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We got to plan for worst-case scenarios.
We might have to just cut him loose.
I thought hell was supposed to be hot, But I found out that hell is freezing cold.
Code red, mother I got four or five days to load this boat.
I don't have a single crab on it.
Never a dull moment.
I'm not gonna be here for very much longer.
I'm not.
That's a fact.
We're leaning over.
We're leaning over good.
Wait.
I mean, it's just getting pounded right now.
Yeah.
another place where the faces are so cold I'd drive all night just to get back home I'm a cowboy on a steel horse I ride I'm wanted wanted dead or ali-I-I-I-I-I-ve This episode of "deadliest catch" Is presented by frost-brewed coors light.
the northwest of dutch harbor Is the 125-foot Cornelia Marie.
After striking out for two straight weeks, Captain Phil Harris has decided to dust off his old charts And throw out a hail Mary.
Half a mile to eat.
Mm-hmm.
Good.
Got a sandwich, But I don't know if we got five minutes to eat it or what.
This guy.
While the crew wastes no time stuffing their faces, Up in the wheelhouse We're gonna come down here, And see all these little strings? We'll put in millions of pounds of crab right here.
Dear old dad reveals the intricacies Of his most coveted fishing secret to his oldest son, Josh.
The rocks start from right here this way.
And then they're just individual rocks.
I got to mark down on the plotter.
Everybody says this is where you made your name.
This is where I made my name.
This is your spot.
Like, everyone says the rock is your spot.
We're gonna come down and stop the boat, And we're gonna hit little hard spots.
We're gonna weave around and I fished in that spot more than any other spot In this whole [bleep] ocean.
Really? That's pretty cool.
That's pretty [bleep] cool.
Got to feel good about that.
First time I ever got a fish was at the rock with you, huh? We haven't been able to fish here For the past couple of years 'cause of the ice.
The quota that this boat owns, we made right here.
I got millions of hours in this place.
The rockpile is a 5-square-mile underwater mountain range That requires precision fishing.
Land the pot beside the rock, the crab are plentiful.
Land on top of it, you come up empty.
There's bugs and all sorts of [bleep] in these rocks.
And that's what the crabs eat.
That's why they mound up right here.
And lots of guys have tried to come up and set next to me, And if you don't know what I know And what's on this plotter, you'll never make it.
You'll bust.
With plenty of room left in his tanks, Captain Phil will gamble The same place that brought him fortune over a decade ago.
The trick is to get the pot right next to the rock And not on the rock.
There is no doubt in my mind The crab are right where they're supposed to be.
We're gonna set exactly along the track lines That I used 12 years ago.
Okay, you guys, I'm gonna go full speed, Because we got to set these right on the money, And when I beep, you got to let her go.
I don't think anybody wants to mess with the rockpiles, You know? We're just all by ourself here, so that's a good thing.
Yeah, see, there's a soft bottom right here, And then when we hit rock, this'll turn red Just like that right here.
Okay, we ready? Since fishing the rockpile takes such precision, Phil is one of only a handful of skippers in crabbing history To ever take on the challenge.
There's a certain little spot We're trying to get all these pots into.
Trying to be quick, get them off board, And hopefully there's a bunch of crab crawling down there.
Oh [bleep] son of a They know to get the pot ready to go.
They're [bleep] me up.
Phil is trying to set on the soft bottom.
Can't be screwing around.
When he needs to set, he needs to set.
They just set it on a hard spot right there.
Damn it.
Pot after pot, Captain Phil strategically bombs the ocean floor as only he can.
This is a hard thing to fish.
It's a challenge, it's fun, but it's really hard.
And now, after four grueling hours of setting pots Well, we've got two different strings, And I'm trying to get them on some crab.
All Captain Phil can do is wait.
Fishing 76 miles to the South Oh, yeah, it's getting skinny.
Unlike Captain Phil's gamble to precision fish I don't know, man.
These crab, I think they're scattered.
Sig's plan is simple -- Chase mediocre numbers and grind the men till they break.
I think we can still manage to get what we need If we just, you know, Put our nose down and grind a little bit.
Captain sig's demanding schedule Is hitting everyone hard.
I overdid it more ways than one.
Edgar isn't all up to par right now.
I know that he's in pain.
I've been kind of keeping my distance.
Whoo! Oh! As a crew, we want to go in.
We're tired.
But no deckhand is suffering more Than 29-year-old Jake Anderson.
Two days ago, when a 15-foot wave Slammed into the Northwestern' hull Ed! Ed! Jake slipped and sliced his hand with his own cod knife.
There's nothing I can do.
I can't go home, and I can't call in sick.
I'm the only one that makes any kind of money in my family now.
Now Jake's working at 50%.
We're literally a guy short right now.
Jake's doing what he can, but he could be doing more.
Everything on the boat takes two hands.
I used my right hand the last two days.
Right hand, right hand only.
Now I've got no hands.
They're both, you know, in serious pain.
Then if he's got to be a one-arm bandit for a while, Then that's okay, you know? We'll wait.
Not gonna send him homeUnless I have to.
I said, "no, not till you're better.
" You got to have two hands to be able to rack.
It's a safety thing.
I asked help from the wrong person.
It's not my job to babysit.
Maybe Jake could find some sympathy On the Cornelia Marie.
Make yourself useful and make me a sandwich or something.
But not on this deck.
I can't express how depressed and lonely you feel When you're injured.
Thanks for your support, your enthusiasm.
Oh, today was hard.
Just really made me question, is this what I really want to do? I'm not mentally in it, though.
My heart's not even in it.
Is the 118-foot Time bandit.
I haven't seen icing like this since about 2006.
Everything changes when the boat ices up.
After wasting two days hauling blanks and bairdi Captain Andy stacked on all 100 pots And is making a run for his honey hole, Magoo.
We're not quite halfway there.
We're just about halfway there.
The skipper has yet to put a single crab on board.
The only thing he's captured -- Another shellacking of dangerous ice.
Very heavy boat.
You got a lot of situations that could happen bad real fast.
And now We got a code red.
Every skipper's worst nightmare.
We're leaning over.
We're leaning over good.
The Time bandit is listing 20 degrees starboard.
We go dead in the water right now, we're screwed.
We're all over.
Hell of a way to wake up in the morning, though.
We got to go.
Best thing about this morning is we're dumping pots.
The worst part is we got a load of ice on the boat.
It's [bleep] cold out there.
Yeah, it's colder than [bleep] No, everything's [bleep] iced in tighter than a clam's ***.
The only way to get the boat even keel Is to free pots from their icy prison.
I think it's so cold, it's numbing my brain.
What happens when the weather's hitting us From the starboard side, It freezes up everything right there, So those pots will be the hardest ones to dump.
This is a frantic morning.
Heavy -- making us lean.
Look at all this ice we got building up.
Very, very dangerous.
Look at that.
Hard as a rock.
Whoo-wee! Fortunately, the greenhorn Has finally kicked his seasickness And made it out on deck.
I was a little sick this morning when I got up, But just keep going, don't let it get you.
Andy.
Okay, Mike, you guys need to get rid of that one.
Okay, it's going over! Buoy number 1-1! Oh, baby.
We're getting our pots off.
That's the main thing.
De-ice this boat the whole way now instead of partial.
And we get fishing.
We're fishing, man.
John, [bleep] water in the [bleep] fuel.
Mother[bleep] Even a small amount of water in the fuel tank Can stall the engines.
We had a hard starboard list because of all this ice, And now, also, we have water in the tanks.
With the extreme list, The rail is now dipping below the water.
Over the years, saltwater corrosion Has left behind tiny holes in the rail, Which are now allowing water to trickle into the fuel tank -- A lethal mixture for a boat on the bering sea.
Yeah, this is one of the worst starts we've ever had, I think, huh? Bottom line is we got to get this gear off the boat.
Yeah, it's getting more and more dangerous The longer we keep our gear on board.
Worst-case scenario is we don't get these pots off, Keep getting water in the fuel, we go dead in the water, And then the boat sinks.
Welcome to hell, brother.
As the crew races to stabilize the time bandit, The Cornelia Marie steams toward the top of the rockpile.
I'm 100% sure that I know how to catch these crab.
After letting his pots soak for 24 hours, Captain Phil is ready to pull his first string at the rock.
Our whole fleet is below us.
I'm here, and they're there.
Now, the trick is to get them to stay there.
Phil has the grounds all to himself.
Phil.
All right, are we ready to rock 'n' roll? Yeah, baby! Say a prayer to the crab God that there's crab in this string So I don't have to slit my wrists.
Rock 'n' roll! Yeah! You know, the crabs aren't on hard bottom.
They're on, you know, mud and [bleep] The first pot looked real bad.
Better be something start coming up here, Or we're gonna be in deep [bleep] Yeah, we're on the slutty side of town, Picking up some bad juju from this area.
Come on, dude.
You're gonna throw the hook.
Pay attention, would you? We could all be sitting on nothing right now, And I'm having to think about where to [bleep] move, And, I mean, I'm just praying to God There's crab in this next string.
If it was me, I would have went up to where we were at last year first.
You got to know when to pull the plug on something Before you're hauling blanks.
We're gonna maybe make a move here.
We'll see what we see in the rest of this string, But that's what I'm thinking about doing.
News flash! What happened?! They're moving! They're on the run! Maybe I'll be wrong.
I mean, there is no crab here.
Jogging off her gear of dutch harbor Is the 155-foot Wizard.
How are your hands doing? It's been an all-night grind, And now, after a short three-hour break, Greenhorn Paul Edgren Sits down in a rare one-on-one with Captain Keith.
When I go to bed, I'm gonna be super tired, And soon as I lay in my rack You can't go to sleep.
Yeah.
First year of crab fishing's the worst.
Same thing happens to a lot of people climbing.
They hit a certain level, and it's like, "I can't do this," So they quit, And actually they were at their lowest point right there.
Yeah, exactly.
It is the same thing.
While Keith and his former mountain guide bond over chow, The rest of the weary crew are already gearing up for battle.
I thought the first round, The new guy didn't get any sleep at all, But I guess he's changed that.
I think so.
Guys thought I was coddling you.
No.
I was like, "you got to be with me.
" Back to work! Hey, Paul! Out there in six minutes.
Sure.
I think they want to see you out there pretty bad.
I'd shovel that food down and gear up.
Set three strings out through here.
It's northwest of where we were.
We've got all the gear moved up the hill now.
Got 36 hours.
So hopefully we'll get that Give me a count on that one.
Because we're gonna start baiting every pot And stacking on.
The first pot over the rail tells Captain Keith This is not the place to be.
Now he'll haul his pots, bait them, And look for greener pastures.
We're gonna probably need more if you don't got some already.
And we need them over here.
They don't do us any good up there.
I can just keep stacking them on here, And if for some reason I do get in one of these strings And it looks solid, I can always just turn around and lay them all out right here.
Okay.
What you want to do is basically Paul's just been grinding and just minding his own business.
Honestly, the fact that the deck looks pretty neat is a plus.
Sometimes I try to jump in and help, And I was trying to kick those codfish down out of the way.
I was actually kicking them directly in the way.
Don't say, "my bad," all right? I hate that.
It turns my [bleep] stomach.
I'm serious.
It sounds like a little 2-year-old! "my bad! My bad!" You couldn't pay me enough to be a greenhorn nowadays On this boat.
Take up the slack, Paul! He's going as fast as he physically can right now, And it's not, clearly, fast enough for us.
I think we're totally screwed.
All of a sudden, the fishing just kind of went flat.
Hold on, Paul.
Greenhorn in the pot.
I think it's only fitting.
"my bad.
" He took my knife! Get those crab out! Hey, have you ever been on? These guys love greenhorn for dinner.
Although Keith's usually up For a good old-fashioned greenhorn ribbing Hey! Real bad choice of timing To mind [bleep] with the greenhorn.
Lousy fishing has left a bad taste in the skipper's mouth.
Probably got 75,000 or 80,000 pounds of crab On this boat right now.
Got maybe six days to fill it.
It ain't gonna happen.
The way we're fishing right now, We'd be lucky to fill the port side in six days.
to the northwest of dutch harbor Is the 118-foot Time bandit.
I got a boat that's iced up.
I got water in my fuel.
I have 71 pots, crab pots, left on the deck I got to get off this boat.
In order to clear the boat of nearly 50 tons of ice My hands are so [bleep] cold! The crew has been working nonstop for eight hours.
I thought hell was supposed to be hot, But I found out that hell is freezing cold.
And with their starboard list, The fuel tank continues to take on water.
Till I get all this ice off the boat, ain't nobody safe.
Watch your head.
Right behind you.
Right behind you.
Even though we got quite a bit of it off, Be a lot of chipping ice As soon as we get done dropping our gear.
Better hold on, Mike! You got a big wave! For another five tedious hours, The bone-weary crew clears the deck of icy pots.
Down below, Neal Hillstrand goes through filter after filter, Attempting to spin the water out from the contaminated fuel tank.
Things are getting better, Andy.
Right on.
Still got a lot of gear to get off this boat.
But the good thing is, is we're not sinking anymore.
After dumping 50 pots, The Time bandit slowly begins to right itself -- For now.
Be nice to, say, get all this ice off this rigging up here So it's a little bit safer around here.
By tonight, We're gonna have about 300,000 pounds Of ice and pots off the boat.
So they're not gonna be getting much sleep, but we're fishing.
Makes me think this is a young man's job.
Guys like you supposed to be out here hustling.
Hustling? Not so much.
Greenhorn Jeremy has his mind elsewhere.
This job's a little cold.
Almost wish that I could be in a nice warm bed.
Moments later, The greenhorn walks off the deck.
Jeremy! Where'd my greenhorn go? Yeah, where is the greenhorn? We're out here doing his job.
Greenhorn is a piece of [bleep] He should be out here helping.
What makes him any better? Fed up, Eddie decides to pay the greenhorn a visit.
Just to give you a heads-up, dude, You're one of the last ones to come off the deck.
You got to make sure all your bait setups are ready, All that stuff, 'cause we're out there doing your job.
You got to pull your weight around here, Otherwise, well, there's no reason to have you on here.
I gotcha.
Okay? All right, brother.
All right.
Just a heads-up.
But the greenhorn is the last thing on Captain Andy's mind.
I got four or five days to load this boat.
I don't have a single crab on it.
Want to talk pressure, man.
Nothing I can do about it.
I'm still alive.
I know that.
While Andy deals with the mounting pressure, The Northwestern jogs off her gear.
After hauling 10 strings, Captain sig has given the crew their first break in 40 hours.
How's my arm? Arm's pretty good.
Yeah, two days, I've just used my right hand alone.
Outsorting half the fleet, too, with that one arm.
Northwestern style Do you need to go back to the Cornelia Marie? Are you getting cocky again? Yeah.
Go back to the Cornelia Marie.
Send me there.
At least they respect me over there.
They didn't respect you.
Bull[bleep] They love me over there.
So the grass was greener, was it? Oh, you should have never sent me over there.
Well, that's fine.
Not going anywhere.
I got a guy at the dock waiting.
I'm sure you do.
He'll replace you for 2%.
Sure he will suck, too.
Oh, I'll be you he'll do just as good.
After Jake's reality check, The crew gets back on deck for a five-hour grind.
Nothing slows the machine down.
Just want to get this first trip under our belt.
Not bad at all.
Can't keep this pace up forever.
With only two days until delivery If they want more sleep, they got to try to haul it faster.
There is no rest for the weary.
Like, sore, tired.
Don't want to go on anymore.
Can't take it.
Whoo! Oh, my God.
Whoa! Oh! For the first time since his injury two days ago Jake takes himself out of the rotation.
Jake can't go for the rest of the season with one arm.
Everybody else is suffering because of it.
That's not gonna fly.
What the hell just happened? The half-ton crab pot comes crashing down Landing just feet from the crew.
How the hell'd that happen? Geez.
Big part of making the deck safe is those dogs.
An 875-pound pot landing on your head -- It's not gonna hurt, it's just gonna kill you.
It only happens once.
A pot lands on you, you're done.
My dogs are not working well.
They're not working well at all.
We have to work around that.
Like Jake -- Jake's not working well, So we have to work around him and help him along.
Even after barely averting disaster Ahh! The crew pushes on.
You know it's the end when your *** is totally kicked.
Whoa! The last pot of the string clears the rail.
Yeah, it's a stuffed tank, dude.
And as always, sig's grind pays off.
And, I mean, I'm impressed with the guys For the simple reason we were a man down when Jake got hurt, But there's a time to cut the cord And draw the line with anything.
If he doesn't look like it's gonna get better by the next trip, Then we have no -- we might have to just cut him loose.
to the northwest of dutch harbor Is the Cornelia Marie.
Now, I've got to say this just because I got to.
And I want everybody to listen up.
You guys are gonna have to figure out how to make a sandwich on a run, Because we could drag this out till may if we want, But I ain't into stopping.
Phil's mood has soured.
No more cooking breakfast.
Be about 10 minutes.
Especially with two strings of blanks, The plan at the rockpile has been a bust.
This is my far-eastern string.
If there's some crab in here, They're gonna be there and there.
If we pull anything up that's a bust now, we're out of here.
This is what the spot check is for, To see if we're staying or going, you know.
See what happens when the pot's up.
It's stuffed.
That's what we're talking! Yeah! Oh [bleep] Yeah! Yeah, baby! That's why he's up there and I'm down here.
That's got to be a beautiful thing.
That's jackpot! Ah, we can set that one back.
That one pot just told me a wealth of information -- That I know how to catch these crab.
And they're real clean -- really nice, white, pearly.
Pearly beauties.
Oh, I got to take it for granted now That there's crab here and go ahead, No matter what the [bleep] comes up in them, And lay these things out like I know what I'm doing.
Bait it up, set it back.
Yeah, baby! That's what we're talking about.
Yeah! Thousands of dinners right here.
Bring it on! Come on, baby! Oh, God! Cook some breakfast! Do you see what you're forcing him to do?! Cook some breakfast! Deckhand Freddy celebrates Captain Phil's fishing grounds In true samoan style Oh, you got to give me a second.
Can't even look at that.
With cod-intestine sushi.
Oh! Still chewing on it! That is so gross.
Always just good to dump them crab in the tank, you know? Just like you deposit money in the bank.
There was 2 1/2 totes in that pot and 600 crab.
Beautiful crab -- big opie.
They're cute.
Got to find me a girlfriend that look like that.
I like the rock.
magnet.
It's a *** magnet for crab.
There's crab here.
Yes, sirree, Bob.
That's 500.
We got even the little -- oh, big riders on the top, Outside the pot, everywhere.
You know, the old man was right.
The old man is definitely showing us He knows what he's doing out here.
Home sweet home! Although Phil's been able to recapture his glory days Sorry, guys! So slow! When it comes to the future and his kids Josh and Jake -- Neither one of them are showing initiative to run the boat.
If something ever happened to me in an emergency, There's certain things they have to do to survive.
The aging skipper Still has a lot of unanswered questions.
I'm not gonna be here for very much longer.
I'm not.
That's a fact.
You know, I smoke like a train.
I've done every drug known to man.
I mean, hell, that [bleep] catches up to you.
Would I get more productive off somebody else than my kid? Yeah.
Yeah.
But, then again, you know, I get to spend time with my kids.
There's not enough money in the world That can buy that, you know? The coors light crab count.
The Cornelia Marie's rockpile gamble has paid off.
northwest of dutch harbor, On the Cornelia Marie Steady as she goes.
Jake Harris keeps his dad company on wheel watch.
How do you feel about having your son In charge of a multimillion-dollar operation? I'm sure he could do it.
He's got the intelligence.
You got to have the want.
It's even a scary thought for me to think about.
I was running a boat when I was 21.
Well, you're the man.
Bought a house and running a boat.
Making tons of money.
I was.
You're not doing too bad yourself.
Yeah, well, back then, You were making five times as much as I make now.
You're blinging, pops.
Straight up blinging.
Yeah, well You could be making it, too, if you wanted to be.
Kodiak, rescue 1-3.
Flight ops normal.
Current position Heading 283.
having chest pains.
The 150-foot fishing vessel alaskan leader Requests a coast guard medevac For a deckhand in grave condition.
Oh, lordy, lordy.
When you get bad news on a boat, It's the worst place in the whole world to be.
It's just the worst.
Because there's nothing you're gonna do about it.
E.
T.
A.
of about five minutes from right now.
A 64-foot jayhawk helicopter races to the scene.
There's a man on board who had a heart attack.
They gave him some medicine that was not meant for him, So it made the situation worse.
So we'll go hoist him off the boat, Bring him back to st.
Paul.
Copy that.
We do have a light on the horizon about 11:30.
Looks rough now.
Yeah.
Yeah, it does.
It's rough.
Yeah, we've probably got about about 15-footers out here.
And winds gusting up to 32 miles an hour Will make the hoist a high-risk operation.
Want to come over from the right side.
Yeah.
But with the fisherman experiencing cardiac distress, Waiting is not an option.
Got another big wave coming.
I'm gonna start moving in.
Roger.
Okay.
The rescue swimmer prepares to be lowered more than 100 feet To the vessel's heaving deck.
Swell approaching.
Hold position.
Swimmer's going down.
Forward and right.
Forward and right.
Control the turn.
Hold position.
Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! I understand.
All right.
The 28-knot winds cause the swimmer To swing within inches of the steel mast.
Yep.
I thought I was going in the mast.
I'm glad you pulled me up.
What do you guys think? How we looking on fuel? We don't have a lot of gas left.
We can get Rob on, But we may not be able to get him off.
I am not feeling good on this one.
With the coast guard short on time, fuel, and luck, A fisherman's life hangs in the balance.
We might have a better shot tomorrow.
Over.