[Jake] Looks like we got another Super El Nino storm coming in.
This one's gonna pack a punch.
I just really am praying to the Lord
that He will have some mercy on me.
[Rick on PA system] Dear Heavenly Father,
I pray your blessing be upon the boat.
In your name, amen.
[alarm blaring]
Sewage. Something's going on.
[Rick] If I gotta run back to town,
we're done.
[Johnathan] God give us the strength and wisdom and courage
to fear nothing.
Also give us the eyesight to watch out for each other.
-[bleep] -[alarm ringing]
[Johnathan speaking]
[Jake] God, please help me have some fun
in all this adversity and keep everybody safe.
Watch the rail, watch the rail!
That being said...
let me crush down all my opponents.
-[man 1] Yeah, baby, whoo! -What a day to be alive.
Oh, my God!
Yeah!
Amen.
[narrator] 250 miles northwest of Dutch Harbor...
[man] Yeah! Whoo!
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
That's how you roll, baby.
[all cheer]
Irish, baby! Irish, baby!
[laughs]
[all cheer]
The luck of the Irish.
[narrator] ...on the Time Bandit ...
[Johnathan] This might be the hot one.
Hot spot.
He just did the Irish jig, so...
Here we go.
Weather's coming up fast.
It's gonna be really evil.
So if this storm goes from here,
1,600 miles down, you do the math, Mike Rowe.
[narrator] ...two weeks into the winter season,
barreling south out of Norton Sound, Alaska,
on a collision course with the golden king and bairdi grounds,
a 600-mile-wide cyclonic low-pressure system
threatens John, his approaching offload, and the entire fleet
with 45-mile-an-hour winds and 25-foot waves.
Strap in, old buddy.
[Johnathan] Hopefully it blows through quick.
That's all we can do.
[man 2] Come to Papa.
There you go. Start doing some dancing, baby.
[man 2] Come on, big boy!
Oh!
Come on, baby!
What the hell?
Take it! Take it!
-[indistinct chatter] -Pull back, pull back!
Not good.
Three! Three crabbers!
You know, these crab nests this time of year are walking to the west,
separating from the females when they go hunting,
and the little ones try to follow the big ones,
but the big ones are too fast.
[on PA system] Caleb, see if these pots get any better.
[Caleb] Roger.
Ropes on, ropes on!
Come on, baby! Come on, baby!
Give us some love.
Give us some love!
[man 3] That's one!
One golden king crab!
Got one.
Well, that ain't good.
Fishing hasn't been good.
[on radio] But at least we haven't had any mechanical breakdown.
[Johnathan speaking]
Always knock on wood when they say it up here.
I'm knocking on wood for them.
Oh...
[bleep]
Yeah, well, better stack that one, too.
I don't know where I'm gonna go next,
but I need to go to a really good spot.
That's for damn sure.
[alarm blaring]
-[bleeping] -[men clamoring]
[man shouting]
[bleep]
[man shouting]
[Johnathan] Neal!
[bleep]
[man 3] Watch out!
[bleep]
[Johnathan speaking]
Oh.
[man 2] I got it. Watch out, watch out.
I got it, I got it, I got it.
[man 1 speaking]
God, that was scary.
Yeah, that was a...
That one shook me up pretty good.
Got my ticker going.
I saw that pot coming right towards the wheelhouse window,
and then it went black.
I was just worried about the guys, is all that I was worried about.
That was like a wrecking ball.
Like a death trap.
Say, "Nice boat," and rub it and pat it.
Rub the boat, nice boat.
Nice boat.
You think you've seen everything,
you haven't seen everything, have you?
Oh, [bleep]
Ai-ai-ai.
[on PA system] All right.
Breaker's fixed.
Hopefully we find some crabs.
[narrator] 48 miles north, on the western bairdi grounds,
inside the southwestern edge of the storm...
[Jake] Hey, can you guys come into the galley?
[man] Yeah.
[narrator] ...aboard the Titan Explorer...
[Jake] Everybody here?
Yeah, you can sit down, stand up,
whatever you want to do, Rolando.
I'll try to make this quick.
We know the weather's deteriorating rapidly,
so the safest way for us to haul,
just 'cause they're a mile apart,
well, buzz when the pot's there and ready,
so there's no reason to be out there.
Try to get your stuff done,
and if it's too violent, just run under the heaters.
That's why I bought the heaters,
and then I'll sound the horn when it's time.
Okay?
-[all] Okay. -Everybody okay?
[man] Everybody okay.
[Jake] All right, let's hustle and get out there.
I mean, you guys have been through hell before.
[man] I know.
[narrator] With only 20,000 pounds
of his 140,000-pound bairdi quota in the tank,
Captain Jake Anderson prepares to time the weather,
queuing the deck to haul each pot between 25-foot breakers.
[Jake] This new area...
I can see the snowman.
It's a historical fishing spot.
There's always something there.
There's two strings here.
One east, one west.
So we're west a little bit.
[Rolando speaking]
[bleep]
Weather is [bleeping]
I don't know which pots are gonna hit.
I don't know if any pots are gonna hit.
Let's see what we get.
[Rolando] Oh, my God!
[bleep] No crab.
[man] Whoo!
These wave heights are pickin' up, they're gettin' pretty big.
[speaking on PA system]
Right now, we're doing the haul and hide,
so pick up the pot, let them stack it,
and then once they're up in the forepeak,
I'll run to the next pot.
This pot's spread out about a mile apart.
Not that much fun to try to find.
There it is.
Just gotta make this [bleep] corner here.
[device beeps]
Where the [bleep] is everybody?
[device beeping]
[whistles]
[Jake] Hang on! Hang on! Hang on!
-Watch around, watch around, watch around! -[alarm blaring]
[narrator] On the Titan Explorer...
-[alarm blaring] -[grunts]
[Rolando screams]
[bleep]
[bleep] Damn it!
[groans]
[Jake speaking]
Where the [bleep] is everybody?
[man] You okay?
You okay, buddy?
[bleep] Just got [bleep] hammered, dude.
I don't know how hard.
I'll find out here in a minute,
but I have to get this [bleep] pot on.
[whistles]
-[alarm blares] -[grunts]
-[screams] -He got [bleep] hit hard.
Wasn't fast enough.
[bleep]
I got to make it through this trip, and I need him.
[Rolando speaking]
[Jake] We continue on to the next string,
but I got to stack all the pots on in this storm.
Not very safe.
[bleep]
[narrator] 220 miles below the storm...
...in Dutch Harbor...
[man 1] Is it all the way or a little further?
-[man 2] It's all the way. -[man 1] All right.
[narrator] Aboard the Aleutian Lady...
[Rick] Right now, I'm kind of stuck.
I can't go out to see a man down.
I pretty much have to hire anybody I possibly can
that is mechanically inclined
and got to try to make this work.
I had to let Breedlove go.
I just had to put my foot down.
[narrator] After firing his last engineer for insubordination,
but still 45,000 pounds of bairdi to catch,
Captain Rick Shelford gets the word out,
"There's work for the willing."
[Vasily] So I got a phone call that one of the vessels
needs an engineer for crabbing.
Um, I'm kind of excited.
Hopefully everything works out.
Last time I was here, I was just on my way from the bridge
to pick up some mushrooms, edible mushrooms.
And I didn't know that I can't... I was on the road.
I didn't know it's private property.
And the cops followed me
because they got a call from security,
and they arrested me for trespassing.
And I spent the night in jail.
Usually I'm not allowed to come on this part of the island,
but I'll do it.
Um, I've got to meet the captain and look at the boat.
-Hey. -[Rick] Hey, you must be...
-Vasily. -Hey, I'm Rick. Nice to meet you, man.
Nice to meet you, too.
So what kind of experience do you have?
Well, I've been working and living on vessels since 2019.
Five years.
[Rick] Okay. And how much pot experience do you have?
Uh, I did the red king crab five years ago.
One of the reasons I need to get...
I'm trying to make some extra money. So I can hopefully...
[bleep]
I'm sorry. It's a little bit too much.
Oh, no problem.
So I'm basically saving money right now
so I can go see my son.
It's going to be eight years somewhere around Father's Day.
So basically I'm trying to make some extra money
so I can finally go see him.
That's a good reason to save some money.
Welcome aboard.
Thank you very much.
Go grab your stuff and guys will show you around.
-[Vasily] Thank you very much. -All right, man. Thank you.
[Vasily speaking]
[Rick] Go ahead and drop it. Let's go.
Yeah, Roger.
Let's go catch some crab.
We have a new engineer.
Look at this big guy.
-I told him I'd do my best. -[laughs]
He's about, you know, ten feet tall.
Let's see how he works out.
[Rick] I have not had good luck with Dutch Harbor hires,
but if he is a competent engineer, he might work out.
Right now I really need to find some fresh bottom.
I really need a big score.
[narrator] 214 miles northwest on the Time Bandit...
Our big prospect strength didn't pay off,
so we gotta get these pots on some crabs.
[man] Drop it, drop it, drop it.
So far, I'm doing pretty good keeping the waves off them.
[man] Yeah, baby.
Beautiful.
205. I'm going to run this a little deeper.
Run this out a little deeper.
-[man 1] Fire! -[man 2] Going over.
Yeah!
This is definitely where two currents are going together
around this island.
[narrator] Racing to set and haul all 40 pots
before the 600-mile wide low pressure system
overruns his location,
Captain Jonathan targets a depression
on the south side of St. George
where he suspects feed has settled
and the biomass is feasting.
[Johnathan speaking]
[man 1] Let's go deep.
[man 2] Go deep, baby.
Time for us to turn into Aquaman.
Hang on, boys.
[man exclaims]
[man 2] Hurry up, right there, let's go!
-[man 1] Going over. -[man 2] Roger!
I've seen them all hanging on. Here's another one.
It's a big one.
Nothing. Got nothing.
I got no steering.
Hey, guys, I got no steering.
Tell Neal we lost the steering.
Neal!
Make sure he takes it off, puts it on manual.
Roger that.
[Johnathan] We're helpless.
Helpless in the tides and the winds and the seas
and everything else.
[narrator] On the Time Bandit...
-[Russell] Ron! -Yeah.
Make sure he takes it off, puts it on manual.
Roger that.
I got one steering hose blown.
Russell said, "Put it on manual."
-[Johnathan] I have no manual. I got no steering until-- -Roger that.
-You guys gotta fix this. -Roger that, Captain.
[Johnathan] If you don't turn the steering pump on,
we're just sitting, we're just floating ducks.
We got no manual and no steering.
We gotta fix it.
We got nothing.
If we can't fix it, I need to know.
If I can call someone, I can SOS.
We're just floating ducks.
[sighs]
We're in a really bad spot here. This is not good.
We don't have the right hydraulic fittings
and the right hoses.
I don't have steering. I have to call Coast Guard.
I mean, I gotta have steering, you know.
We can't maneuver, we can't keep our bow
into the waves anymore.
I got guys down there I can't protect.
Neal and Vincent.
Until then, we're out of commission.
[narrator] 52 miles northwest...
Whoo!
-Yeah! -[bleep]
He's already a little cranky.
I would be too if I was a seven-foot-tall giant on a boat.
[laughs]
[narrator] Aboard the Aleutian Lady...
[Rick] Our first trip was pretty poor.
I wanted to come up here, get away from everybody,
and find a good biomass up here.
Whoo.
[Rick] That is the boot.
I'm hoping I'll be by myself.
That's what I'm looking for.
Remember, heads on a swivel.
We got to be careful.
Right now, weather's starting to pick up.
Watch yourselves.
The roll of the boat, the way the weather is right now,
it's extremely dangerous.
[Rick] Wow, that is a big-ass wave.
[Vasily] Oh, you are the worst!
[speaking] Big wave, watch the rail.
Watch the rail.
[Vasily] Oh, my God!
[Rick] Oh!
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Watch the rail. Watch the rail.
[Vasily speaking]
[Jacob speaking]
Whoo.
[bleep]
[Vasily groaning]
[man] You okay?
You okay, buddy?
[Vasily] Yeah.
Hey, you okay, man?
[Vasily] I didn't see it, so...
And I was sliding all the way to the pass.
At least I didn't go overboard.
[Rick speaking]
[Vasily speaking]
Are you okay?
Did it get smashed?
[Vasily speaking]
[Rick] We're Bering Sea fishing.
We're in the middle of a storm.
Come on.
[Vasily] Yep, well, see you.
So, guys...
Uh...
I don't need anybody getting hurt.
And I'll call them out as I see them up here.
[man 2] Aye-aye!
[Rick] Vasily looks confused.
We've got to be careful.
We really need to not have anybody get injured.
Hopefully, we come up with a nice pocket
of crab or some fish.
[narrator] 120 miles northeast...
[Jake speaking]
[narrator] ...in the heart of the storm.
[Jake] We're going to try it.
We'll just do it one at a time.
Make my turns.
Rolando, be careful.
Don't trust me. [laughs]
So let's try to get these on and get the hell out of here.
[narrator] Aboard the Titan Explorer...
Big waves out there.
Not conducive for a safe working environment.
I already hit Rolando with a wave.
But we're going to need everybody.
[bleep]
[narrator] After striking out on the west and responsible
for striking deckhand Rolando Miramontes
with a 25-foot wave,
Captain Jake turns to his Eastern gear, betting the fresh ground
is worth the pounding.
[man yelling indistinctly]
[bleep]
[Jake] All right, guys. Here's the first pot.
[man] All right, let's roll.
[bleep]
I swear to God, if these pots don't come up with [bleep] crab,
I'm going to lose it.
[Jake] I'm deep in the red.
Something's got to change eventually,
even if that is my position in this chair.
[bleep]
[Rolando] Whoa, whoa, whoa, first pot, baby.
[on radio] Here we go.
Yeah!
[chuckles]
[on PA system] Not bad.
[Rolando laughs] I like it.
Nice big crab.
They're big boys.
Big crab. Lean crab.
Very easy for sorting.
Yeah!
[all cheering]
Oh, yeah, that's a good one.
[all cheering]
[Jake] That's a pile.
[man cheers]
[Rolando speaking]
Loading up, dude.
[bleep] yeah.
Yeah, baby.
[Jake speaking]
[man] Stop, stop, stop!
[Rolando groans]
[bleep]
[Rolando grunts]
[Jake speaking]
Popped out of the block.
[bleep] got Rolando in the face.
[groans]
[speaks indistinctly]
It'll [bleep] break your teeth out.
[Rolando grunting]
[Jake] You're going to have to stack that pot.
I'm just going to jog easy right now.
[man] Yeah, Roger.
[Jake] From one to ten, how's the pain?
-[Rolando speaking] -Seven?
Because of your teeth?
-Anything wrong with your teeth? -[bleep]
You don't want to have a screwed up [bleep] tooth,
because then we'd have to fix that.
I'm not going to let you leave here
with a broken tooth.
[Rolando speaking]
So I don't want to take you out of rotation
if I don't have to.
-But if your pain's at a seven-- -[Rolando speaking]
[Jake] Okay.
Yeah, if you want to lay down...
[Jake] Okay.
All right. Then, well, [bleep]
Take your break, and I'm glad you're okay.
Right now, you know, Rolando's going to rest.
As soon as we get this block situation figured out,
get them back to work.
Sometimes life just seems impossible.
Feels impossible.
Is impossible.
I'm not going to give up.
[narrator] Just ten miles below the southwestern edge of the storm.
[Neal] Roger that.
[narrator] On the Time Bandit...
[Johnathan] We don't have the right fittings and right hoses.
We've had this happen before.
Go into two-inch hose back into a quarter-inch hose,
back into eighth inch.
We'll fix it.
[narrator] Dead stick for the past three hours.
Captain Johnathan and crew
race to get their steering online
before the veteran skipper is forced to hail a mayday
ahead of the approaching storm.
[speaking indistinctly]
[Johnathan] Was waiting for that.
We got steering back, and I'm going to feel so good.
Go ahead, try it now.
Give the captain the okay.
Should be fixed, Captain. Give it a ride.
[Johnathan] All right.
Hit the pump on over here.
[man] The green steering start, right?
[Johnathan] Yep.
We got steering, buddy.
Whoo. Whoo-hoo.
-We got steering. -[man] Hell yeah.
Yo, Neal, thank you.
[Neal] Yeah, baby.
Whoo!
We've got bad luck going on here on this boat.
I think I know where our bad luck's coming from.
The big guy, the new guy,
keeps saying the boat never breaks down,
and I keep knocking on wood.
And he's said it three different times now.
You don't ever say,
ever say this boat never breaks down again.
Knock on wood right now.
Knock on something, everyone.
Knock on something right now.
[laughs]
I'm feeling better already.
I feel a lot better.
Okay, back to work, guys.
-[man 1] Let's go! -[man 2] Whoo!
[man 1] Get over here, Richard.
It's time for you to go to work.
Pot's coming up, guys.
[Neal] Yeah, Roger.
Keeping our fingers crossed.
Hoping that our luck will change around
and we'll get on some crab.
We need 30s and 40s and 50s.
We got a town delivery.
We got a delivery to make.
We need a good haul here.
Just beat this storm in.
Coming up, coming up.
Come on, big boy!
Come on!
Come on, come on.
Go!
[man] Oh!
Oh! There you go!
Crab!
We got crab!
We got crab, we got crab!
It worked.
Richard, Richard, look at that.
Look at that pot, Richard.
Yes!
[man] Whoo!
About time we found some damn brown crab.
Our prize!
Thirty one.
It's 31. That works.
Come on, Richard.
[all cheering]
[indistinct cheering]
[laughing]
We're on it now. We're on the meat, boys.
Boom!
Sometimes you just do the right thing.
Sometimes you don't.
There you go.
This could be the stupidest thing we ever did
or the smartest thing I ever done.
I'm just going to keep riding over here.
[narrator] Thirty-eight miles north...
[Rick] I'm going to run up to the pots,
and then we'll drift up there.
We'll kick it out of gear,
and I'll have you take that next watch.
-Let's let them soak a little bit. -Okay.
[narrator] Inside the storm...
[Rick] Don't screw up my boat.
-[Jacob] I won't screw up your boat. -No, I'm serious, man.
You're making me nervous now.
[narrator] Aboard the Aleutian Lady...
[Rick] Watch the course over ground for setting.
[Jacob] This is a little different
than driving in the [bleep] back home.
[Rick] If you take care of this boat, it'll take care of you.
All right, dude.
Call me if you got any questions at all.
[alarm blaring]
[Jacob speaking]
Hey, Richard.
Usually, if we have bananas on board,
we throw them over here to get rid of bad luck.
So we got to cleanse the boat by dumping you in the water.
I'm going to shut the boat down right now.
-No. -Yeah.
I'll just dip him in the water, baptize him.
[man] Hoo-ya!
Yes!
[all cheering]
May the Lord cleanse you in holy water.
[man] Watch out!
Oh, [bleep]
Oh! [laughs]
Don't say that B word again, the B word.
[laughing]
That's good, Richard.
[man] Is that cold?
[narrator] Ah, nothing like a Bering Sea baptism.
Can I get an amen?
[sirens blaring]
[narrator] On the Aleutian Lady...
[Jacob speaking]
Well, Vasily, our engineer is downstairs.
And he is doing something with the black water tank,
a black water tank deals with the boat's sewage.
[Rick] Hey, dude, what happened?
[Jacob] Well, Vasily's in the poop tank.
Something's going on.
[Rick] I'm gonna take over, man.
[sighs]
How's it going?
[Vasily speaking]
Whatever, something...
[Rick] People using flushable wipes that aren't flushable?
[Rick] We need to crack that coupling on there, pull it open.
I've been [bleep] with it all day, so...
[Rick] And...
-[bleep] -So is it welded or--
[Vasily] No, it's just...
I mean, blaming people for it.
-Who the [bleep] cares? -[Vasily] Well, of course, man.
[Rick] It's got to get done.
Who the hell cares?
It's his job to fix it, not manage a crew.
Stay in your lane, do your damn job.
He's very confident, very capable.
Just the attitude sucks.
But I have to get this quota caught.
If I got to run back to town, we're done.
We'll have to keep an eye on it,
make sure that it's not overflowing.
I think we're in good shape.
[Rick] I was hoping to get a nice rest,
but we ended up having the turd tank alarm go off.
I'm just tired and mentally exhausted.
But I'm hoping there'll be a lot
of bairdi packed in this area.
[Chino] Okay.
You wanna go ahead and try it?
[clamoring]
Works like a brand new block that we [bleep] brought.
It's working.
It's not bumping anymore.
It's working.
[Jake speaking]
These guys are professionals.
We've been through hell and back together already.
Hopefully, we can find consistent numbers.
And we'll just grind it out.
[Johnathan speaking]
[all cheering]
Nice. Unbelievable.
[cheering]
Never had more problems in this season
in my life.
But erase the bad juju on the boat.
[man] Yeah, baby!
Two, four, six, eight--
-[man 2] Whoo! -[man 3] 42!
Whoo-hoo! Good job, guys.
Good job.
Onward and upward.
We're headed to Dutch.
What a day to be alive.
As of right now, these guys have been working for two weeks
and have not made any money.
So I have to find some crab, and I have to find it now.
[man 1] Whoo!
[man 2] Whoo-hoo!
[bleep]
[all cheering]
[giggling]
[man 1] Whoo!
Forty. Four-zero.
Thank you, Lord.
[Jacob] Whoa, mama!
Come on, baby.
Yeah!
Oh, yeah!
This is phenomenal.
[man] Holy [bleep]
[all cheering]
[man] Oh, my God.
Hell frickin' yeah.
Hopefully I'll go see my son in New York.
Depends how much crab we've had.
[bleep] Whoo!
[Rick] Now we just gotta turn and burn.