Deadliest Catch

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Hard to imagine making this kind of money on just a few short weeks, no matter how hard the work is.  But that’s the drawer to put your life on the line as the stakes are extremely high.  But it’s about more than just the money as for many of them it’s in their blood as the only way of life they know.

Time Bandit $1,700,00 Total $52,000 per deckhand
Northwestern $1,600,00 Total $48,000 per deckhand
Cornelia Marie $1,200,000 Total $35,000 per deckhand
Wizard $1,500,000 Total $31,000 per deckhand
North American $349,000 Total $21,000 per deckhand (2 week season)
Early Dawn $523,000 Total $28,000 per deckhand

It’s a fight for bragging rights between the Time Bandit and the Wizard on who will win the weekly Captain’s challenge.  Each boat was allowed to designate one string of 25 pots as the Captains string and the winner would be chosen based on the most crabs during those strings.  Although the Wizard pulls up many pots with over 100 crabs, the last few have small numbers of crabs which brings their average on the string down to a 62.  The Time Bandit continues the lucky streak and ends up with a 75 keeper average on the string.

For the crew of the Northwestern this season has bee anything but easy.  Lacking the high number of crabs per pot they have had to work long hours pulling up low numbers of crabs to fish their quota.  To add insult to injury (Or may the other way around) the picking hook gets thrown about in the heavy seas and ends up whacking Edgar on the forehead, leaving a battle scar of the toil of this year’s season.  Things are even worse on the Early Dawn where it’s almost a mutiny as the crew goes behind the back of the Captain to suggest the owner lease out the boat’s remaining quota,  Obviously the crew has lost of all of their faith in their Captain.

On board the North American a test pot comes up with decent numbers, so Captain Sten decide to try a Haily Mary and “Carpet Bomb” the surrounding area with all of his remaining pots.  In order for his short two week season to be successful he will need those pots to produce strong numbers and his bet pays off.  Capt. Sten previously had never had a pot with more than 100 keepers and soon his numbers are easily exceeding that.  Over on the Cornelia Marie a hydraulic fitting on the crane ruptures and begins leaking hydraulic fluid, while leaving the crippled crane lifeless on deck.  Another daring repair at sea, 30 feet above deck in heavy seas, seems like just another days work to these guys.

Over on the Time Bandit we had another family reunion when Jonathan’s son returned to take the place of his brother Andy who needed to attend to some family business.  We also get a glimpse into the memory of their father (And Grandfather) as the boat is brought in close to the beach to pay respect to his final resting place, facing north and overlooking the approach to the harbor, buried halfway up a mountain.  When it’s all said an done it’s been another profitable season for everyone.  More importantly everyone returned home safe.

The crew aboard the North American continues to struggle as obsolete or missing equipment provides setbacks.  The buoys are hard to find as the boat travels at night without being properly outfitted with high powered sodium lights.  After three of years leasing their quota, rather than fishing, they have no sorting table.  This leaves the hard working crew to have to be constantly bending over and sorting the crabs in the totes.  Another dangerous issue is the fact that in heavy seas the filled totes are constantly sliding all over the deck and could easily take out an unsuspecting crew member as they weight several hundred pounds each.  The lack of proper provisioning isn’t the only obstacle facing the North American as the deck boss is already butting heads with this more experienced crew.  Of course hauling good numbers of crab can easily solve all but the most complicated personality problems.

Meanwhile, aboard the Wizard, Captain Keith goes out on a gamble and attempts to fish an area known as the “Slime Bank”.  This area held record numbers of crab back in the eighties but since has seen little fishing as the crabs seemed to all but disappear.  The aptly named area yields slightly more than large jellyfish as the crew pulls up 19 empty pots.  The hard work of pulling the pots comes without the reward of earnings and before long the Wizard is off to another area to drop it’s pots and try for some late season magic.  After a short soak the numbers look good in an single test pot which came over the rail with around 50 keepers.  However, their new found luck is short lived when a weld on their coiler breaks off, meaning the line on the rest of the pots will need to be hand coiled.  This extra work can be very tedious as well as time consuming but there is no possibility to make the repair while at sea.

Over on the Time Bandit we find Capt Jonathan taking care of an injured bird that found it’s way on the boat while out at sea.  “Squawky” as the bird is named, is treated to a short rest in the captains quarters before being returned to the deck where he disappears a few hours later.  Aside from that, it’s all business pulling pots as an approaching storm front starts to bear down on boat and crew.  Not fairing much better that the bird, we find Capt. Phil aboard the Cornelia Marie continuing his ritual of coffee, Red Bulls, and cigarettes.  To help keep his strength up, his son delivers him a sandwich stuffed with egg and sausage.  How’s that for a healthy diet?  To make matters worse he seems to be coming down with a cold and after 26 hours straight at the wheel decides to take a bit of well earned rest.  Good news is he has finally found the crab.  After a mediocre start his crew has been pulling up large numbers, and even while under pressure from his processor to get back in a few short days to offload, it looks like another very successful season for the Cornelia Marie and her crew.

On the latest episode of Deadliest Catch, we continue to see some boats struggle to find the crab while others are reaping the reward of the Bering Sea and banking on large numbers of crab on every string. Captain Sig makes a decision to move the pots of the Northwestern off of decent crab in an attempt to find bigger and better numbers. The move is not received very well by his crew, but this is Sig’s boat and he is willing to go out on his own. In the end the numbers he finds in his other spot are much lower than what he where he was fishing, which again hurts the morale on deck, especially deck boss Edgar.

Bad luck seems to continue to follow the Time Bandit this season (Didn’t Jonathan talk about a premonition his mother shared before the season started?). This time while pulling pots in 25 foot seas and 40 knot winds, a pin inside a pulley snaps off the boom sending a heavy cable dangerously snapping to deck. Had a pot been attached to the cable, the tension would have forced the cable down on deck with such force that a crew member would have been easily sawed in half. Neal Hillstrand volunteers to climb the boom and repair the pulley and reattach the safety chain in high seas and heavy winds, and it isn’t long before the Time Bandit is back in business narrowly avoiding another catastrophe.

We finally get a glimpse of the North American who will fish for king crab using borrowed pots in a short two week season. The boat is on the cutting edge of “green” technology using it’s patent pending Gen-Tech system to reduce emissions and conserve fuel. The system uses he extra wasted horsepower of the boats main engine to power it’s generator rather than relying on an auxiliary engine. The resulting system saves fuel, maintenance, as well as lowering overall carbon emissions. In the wheelhouse we meet Captain Sten who comes from a long family fishing tradition as well. His father had fished alongside Sig’s father many years ago which I’m sure creates a bit of a rivalry. After leasing their quota to the Wizard the last few years, the North American is back to prove themselves on the Bering Sea. Captain Keith makes sure to gives them a proper welcome as well by tying an outhouse onto one of their pots of them to pull up later. Captain Sten takes the joke rather well then continues to press his crew as time is of the essence.

Tempers flare onboard Wizard and Northwestern. Time Bandit has a dangerous electrical short. On Cornelia Marie, Phil’s health deteriorates. Early Dawn runs headlong into high seas when its greenhorn falls asleep at the wheel.

Long strenuous hours and the harsh working conditions endured by the crews start to take their toll and tempers start to flare up.  We first get a glimpse of this on the Wizard where brothers and fellow captains Keith and Monte get into it after Keith complains about Monte’s attitude after being forced out on deck.   Apparently Monte  doesn’t like to start out on deck after waking up and the last thing Keith wants from his crew at this point is a lowering of morale.  The Wizard isn’t the only boat to see some blood pressures rise as Matt on the Northwestern had had enough of greenhorn Jake showing him up and lunges at him going for his throat.  Edgar and Sig both make it clear that the Bering Sea is no such place to handle their differences as there are just too many dangers that need to be concentrated on.

The Time Bandit also suffers a setback on it’s way back to the crabbing grounds after being unloaded.  A large ballast shorts out causing the entire boat to lose power under the darkness of night while traveling in heavy seas.  The crew is able to quickly repair the damage and get the power and lights restored.  All this while being a man down and a man injured with an empty hold needed to be filled.  We are also introduced to another greenhorn aboard the under performing Early Dawn, Bryan, whose father happens to own the company who owns the boat.  Needless to say this already has made it tough for him to earn respect on the deck, but when he falls asleep during his watch in the wheelhouse it only makes him less popular with is captain and crew.

Finally the luck on board the Cornelia Marie has seems to finally improve as Capt. Phil gets back to his pots and starts pulling up nice numbers of crab.  It might be the lucky hair cuts that his son Josh started with or maybe its was the superstition that made him stay in port an extra day to avoid leaving on a Friday but the Cornelia Marie definitely seems to be on the crab, which takes some of the stress off everyone.