off the pumps may put their catch at risk, at this point it’s more important to save the boat. Luckily the weld holds and the temporary fix is enough to get the job done. However, Phil stillhas to contend with the ice flow that he is having difficulty pushing the Cornelia Marie through in his way to St. Paul. As the show ends it looks like this may become a very dangerous situation next week as a shot of a Coast Guard helicopter coming to their aid is shown.
Captain Andy decided to go against what the other Captains were doing and head back to the area they call Mr. Magoo where they had great sucess last year. Unfortunately, the crab just aren’t there this year. After pulling up poor catches, the crew decides it would be easier just to rail dump. In other words, since most of the pots are containing only a few keepers, since undersized and female crabs have to be returned, the crew is just dumping the whole contents back into the sea since the realtively small amount of keepers doesn’t justify the time needed to sort. Captain Andy is not pleased by this, especially since he is frustrated with his own bad luck. Of course the Hillstrands have a plan. First they’ll stack the pots and move to another spot closer to the ice pack. Secondly, in order to make sure there is no bad “Ju-Ju” on board they decide they’ll have to burn their dummy they make to look like Jake from the Northwestern, just in case. Well, either way something works and they soon find themselves back on the crab.
In the final seconds of last weeks show, Monty and the other full shares aboard the Wizard were trying to secure a tarp over the pots in the bow. The plan was keep the freezing spray from sticking to the pots causing the dangerous weight to make the boat unstable. However, the crew is attempting to do this in strong winds and heavy seas which is never an easy task. The episode ends as a huge wave crashes over the deck engulfing the crew.
Fast forward one week later and as the water rushed away there is no sign of anyone. Captain Keith is trying to contact them on the intercom but there is no response. Shortly after the battered crew emerges, alive but badly bruised. Monty looks like he took the worst hit as a quick assessment reveals he may have broken ribs. Captin Keith is now forced to turn around and get back to harbor and get his crew some much needed medical attention. So the real question is why didn’t they just attach the tarp while still safe at the docks. Guess it’s always easier to second guess…
After a warm welcome for returning Captain Phil Harris on the Cornelia Marie it’s back to business as the weather is nothing short of nasty. Captain Sig Hansen finally arrives back on the Northwestern two days later than planned after blizzard like conditions made flying in impossible. In the meantime the pranksters on the Time Bandit had a score to settle with the youngest member of the Northwestern. After Jake had stolen Jonathan’s prized USA jacket, it’s now time for the Hillstrand’s to get their revenge. Jake is quickly duct taped and overboard by crane to get a quick plunge into the icy waters, much to the satisfaction of Jonathan and crew. All this while the crew on board the Northwestern watches and laughs.
Soon afterward the reality of the deteriorating conditions becomes all too serious as Captains try to decide how many pots to unload and hopefully avoind a dangerous situation with the pots on deck icing up from the spray during the storm. As the water freezes n deck the weight soon can add up and cause the boat to become unstable making it extremely dangerous during rough weather. After unloading the Northwestern and Time Bandit are the first away to head north to the edge of the ice pack and hopefully get a jump on the fishing. The Cornelia Marie and the Wizard are left behind by mechanical problems. Soon after a quick fix, Captain Keith pulls away from Dutch with what may very well be an unsafe amount of pots. His plan is to use a tarp to keep the spray from freezing up on the pots but at the first sign of bad weather, his crew ends up struggling to get it set in heavy seas.
Opilio season always is a nail biter as the weather is even more of a factor with the dangerous ice packs and frozen spray, and the 2009 Opilio crab season is certainly fitting that description so far. Right from the beginning, while on a routine fuel run, the Wizard runs into huge problems as the engines shut down right outside the harbor. This leave the massive boat adrift in strong winds with no way of controlling her. As Captain Keith edges on brother Monty, aka Mouse to find the problem the crew is ordered to stand by and be prepared to drop anchor if needed to keep the boat from being washed up onto the rocks meaning disaster. Luckily, Monty gets the boat running again but they’ll need to head back to assess the situation as they can’t rick a similar episode out in the open sea.
After a last minute medical decision that left Captain Phil Harris returning to the dock for the start of the King Crab season, he was finally given the green light to return to the Cornelia Marie for this years Opilio season. He gets a warm welcome from his crew and especially his two boys who found it tough without him. For the 51 year old Captain, it was the first season he had missed in 33 years and Captain Phil is a little bit apprehensive that we will find his rhythm quickly. This time he’ll have to do it without relief skipper and long time friend and engineer Murray who has decided to go back into retirement from fishing now that Phil is back. Although it mostly looked like Murray struggled most of the King Crab season, the totals and dollars earned were strong overall for Cornelia Marie’s King Crab season.
To make sure the Cornelia Marie has a smooth season, Phil has hired a local mechanic to give the boat a good thorough look over her mechanical systems. Unfortunately he turns up several critical problem, including a fuel leak, water in the hydraulics and a broken prop. All this means lost days and a bill of around $100,000 all this before the season even starts. The Cornelia Marie has to be dry docked, basically it is floated on the deck and then the water is pumped out so the boat can be repaired. After all is repaired, Captain Phil sets his sights on going far north towards the edge pf the ice pack to see if he can find the crab.
So just how much did each boat and crew member earn this past season?
Cornelia Marie $2,600,000 total and $54,000 per deckhand
Northwestern $2,270,000 total and $51,000 per deckhand
Wizard $1,780,000 total and $32,000 per deckhand
Time Bandit $1,250,000 total and $30,000 per deckhand
As a grueling season comes close to the end, the crew of the Wizard has taken the opportunity to get a few minutes of rest between strings. As Captain Keith approaches the first pot, he decides to grab a guitar and serenade his crew from the slumber. They’re in the home stretch now, with just one last twenty pot string to haul. Although they’ve been working for 36 hours, seeing the end in sight gives them one last boost of energy. They make quick work out of the remaining pots and head back to Dutch Harbor to offload. It is there when 49 year old Lenny decides to make the announcement he has made his last trip. Tired of the aches and pains that have intensified with age and attempting to keep a promise to his 16 year old daughter that he is retiring he let’s Captain Keith and Monty know his decision. They both know they’re loosing a valuable member of their crew although Captain Keith doubts he’ll be able to stay away.
Over on the Northwestern, it hasn’t been any easier as they are coming off a 53 hour shift. Facing a drop in prices from the process, Captain Sig is trying to scramble to fill his quota and race back in time to offload before the price plummets. Unfortunately, they continue to pull up horrible numbers. Desperate to salvage the season, Sig turns to the radio to help locate some crab from fellow fisherman. Edgar is not very confident that this is going to pay off as rarely do the other crabbers share their spots as they are in business for themselves first and foremost. Edgar ends up making the correct prediction as the pots come up rather light. They’ll have to grind out a few more hours to close out a tough season.
For Murray and the Cornelia Marie, this dismal season appears to only be able to get better. The longer than normal season has especially taken its toll on young Jake Harris whose back is feeling the brunt of the season. As brother Jake tries to help out and take a little of the load off his back, he quickly discovers Jakes temper is flaring up more than his sore back. After a long heated argument, jokingly caused by the full moon overhead, it appears the long season may have gotten the best of both of them. Of course after they start pulling up better numbers in the next pots, all is quickly forgotten, just like most brotherly fights. Pulling up pots with an average of 30 keepers, the end of their season is rapidly approaching. The extended trip of fourteen days also ends up taking a much larger toll on the catch as when the offloading begins piles of dead loss are seen. This dead on arrival crab means lost money as the processor will not accept it and the crew will have to dump it out back at sea. By the time all is done almost half an entire tank is dead, having been held too long on board.
Doing a completely different type of fishing is the Hillstrand brothers from the Time Bandit who are shown on board a chartered boat offshore in Mexico. It’s quite a change as they are enjoying the warm waters as the rest of the fleet is still working the Bering Sea. For the Time Bandit he season was a successful one, that saw an ealy finish as they quickly raced through their quota. They also came away winning the Captains wager, narrowing beating out the Wizard on their “Captains String”. As this years king crab season comes to a close, we look back at the especially tough season, where crew members fought the Sea and each other, Greenhorns earned their rite of passage and 7 men lost their lives while 4 more will never be able to forget the tragedy when the Katia was lost at sea.
