Deadliest Catch“Storm Season”
Original Air Date: June 3, 2008
Jeff P. – TwoCents Reviewer
jeffp@thetwocentscorp.com
Fishing in the Bering Sea is a dangerous job. But as any regular viewer of this show knows the danger only ramps up in January. It’s Opilio crab season for the fleet again. Mortality rates double and the weather gets worse then ever. Let the hunt begin.
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Deadliest Catch
ReplyDelete“Storm Season”
Original Air Date: June 3, 2008
Jeff P. – TwoCents Reviewer
jeffp@thetwocentscorp.com
Fishing in the Bering Sea is a dangerous job. But as any regular viewer of this show knows the danger only ramps up in January. It’s Opilio crab season for the fleet again. Mortality rates double and the weather gets worse then ever. Let the hunt begin.
The Cornelia Marie
Captain Phil Harris is looking to have a better opie season than he had with the king crab season. They have a new 40 thousand dollar engine overhaul on the vessel and they’re ready to go. He is able to set all 180 of his pots through the Arctic storm that has blown in. The first test pots show great numbers. But before they can continue, the engine overheats. They will have to turn around and head back to Dutch Harbor. More bad news for Phil.
The Northwestern
Captain Sig Hansen is ready to go for the new season, although the crew is battling the flu. But greenhorn Jake is not affected, and is looking forward to proving his worth to Sig and the crew. After launching, deckhand Matt bites the head off of a herring and they drop their first pots of the opie season. They just get all 150 pots in as an Arctic storm hits.
The North American
Captain Sten Skaar tells his newest greenhorn Daryl that it’s good to be afraid on this trip, which will be his maiden voyage. We’re introduced to deckhand David who has sadly lost his younger brother Jeffrey just two weeks previous. He fell two stories off a stack of pots and lost his life. Later Sten wants to set his pots through the night. Greenhorn Daryl is having a tough time acclimating to the new job. He is slow, but so far the crew is patient with him. We’ll see how long that lasts.
The Time Bandit
As tradition has it, Captain Andy Hillstrand takes over the helm for opilio season from his brother Jonathan. And we’re also surprised to see that Jonathan’s son Scott is back to fish. There was doubt if he would come back to the job considering the family concerns he had earlier this season. After dropping their pots and sailing through an Arctic storm, they are ready to pull their first test pots. Unfortunately, they only caught more bait. But towards the end of the string they start catching much higher numbers. There was a wild moment when a 35’ wave hit the bow. It took Scottie for a ride on the picking hook. He swooped above the deck like Errol Flynn.
The Wizard
As Captain Keith Colburn gets his crew ready to go, he warns them of the fate of Jeffrey Nes of the North American. He tells greenhorn Moi to be careful up on the stack of pots. They leave a little late for extra fuel and Keith is fighting the storm to place his first pots. There is an early scare with getting going. He has 250 pots on board which he can’t drop being in too deep of water. But if the Arctic spray keeps up, it could freeze the pots making them heavier on deck. And with 40 foot waves pounding the vessel, he takes extra care to get through it. 5 hours later, he is able to start dropping pots. But the next day, they lose their hydraulics. This is bad news for Captain Keith, since everything that runs on the boat uses hydraulics.
Coast Guard copter 6035
The episode ends with a little drama, as we launch off with a coast guard helicopter for the first distress call of the season. A man has had a seizure on board one of the vessels. The rescue will be difficult flying into 70 knot winds and the 2nd storm of the early season. They extract the patient successfully (and in the nick of time). However, they are flying into strong headwinds in the storm and the copter starts to ice up. With low fuel, a patient who needs medical assistance and this storm, it seems that they need to be rescued now. But we’ll have to find out next week!
I find that Opilio season always gets a little scarier. Watching the huge waves and storms and the de-icing is always eye opening. I enjoyed the way they ended this one with the Coast Guard looking to rescue the fisherman. The Coast Guard are the unsung heroes more often than not. And we ended on a cliffhanger! How about that? If this show was in real time, I’d be waiting for Jack Bauer to make an appearance. What do you think? Your one comment is equal to two cents in our book.