Deadliest CatchRed Skies in the Morning
Original Air Date: April 21, 2009
Jeff P. – Sr. Staff Writer
jeffp@thetwocentscorp.com
“Red skies in morning, sailors take warning… red skies at night, sailors delight”. Captain Sig Hansen shares with us this old adage because he knows a storm is coming.
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[photo: Discovery Channel]
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“Red skies in morning, sailors take warning… red skies at night, sailors delight”. Captain Sig Hansen shares with us this old adage because he knows a storm is coming.
ReplyDeleteThe Wizard
They pull Keith out of his gear and he seems to be in a daze. Last week we were left with the cliffhanger that had Keith hitting his head on the hull of the Wizard. After an hour and a half he starts to get better, but plans to rest first and let Monte take over. 8 hours later, he comes back to the wheelhouse and he tells us that his children are what keep him going.
The Time Bandit
Captain Jonathan is still reaping the benefits from his test runs in his hotspot. He drops all of the gear on a half-mile of ocean floor and hopes for the best. Meanwhile, the deckhands are working hard competing for a spot on next year’s run. They are expecting to use one less crewmember for next season. As the night falls, the pots coming in are still full to the brim. He’s pulled in 30 thousand pounds of crab already in this short season.
The Northwestern
The Hansen’s vessel is the first to feel the storms strength. Sig gets a call from his wife and she tells him that a typhoon from Japan is heading their way. And that will converge with two existing storms that are on the west side of the fishing grounds. He has the crew working on a 30-hour shift trying to get as much fishing in before the storm hits in full. The crew is totally exhausted and barely avoids an accident when a pot gets hooked up on another one.
The Cornelia Marie
Relief Captain Murray Gamrath is hoping to fill the shoes of Phil Harris, who had to sit out for health reasons. So far, not so good as they are pulling up empty pots. He ended up with 15 crab from 30 pots on his first run. Phil calls in to check with Murray, and suggests he goes after Jonathan’s hot area before he cleans it out. They travel north into the storm but still aren’t seeing large numbers. The crew is getting frustrated with Murray and the lack of numbers.
U.S. Coast Guard
I’m never happy writing a blurb with the Coast Guard for this show. It generally means that a vessel has gone down. The Captains get the mayday call from the Katmai, but the troubled vessel is 900 miles from their current position so they can’t do anything but hope and pray for the safety of its crew. Even though the Coast Guard’s Jayhawk chopper can go 207 miles per hour, it has to fly into a typhoon, and the vessel is 900 miles away. After a long night, the Alaskan Coast Guard crew makes it to the site, and they don’t find much at first. They see some gear and an empty lifeboat. Finally, they pull a body out of the water. We’ll have to wait to find out about the fate of the Katmai crew.
I have to say, there is no better drama or choking up kind of television than real life television. Even though I love the TV cliffhangers and the double-crossing and the surprising hook-ups, it doesn’t compare. For the last 10 minutes of tonight’s episode we followed the Coast Guard to the site of the Katmai, and it is truly amazing that people do this on a normal basis. I don’t like sitting on my couch for 7 hours straight, much less sitting in a chopper flying into a typhoon not knowing if there will be anyone to rescue. Again I have to tip my hat to the Coast Guard, and the fishermen who brave these storms for us.