[woman on comms speaking]
[Sig] Winds are coming up. Bering Sea is getting cold.
We need to hurry up and get to this dock.
[Jake] You see this Arctic low.
It's right there.
There's a storm coming.
I need to get the crab. I need to get to town,
or I'm gonna get stuck in it.
[Rick] We're gonna start icing up,
and I really need my gear on some good fishing
before that happens.
[Keith on PA system] All right, guys. One more.
Secure everything tight for the ride in.
[deckhand] Roger.
[Keith] Just like in the old Derby days, man. It's a race to the dock.
Unfortunately, we are the boat that's closest to town right now.
[Jake] I'm trying to race the coldest storm of the year,
and everybody else.
[sighs]
I don't like January.
-[Ty groaning] -[Rick] You ready?
Quick. [bleep]!
I'm a thoroughbred, baby.
[all exclaiming]
No, no, no, no!
[Jake shouting]
Is Chino there?
[man on comms speaking]
[narrator] Fifty miles below the approaching low pressure system...
[all exclaiming]
[deckhand 2] Pull up! Pull up!
What have we got? What have we got?
-[deckhand 3] Well, that's not good. -[deckhand 4] Not good.
That's not what we wanted for our pick.
[narrator] Aboard the Northwestern...
[Sig speaking]
Got plenty of soap.
Any holes in that pot?
[man on comms speaking]
[Sig] Well, we're on the last string of our bairdi season.
And the weather out that window right now is not going to last long.
So...
We need to make the best of our time while we can.
[deckhand 5] Come on, crab!
Let's get some bairdi!
Oh, no!
[Sig] You know, a lot of times with bairdi,
it's just like you're fishing these little postage stamps.
And, uh, the crab are there,
and you know they're there.
You just got to, you know, sometimes thread that needle
and be, you know... It's just...
It's a difference of a boat length or two.
They didn't crawl in for whatever reason, but they are down there.
If I had a dragnet,
I'd drag right through there and prove it.
I should just drag a pot down there.
Clark, do you want to come up for a sec?
Yeah.
[Sig] I was thinking...
You get a pot and then, uh,
you put the bridle on the... On the door side, you know?
Open the door and then you drag it.
Okay. Oh, you want... Okay. Drag pot.
[Sig] Maybe put like a... Like, a tickle chain in the front or something
to kind of get 'em out of the mud,
lift 'em up a little bit, you know?
-Okay. Yeah. -You see what I mean?
[Sig] You know, I've seen this type of scenario play out before.
[narrator] With a 200-mile wide storm on track for his location,
Captain Sig Hansen taps his 43 years' experience,
betting there are bountiful crab
between his barren pots,
employing a makeshift trawl net
to leave no gap in his search
or the cannery's delivery schedule.
[Sig] Hammer it.
[hammering]
[Clark] Oh, yeah.
They ain't going nowhere.
[deckhand 5] Staying in the front.
Just tie the [bleep] out of it.
[deckhand 6] They're all good.
[Sig] It's not a... a very accurate method by any means.
Okay, guys, let her go when you're ready.
-Going over. Be careful! -Okay.
[Sig] When the pot hits the bottom,
I don't want to be going too fast.
I don't want to snap it off.
So I've got to be careful.
It's not like I do this all the time. [laughing]
-[rope thuds] -Whoa!
[deckhand 5 and deckhand 6] Now they're towing on it.
[deckhand 6] Yeah, buddy.
[Sig on PA system] Well, that's three-quarter mile right there.
Fold it up, guys.
[Clark] Yeah, roger.
[Sig] Come on, baby.
[Clark] Moment of truth.
Oh, no!
[Sig] Oh, God.
Come on, man.
-[deckhand 6] Not too sexy. -[Sig exhales]
[Sig speaking]
[Clark] Roger!
[Sig] All right. Ready to go.
[Clark] Going over.
[deckhand 5] Let's go. Whoo!
We want just a sign of life, man.
[metal clanks]
[deckhand exclaiming]
[Sig] Oh, boy.
All right. Let's, uh...
give it a whirl. See what happens.
[deckhand 5] Let's go!
It doesn't have to be big. Just not empty.
[Clark] Coming up.
What do we got?
Full of stuff!
Got a few!
-[Sig] Caught some? -Yeah.
[Sig laughing]
There we go.
What? I never thought it would be crab.
[deckhand 5] You wouldn't think so.
It shows that there's crab down there at the bottom.
-[Clark] Yeah, you did! -[Sig] Yeah!
[laughing]
That means we're on a good trail. We're sniffing them out.
Now we can just lay some out right here.
[Sig] We're going to start picking them up and moving them.
Right through there.
Put them in tight and...
and try to get a final pick out of this place.
Yeah, you can't know until you try something.
[Clark] Goin' over!
[deckhand 6] Yeah, buddy!
Whoo!
[narrator] Seventy-six miles northwest...
[all exclaiming]
...on the southern edge of the storm.
[Jake] Trying to race time, weather.
It's another Super El Nino storm.
Fifteen-foot plus seas,
heavy-duty spray,
which is gonna stick to the boat.
So I need to get these pots off
as fast as we can.
[deckhand 7] Whoa!
[narrator] Aboard the Titan Explorer...
We're back down here at the snowman,
and there was some life right here.
So I've got 70 pods on,
and we're gonna be picking up
pretty much everything and slamming it in here.
Yeah.
[groans] Hang on tight. Hang on tight.
Gotta keep the roll down.
Which means you've got to try to run kind of fast,
which is dangerous.
It's faster right now. It's going faster.
It's sort of like, maybe, like, eight knots.
That's fast.
[narrator] Risking a collision with a 20-foot wave on the bow,
Captain Jake Anderson sets at twice his normal speed,
wagering the extra spray on deck
is worth the extra stability
and a quick exit from the grounds
ahead of the building storm.
-[Jake] Yeah! -[deckhand 7] Whoo!
[Jake laughing]
All right, guys. [sighs] Let's get ready to set.
Chino's on the stack.
Hey, be careful. Put Chino on the stack.
[Chino] Yeah, it is a little sketchy for me, but...
with... with the environment like this,
so the pots are all slippery and iced up.
[Jake] We gotta set.
Go!
Go unload.
[deckhand 7] Whoo!
[exhales]
Jeez, oh, jeez, oh, jeez.
Coming up on some heat, baby!
Watch for it! Watch for it! Watch for it!
[all shouting]
Watch out, watch out!
[bleep]
God.
That's not a very good stack.
[bleep]
-[objects clattering] -Damn.
[Felipe speaking]
[tense music playing]
Where is he?
[Felipe whistles and shouts]
Where's Chino?
Chino!
Is Chino there?
[Felipe speaking]
[narrator] On the Titan Explorer...
[Felipe] Chino!
Is Chino there?
[Felipe speaking]
[Jake] I don't know if he fell off.
[Felipe whistles and shouts]
[Chino] I'm back here!
[Felipe speaking]
[Chino] I'm still good.
Oh, [bleep]
[radio crackling]
Chino.
[sighs]
I just took a wave and... And the boat rolled and...
I just thought Chino fell over.
I can't see,
and all I can see is the faces on the team.
And they're looking and they're scared
and they're looking over the side,
and I don't know the [bleep] is going on.
But we can't stop...
Because I need to get these pots on crab fast.
And I want to be [bleep] done with tonight.
[narrator] 200 miles southeast...
[man on radio speaking]
Wizard back.
[narrator] Just outside Dutch Harbor...
[man on radio speaking]
Roger, roger. Wizard out.
All right.
Okay, guys, let's get ready to haul the anchor. All right?
We've only got one processor taking crab right now.
And if you're the fifth boat in line,
you may be sitting for two days
before you get your crab off.
I'm hoping we get in there and we get right to the shoot
and we get our crab off immediately
because the weather is coming up dramatically as we speak.
[on PA system] I'm gonna pull up on it.
It starts getting tight, let me know.
[deckhand speaking]
[narrator] Idling in the harbor ahead of a scheduled offload,
Captain Keith Colburn raises his anchor in 44 knot winds
to deliver his 18,000 pounds of bairdi to the cannery.
[Keith] Just like in the old Derby days, man,
it's a race to the dock.
We've got to work around what the processor schedule is,
so it's first come, first serve,
get our crab off, back out before that next blow hits.
[chain clanking]
[deckhand speaking]
[Keith] What's going on?
[deckhand speaking]
Okay, I'm gonna drift back here. Okay, guys?
I'm just gonna ease back.
It's easy to haul an anchor in perfect conditions and flat, calm weather.
It's a whole different deal when you're hauling an anchor in 50-mile-an-hour winds.
[machinery groaning]
[rapid chain rattling]
[bleep]
[deckhand shouting]
[Soper speaking]
[Monte] Is it still on there?
[Keith] He says the anchor's gone.
[Keith on speakers]
I think I'm drifting over.
[Soper] Got it.
[Keith] The only reason we have this anchor right now
is because we had a buoy on it.
Otherwise, that anchor would be in Davy Jones' locker.
It would be deep sixed.
Start taking it up, Soper. Start taking it up.
Use the aft crane.
Try and pull this thing out of the water, okay?
Bosun, can you go up there and [bleep] direct traffic?
Okay? All right?
[narrator] Weighed down with 18,000 pounds of crab
and maneuvering a mere 100 yards from shore,
Captain Keith reels in the four-ton iron anchor below,
praying that the line and his crew can withstand the strain.
Make sure everybody's feet are clear and remember, guys,
it's a lot of [bleep] weight we're going with here.
[deckhand speaking]
Make sure we don't come up tight with the chain.
Okay?
[deckhand speaking]
All right!
[Soper] Okay, anchors coming up now. Stand by.
All right. Right on.
God, I hope that holds, man.
[crane whirring]
I've got the anchor at the rail, but it's not on the boat yet.
We need it on the boat.
All right, Soper. If you think you can get it on, bring it on. Okay?
Okay, we're going forward.
Holy [bleep]
[bleep] big anchor.
[Soper] We got her.
All right? Yeah. Get it secured for us. All right?
Yeah. Hey, this is the Wizard. Wizard.
You on this one?
[sighs]
[man on radio speaking]
You know what? We just about lost the anchor,
but it looks like we're back online.
[man on radio speaking]
[sighs]
[man on radio speaking]
[groans]
Yeah. Uh... Yeah, as soon as possible.
[man on radio speaking]
We'll just, um, we'll go from there.
[narrator] 210 miles north of Dutch Harbor...
-Yeah! It's getting nautical. -[deckhand] Oh, yeah.
[Jacob] I like this life. Cold and hungry.
That's fishing.
[narrator] On the Aleutian Lady...
[Rick] I mean, this season's been rough.
It's been nonstop storm after storm,
and I still have a lot of quota to catch.
I'm hoping they'll be hiding in back of the boulders
hunkered down in the mud, but that's chancy.
[narrator] Racing the fleet to dock,
Captain Rick Shelford prepares to haul 40 pots in a zigzag pattern,
targeting his 44,000 pounds of bairdi crab in the soft terrain
near rocky outcroppings 500 feet below.
All right, here we go.
Y'all ready?
[deckhand speaking]
Is Ty not out there?
[deckhand speaking]
My favorite car-- The car I drive back home is an STI.
My daughter has been saving this for a while.
A little STI toy.
"Happy birthday, Pop."
It is nice.
A little bit of a boost of morale.
When you get that little brief moment,
it just makes everything so much better.
First pot. Here it comes.
[deckhand] Yeah, roger!
[deckhand cheers]
[Rick] When we're hauling here, especially in a storm,
you focus on your work or you're going to kill yourself or somebody else.
So Ty's gonna have to step up
because we're gonna start just jamming through this gear.
[Ty] There you go. There you go.
[deckhands cheering]
Got some crab meat!
There's a lot of crab in there.
[deckhands whooping and cheering]
Nice. Are they big?
[Jacob] Oh...
[laughs] They're big and juicy.
[Jacob] That's how it's done, baby!
-[deckhand speaking] -[exclaims]
77! Hell yeah.
There you go. Get 'em up.
-Whoo-hoo! -[laughs]
-[metal clang] -[yells]
What the...
[Jacob] Hey, I got it. Watch out. I got it, I got it.
What just happened?
Ah, mother [bleep] broke right through it, bro.
[Jacob speaking]
[Rick] Damn it!
[narrator] On the Aleutian Lady...
I completely smashed my [bleep] finger.
The bone's coming out.
-What? -Yes. Here.
[Rick] Oh, yeah, you got it good.
[Ty] I gripped the rail. Instead of doing this, I gripped it.
And it just smashed into it.
-[metal clang] -[bleep]
My knuckle got smashed in through the bottom.
It's popping out right here.
All right. Let me put this on autopilot.
[Ty] I can't bend it. I can't even feel it right now.
It hasn't really kicked in yet...
-All right. -...but I'm gonna keep it elevated.
All right.
-[Ty] I'm sorry. -[Rick] Don't be sorry, man.
This is not gonna be a pleasant ride in.
[Rick speaking]
[Jacob] Yeah, roger.
I know how to field dress that.
I'm gonna use corndog sticks
to field dress his compound fracture.
So we're gonna try to get a splint on there.
Electrical tape, cotton balls, corndog sticks.
This is the same thing that's happened to me when I was a young fisherman
and I had to do this myself, which really sucked.
But, you know, it's just a part of the job.
Put your hand down flat.
Let me see how much swelling has happened.
Just flat right there.
[Ty] I think I'm gonna throw up.
[Jacob] You don't like blood, do you?
No, I'm very like, whatever that word is.
[groaning]
I wish we had some whiskey.
[Jacob] I'm gonna-- I'm not pulling on your finger.
I'm pulling the electrical tape.
Can you get a knife?
-I just really have to pull on it. -That's okay.
-[hisses] -Okay, hold it! Hold it! Hold it! Hold it!
[bleep]
Go around again.
I'm gonna pull on the tape.
-[exclaims] You're good. -[Jacob] Oh, sorry.
Around again.
[sighs]
All right. Go ahead. Go upstairs.
Go ahead. He's coming!
[Rick] I mean, here. I'll take this arm first.
-[Ty] Yeah. -[Rick] Let's do this arm.
[Ty groans]
So I'm going to give him this much lidocaine.
So we'll do one on this side first,
and then I'll come in and I'll do this side right there.
[Ty groaning]
Rolling boat, giving injections.
I am not a pro at this.
-Just... -[Ty] Yep, yep.
[Rick] Okay. You ready?
-[Ty sighs] Yeah. -[Rick] Look away.
[Ty exclaims]
[hisses]
-[groans] -[Rick] Here we go.
[Ty speaking]
[groans]
-[Rick] There we go. -[Ty] Sweet.
[Rick] That will numb that like nobody's business.
[Ty] All right. Thanks, Cap.
-All right, man. -[Ty] I appreciate you.
Relax. Chill. Elevate it.
Tylenol and Ib...
-Ibuprofen, man. -[Ty] Roger.
I'm gonna start him on antibiotics,
which will be doxycycline,
and get to Dutch as quick as we can.
Get him to the clinic.
We start seeing some good fishing, and now that's done.
Just when you think that it can't get any worse, it does.
[narrator] Eighty miles southeast...
-[deckhands cheering] -Yeah, baby!
[narrator] On the Northwestern...
You guys ready?
[deckhand speaking]
We did a test drag or a trawl with a pot on the bottom,
and there was a sign of life.
And so we set a few pots in this spot here,
have a lot of extra bait,
and I don't know what to expect, honestly.
But if we get lucky, maybe, you know,
finish up our bairdi season.
Let's go!
First one's up here.
Oh, yeah!
[all cheering]
That's got to be about... I would say 70-plus in there.
And they're nice clean crab.
[deckhand] Looks pretty good!
[deckhand 2] Yeah, buddy!
[Karl] We saw there was some crab when we blasted it.
That definitely looks like it's paying off.
[deckhand] Here we go.
Oh, yeah.
[deckhand 2] Eighty-three.
I'll take it.
[deckhand] Oh-ho-ho-ho!
[deckhand 2 laughing] Oh, no. Oh-ho!
[all cheering]
Call it luck. Call it what you will.
There's crab in the pot.
[deckhand] There we go!
I mean, I'll take any angle I can get, right?
Keeps up like this, that will get us across the finish line.
So right now I'm just thinking about
getting in to offload as quickly as I can.
[narrator] Eighty-four miles northwest...
[deckhand] Tried to get all the ice, you know, cleared.
[narrator] ...on the Titan Explorer...
[Jake] Twenty-three-foot seas,
we've got a lot of ice buildup,
and now we're about to put...
ooh, I think it's 80 pots on.
I have so much crab to catch
and I don't have an option to quit.
I jam-packed the area above the snowman.
Is it a smart move? I don't know.
But we're gonna find out.
Yeah!
All right, let's give it a shot.
Here it is. Watch the rail.
[over PA] Be really careful. Okay?
[deckhand] Let's go!
Now I gotta keep these waves
from slamming me into the rail.
I just really am praying to the Lord
that he will have some mercy on me.
Come on, crab. Come on, crab. Come on, crab.
[crew cheering]
Oh, my God!
It's [bleep] loaded!
[deckhand] Whoo!
One-seven-zero!
One-seven-zero.
[crew cheering]
I might be able to pull this thing off
and get the hell out of here.
[bleep]
Oh, my God. Hang on! Hang on!
Look at that [bleep].
[deckhand] Whoa!
-Oh! -[bleep]
[groaning]
Chino, are you okay?
[groaning] Ow.
[bleep]
Chino just got laid out.
It's just really icy down there,
and at the same time, we took a huge wave.
[bleep]
It's not turning.
Can't turn.
I can't [bleep] turn.
I got [bleep] nothing.
Oh, [bleep]! Get away from the rail!
[over PA] Get away from the rail, everybody!
Run for cover! Run!
[narrator] On the Titan Explorer...
[Jake over PA] Run for cover! Run!
It's stuck in [bleep] forward.
I can't turn.
Hey, Felipe, check the rudder.
[exhales]
[bleep]
We're doing a circle.
What's going on in the engine room?
[Jake speaking over comms]
[Felipe] Yeah.
The wave that we took
knocked a bunch of stuff onto the rudder post,
and now something's lodged in between the piston.
[Felipe speaking]
[bleep]
[grunting]
Is it okay?
[Felipe speaking]
Turn to starboard?
Is it working, Jake?
I got rudder indicator.
It says it's working here.
[Felipe over comms] Roger!
I got it because I've got steering now.
Thank God.
What was it?
So we take the wave, right? And...
everything fell down.
And those pieces of wood is stuck
between the ramp and the rudder.
It was just pinned to the port.
Yeah, that was [bleep] a piece of wood, buddy.
All right. Well, let's get back at it.
-Okay. -Thanks, Felipe.
Yeah, no problem.
[Jake over PA] We're gonna go back and try to haul this.
We had a nice start.
But I think luck is on our side.
Oh, storm after storm.
For now, I gotta keep going.
I got my delivery date.
I've got about 30 hours to get in.
And there's nothing stopping me.
[narrator] 196 miles southeast...
Just outside Dutch Harbor...
[Keith on radio] Good evening. Um, I'm calling to check in.
[man on radio speaking]
All right. Yeah.
[narrator] ...on the Wizard.
We've been out here too long.
We had to anchor up for two days.
We just about lost our anchor.
If we keep the crab on board for too long,
we're going to start incurring dead loss.
You know?
[man on radio speaking]
Roger. Roger.
I'm assuming that red flashing light is a red can, right?
[man speaking]
All righty. Here we go, guys.
[over PA] Real fast, as quick as possible.
Get our crab off...
provisions, fuel,
back out before that next blow hits.
[Sig on radio] What's going on up there, Keith?
You in the wheelhouse? Are you offloading?
Yeah, um... No, we're just heading to the town.
What are you doing?
[Sig] Same, same.
Uh, we're trying to get in for offloading.
[Mouse] Tell him you're first.
Yeah, well, you know what?
The first one to the can gets the offload.
You know that, right?
Yeah.
All right. First one to the can.
Got you.
Damn it!
Please don't do anything stupid.
Roger.
Ain't gonna [bleep] happen.
Well, that's a big boat we're talking about.
And if he's got a big load of crab,
that could cost us, like, a day.
[deckhand] Yeah, if he has a lot.
You're not getting there first, Hansen,
I'll tell you that right now, man.
I need to get back out there.
[Sig] We gotta go.
Let's do this.
Damn it! We don't need this [bleep] right now, Mouse.
We're racing now, okay?
All right, guys, start dropping as much ice as you can get right now.
Okay, drop it. We're trying to lighten our load.
Hit the stands, just knock that down,
throw it over the side.
Everything we've got.
[deckhand] Okay, roger that.
[Sig] Come on, baby.
That looks like about 150 yards off the stern.
So we're gaining.
Are they dropping ice, Karl?
[all laughing]
Look at that.
It's like you gotta lighten the load on that hog.
[laughing]
Oh, my God!
Come on, baby. Let's go.
Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no!
[narrator] On the Aleutian Lady...
Now it's time for Tyler to check his finger.
It sounds like it's broken.
Hopefully, it's fixable.
Broken is not bad.
When it's completely amputated,
that's worse.
The thing that gets caught between the pot and the rail,
you cut it off. It will cut your hand off.
So you don't want that to happen.
So, on the bigger boats, drill ships,
somehow they found somebody's thumb
in the bilge.
And nobody ever claimed it.
I mean, you would think you would notice
if you lose your thumb, right?
Um, nobody ever claimed it. They found a thumb.
Weird. Weird stuff happening, so.
All right. What a time to be alive.
[narrator] I am tempted to say
that story is nothing to thumb your nose at,
but I won't.
[Sig] Come on, baby. Let's go.
[laughing]
Hansen's right on our [bleep] tail here.
I don't need to be held up at the dock
with evil Sig Hansen,
sitting there delivering in front of me.
[Sig] Can is 100 feet.
Karl, we got him?
No, no, no, no, no, no, no!
-We got him? -[Karl] Yup.
No!
Ha!
[Keith] That was [bleep].
I'm a thoroughbred, baby.
Damn it!
[man on radio speaking]
Oh, we'll be there.
We got you.
Yeah!
Oh, I wish I could see his face right now.
Damn it.
[bleep]
[sighs]
Sig Hansen, it's amazing the murder he gets away with.
Well, that's going to really help us.
That's probably going to buy us eight hours.
We get these crab offloaded,
you know, especially to beat this serious weather coming in.
[Keith] We, uh, we may not hit that window.
We may be stuck in town for a couple more days.
I just want to get in and get out
and get my crab and get the [bleep] home.
[Jake over PA] Last one.
[deckhand shouting]
This is pretty much mission accomplished.
-[Jake] There it is. -[deckhand] The last pot.
Oh, my God. We [bleep] did it!
We did it! We [bleep] did it!
We did it. You guys are [bleep] all-stars. We did it.
[crew cheering]
[Jake] That is a relief right there.
I have a delivery date for tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m.
Everybody's still got their ten fingers and nine toes?
Yeah!
All right, get that deck cleared,
the habs is checked, and, uh...
and we're the hell out of here.
[Ty] All right.
Oh, my God, it's cold.
[exhales]
[Jacob] How're ya feeling there, superstar?
What's the word?
[Ty] The word is, um,
the doc did his best to, uh, suture it up.
He stitched up the bottom.
But I have basically a centimeter and a half
laceration on the top.
Um, exposed tendon.
So I need to go see a hand specialist
that he's been talking to
-in Anchorage. -In Anchorage.
-Okay. -[Ty] Yeah.
Do exactly what they say. Take care of it.
Don't get it infected.
We're gonna need to either find a guy
or head back out as soon as possible.
[Rick] We got the offload done.
Um, and my stupid light is broken.
So we're gonna have to go with a flashlight.
[Rick] Um...
It's a bit-- um...
of a bummer.
We got probably about 1,100 pounds of crab.
It, uh, won't even pay for fuel.
And we found crab in a small area,
but, you know, Ty got injured,
and we ended up having to come to town.
So I have to hire another person
to take his spot.
It is what it is.
With our weather being so bad,
and all of the issues we've been having happen,
I'm hoping we'll be able to wrap this up pretty quick.
We just gotta get jammin'.
[Keith] The jet stream is all screwed up from the super El Nino.
The storms are coming in.
They're just stalling right on top of us.
Every bone in my body is saying, "Go west."
But the next couple of days are gonna be nasty.
[Sid] Arctic blast of wind coming through here
now from the northeast.
We're in the beginning of it here.
I'm seeing about 30-foot seas.
Try to work through the blow as much as we can
before we have to stop.
[Jake] That's a [bleep] monster right there.
Look at that.
Oh, [bleep], dude.
[bleep] getting hammered on.
Super El Nino, it's not a boy at all.
It's a bitch.
It's only supposed to get worse.