[man 1] you okay?
I'm the smallest boat in the fleet.
And the storm is highly dangerous.
My boat's really not big enough to be out here.
The waves are too big,
the heavy freezing spray will consume the whole boat.
Hang on, hang on.
But if you have a good team...
[man 2] let's go.
Oh, smashed, smashed, smashed!
[jake] a good leader can make miracles happen even in the chaos.
[bleep].
[man 3] hey, hey!
[jake] [bleep].
Which way am I going?
-[man 4] yeah. -[man 3] hey, hey!
[jake] nothing better than being the little guy and coming out on top every day.
And I will.
[narrator] 581 miles northwest of dutch harbor...
On the wizard.
[man 5] oh, boat's a rocking.
Yeah, it's gnarly.
[keith speaking]
-start with the aft chain. -[man 5] roger!
This is a crucial set.
We can't get to the crab we know are up north.
This storm pretty much forced my hand.
[narrator] captain keith colburn flees the upper edge
of the opilio crab grounds,
just as a powerful low-pressure system
emerges from the arctic barreling south,
dishing out heavy freezing spray and towering seas.
He decided to make this move down here.
But it's all northerly winds, which means you put ice on the boat.
I gotta send guys over the rail right now.
Basically, chipping ice just to get the chains off.
[narrator] the wizard maybe below the gale,
but the storms tendrils still fuel subzero winds.
Keith's plan, order his crew to break ice
before he can set pots in the building storm.
[keith] that air goes right over the ice,
super chills and then comes down on top of us
and creates this freezing spray.
Well, we're finally going to get all this gear off the boat
before it turns into one big ice turd.
-[man 5] good? -[tyler] yep.
I'm standing by with an inflatable life ring...
A light...
And keeping an eye on my guys when they go over the side.
[groans]
[keith] holy [bleep], that's nasty out there, man.
Come on, come on.
All right!
The chain's good.
[keith] okay, I'm clear, thank god.
Always makes me a little bit nervous.
Just got lucky there. We dodged a bullet.
[man 6] let's go!
[man 5] hold on.
Crews are ready.
[man 5] go ahead, good.
Go ahead, here we go.
I'm thinking there's some crab in this canyon.
Provenance canyon.
The shots and line are frozen solid, doors are frozen solid.
Everything takes twice as long...
Which is just one more hazard and one more headache.
[bleep], this ice, man.
[man 5] all right, roll over.
[man 6] whoa, watch your head.
[man 5] feels nice to see the stack go.
[man 6] well, let's hope there's crab there.
You never know.
[keith] we want to get it done fast.
We've gotta get crab out of provenance canyon here.
[man 5] roll over.
[keith] there's not a lot of room for error.
[narrator] 63 miles northeast, on the saga .
[phone ringing]
[jake speaking]
hey, lenny.
[jake] only got 80 pots.
We are all safe at this moment.
Just staying in this two and a half mile by three mile little box.
I think we'll be okay.
[lenny speaking]
okay.
[man 7] whoo!
[jake] all right, see you, lenny, thank you.
[lenny] okay, bye.
[jake] though my power may seem absolute, I still have lenny.
And I have a lot of crab to catch.
I have just as much as the big boats.
-There you go. Be safe, guys, okay? -[man 5] roger that.
Help me watch out for the waves, if you can see them,
don't be afraid to run.
[crew yelling]
let's go, let's go.
[man 7] here we go!
I came up 500 miles from dutch harbor,
got here in the middle of a storm.
Less people fish up here because it is nasty.
Heavy freezing spray and ice.
[narrator] normally, the playground of larger ships,
captain jake anderson pilots one
of the fleet's smallest vessels into the storm.
Braving the far north for a chance to catch his final 115,000 pounds.
[man 7] going over.
[jake] it's really dangerous.
It's so much colder, so much more can happen.
The waves are bigger, but I think there's going to be crab here.
[men cheer]
[man 7] boo-ya!
[jake] here comes a big one.
[bleep].
[bleep]. [bleep].
[man ] okay.
Whoo-hoo!
I need to just be safe.
[man 7] roll over.
[jake] and hopefully catch some crab.
[narrator] 48 miles north...
Inside the storm on the time bandit.
See this [beep] right here, baby!
[jonathan] the water's coming up gnarly.
It's blowing like 40, dude, and waves are starting to stack.
Another great day on the water.
[groans]
we're way up here by russia.
Pulling some cod gear because we need cod.
[man 9] nice. That's sexy.
And getting the hell out of here.
Go down and fish by the islands.
[narrator] captain johnathan hillstrand races to haul his cod gear
and replenish their bait before turning south,
away from the 40-knot winds.
We're going to need a 25,000 pick out of 110 pots we got left.
We are trying to get enough cod for 110 miles.
[man 10] more cod fish!
Lots of 'em!
[yelling]
oh, yeah. Lots of crab.
[men cheer]
come on, baby!
Look at all that crab.
[jonathan] oh, my god.
[man 9] more crabs than cod.
Yeah, baby!
[jonathan] what are these? What's going on here?
I'm seeing 150-200 crab in our cod gear.
Whoo!
[man 9] yeah, baby! Whoo!
[jonathan] how's that possible?
[narrator] baited inside the cod pots...
The fish's delicacy of choice, squid.
But as luck would have it,
a migrating heard of opilio just crashed the cods' dinner party.
[man 9] welcome aboard, boys, welcome aboard.
I mean, look at that table.
Hell of a lot of crab.
That's... That's a good sign.
Whoop! Whoop! Come on, baby!
[johnathan speaking]
ninety. 90.
[men cheer]
[chomping]
[man 9] I can't believe this, all this crab and all this cod, it's unreal.
My hair is standing on my neck.
I'm never seen crab like this in my cod gear, ever.
Never ever seen this many crab in my cod gear.
I'll tell you, I'd love to see what a crab pot would look like right here.
[narrator] aborting his course for calmer seas...
Yeah, well, we'll set these off.
Roger that, cap!
...The skipper rushes to rebait his gear inside the building storm.
This time, full up with the cod, the crab favorite.
All right, going over. Okay, watch out.
I'll take the risk, put two strings on either side of this cod gear,
hopefully we'll find the mother lode.
[freddy] one more time, guys. Move. Move that side.
[bleep].
Come on, let's go!
We have this miserable weather, man.
[freddy] move, man, move!
Guys are just working like twice as hard,
I mean, it's twice as much energy, you know, with weather like this.
[freddy] come on, get the bait in there, let's go.
It's not nappy-nap time.
Double time, double time, baby!
[man 10 speaking]
watch your ass!
[blind dog] [bleep]. Dammit.
Oh, [bleep]. [bleep].
Oh, smashed, smashed, smashed!
[man 9] what happened?
This way, this way.
[narrator] on the time bandit.
Watch your ass.
[blind dog] [bleep]. Dammit.
Oh, [bleep]. [bleep].
Oh, smashed, smashed, smashed!
[freddy] what happened?
This way, this way.
[men clamoring]
[man 9] what happened?
This way, this way.
[blind dog] ah! [bleep]
oh, you gotta be kidding me.
[bleep], captain.
[man 9] you all right?
[blind dog groans]
my shoulder was caught.
[bleep].
Wow.
That was pretty scary.
[narrator] a sudden roller sends a pot careening across the deck
sandwiching carl blind dog gorsegner...
[groans]
...Between 800 pounds of swinging steel and the immovable stack.
[man 9] you all right, blind dog?
-You all right, blind dog? -[blind dog] yeah, [bleep].
It's all right, it just hurts.
-[man 10] yeah. -[man 9] it's okay, blind dog.
I'm good.
[jonathan] okay, one tough [bleep].
That's the toughest [bleep] human being on the planet.
[blind dog] just a boo-boo.
Gotta work through it. Gotta work through it.
[man 9] careful, blind dog.
Oh, [bleep].
[bleep].
That guy's taking a beating.
It's hard being the blind dog, I just want everyone to know that.
It's a tough job.
[chuckles]
you can't make a guy up like that, that's a character, there.
[blind dog] everyone's trying to get blind dog.
-Ain't that right, freddy? -[freddy] that's right.
Exactly right.
-[blind dog] yeah. -[freddy] that's all right.
[blind dog] oh, [bleep].
Not his day, blind dog.
[laughs]
get it, get it, man.
For now, just trying to get this gear off the boat.
We gotta watch out we don't hurt nobody.
Let's see what happens, god help everybody here.
[blind dog] blind dog went boom-boom.
It ain't going to stop me from riding these son of a bitches,
I can guarantee you that.
It's high risk, high reward, you know. Hopefully it pays off.
[blind dog] throw it over.
[narrator] 48 miles south...
On the saga.
[jake speaking]
it's got eight hours' soak on it.
This is where things can get really, really dangerous, really, really quick.
This is why big boats fish up here.
[grunts]
the string is the farthest northwest string that I have,
I'm hoping it's maybe 200, 300.
Praying to god it works.
There we go. Come on, baby.
[laughs]
[man 7] hell, yeah!
Oh, my god.
Holy [bleep].
-[bleep]. -[laughs]
oh, my god.
[laughing]
whoo!
[man 7] never seen that in my life!
That's eight hours.
[men cheer]
[jake speaking]
[men laughing]
[man 8 speaking]
oh, my god.
[all laugh]
[narrator] while big numbers on a long soak spells success,
big numbers on a short soak, well, that's just plain old gangbusters.
435 for eight hours.
Unheard of.
I have never seen fishing like that in my life ever, ever.
[men cheer]
whoa!
Whoa!
We literally just put these in the water.
I've never seen it.
They're all clean.
They're all going in.
Five-zero-seven.
[men cheer]
it's crazy!
Oh, my god.
This could be the hottest fishing that I've ever seen as a captain.
Best fishing I ever will see in my entire life.
Oh, my god.
[man 7] roger that.
[man 8] yeah!
Yeah, baby!
That's what we came for, right there.
Hot, man, it's hot.
It's been years since I've seen them this big.
[jake] that is five miles.
Solid crab.
I don't know. It's crazy, dude.
[phone ringing]
-[jake] hey, lenny. -[lenny] hey, captain.
[jake] so I got some good news.
While I moved up north, I spot-checked just now on eight hours.
[bleep].
[lenny speaking]
[men cheering]
I am worried but I mean, we are prepared for it.
Two-three days and this boat's full.
[lenny speaking]
[man 7 speaking]
yeah, you're right. Yeah, you're right.
Okay, I better get off the phone.
Bye-bye.
After looking at the weather and everything,
my partner, lenny, wants me to shut it down.
The problem is, is everybody's going to come up here and mop this up.
I've never wanted to cry so bad in my life.
You know, this is just the beginning of the storm here.
I'm running to st. Paul, we gotta set the anchor in rough weather.
Like everything else in the bering sea, nothing's fair.
And nothing ever goes to plan.
[narrator] 64 miles southwest...
As the low pressure pushes south...
[keith] holy [bleep].
...On the wizard.
All right now, you got this?
-[monte] yeah, they're getting close. -Okay, let's go.
We got a lot going on here this morning.
We got this string over here, spread out to haul.
Brother is going to be up here shortly.
[narrator] relief captain monte colburn prepares to haul
the wizard's 200 pot canyon set...
While his brother keith prepares a salad.
[keith] ken's steakhouse, I wonder where the hell ken's steakhouse is.
Massachusetts.
[monte speaking]
[men cheer]
[monte] this is the deepest string we set.
We need to start hauling some 300s, that's what we need.
Come on, baby.
[monte speaking]
[narrator] on the wizard.
[monte speaking]
-hydros? -[man 5 speaking]
yeah, I see that just peel it out of the block and throw it over.
[keith speaking]
yeah, first pot.
You pick up the... So let's go ahead.
It's under the grating, roger yes?
Roger, under the grating.
Oh, great. Okay, so see what you can do there.
I'll just try to hold it into the weather here.
[man 5] roger that, copy.
Pulling the grating, gary.
We blew a main supply line for the hydraulics,
it goes from the primary crane station back under the deck, under the grating,
to the launcher about 15 feet aft.
[keith speaking]
I got a bad feeling somebody's going to get swamped
with green water by the time this program is over with.
It's a one-inch hose, we got to get this pulled out,
get it measured so I can cut it.
Get a new one slapped in here. As soon as we can, so we can start fishing.
And to double the pleasure, it's freezing out here.
All looping around.
[keith] just ran in with the hose. Why don't you head down there, mouse.
Yeah, I got it over here.
Oh, man. Always makes me nervous.
I need the best race track pit crew on the planet right now.
Unfortunately, we got the worst conditions possible.
We've got 30 foot seas
and it's the most open and vulnerable spot for the guys.
[man 5] I'll wiggle it. You turn it.
[man 7] oh, man!
Oh, man, there's a big one. We're going to take a big heave here.
[man 5] whoa!
[chuckles]
-[man 5] how are we looking, buddy? -[man 6] all right, wrench.
[man 5]
back in action. We're back in action.
[keith speaking]
well done.
That's a good thing.
Now we're just getting ready to get down to business starting over from here.
With any luck, this pick here is going to be a big one.
Oh, [bleep]! Come on!
Not good.
[man 5] doesn't look good.
[man 6 speaking]
[sighs]
[man 5] [bleep]. Damn it.
[keith] pisses me off, man.
Not seeing much relief, mouse.
Yeah, without doubt.
[keith] we need a little bit of luck.
[narrator] 90 miles northeast...
On the time bandit.
Watch out, guys.
[man 9] [bleep].
[johnathan speaking]
weather is not helping out us at all.
It's my fault but we just got to keep working.
It's either going to work out or it's not.
[narrator] after crabs showed up in his cod pots,
captain johnathan risks the storm's wrath
to see if actually baiting for crustaceans will stuff his tanks.
We'd make a lot of money.
[men cheer]
[johnathan] I literally can't even see 50 feet off the bow.
So I'm fishing by braille...
Pretty much.
Great day on the bering sea.
All right guys, first pot's coming up.
So nobody get hurt.
Be careful.
We need about 250 average to load the boat.
Hopefully there's enough crab in here to make it worth our while.
Crab dance, boys.
Come on now.
Crab dance. Crab dance.
Give it to me. Give it to me.
If this is blank, I'm going to [bleep] cry.
Ooh.
Drum roll please.
[man 9] yeah, baby!
Yeah!
Whoo-hoo!
[man 9] yeah, baby!
Yeah. I like it.
[man 9] making bank, baby! We're gonna make bank!
Look at that table. That's going to slam the tank.
We need that table.
Thank you.
[laughs]
wow.
These are some good pots. That was like 400 right there.
420. 420, baby!
Yeah, baby!
Oh, yeah.
We found something. So we're going to sit on it,
we'll go with that. [bleep].
[man 9] roger, boss.
[johnathan] really terrible.
[man 9] yes, roger.
[cheers]
[man 9] okay, going over.
[johnathan] just gotta keep picking and dumping, man.
As long as I keep my guys safe,
the crew safe, we're just going to keep going slow and easy.
[bleep].
[man 9] that was good.
It's not going to be easy at all but that's the name of the game.
[bleep].
-[man 9] no, no, no, no. -[man 10] hold on, hold on.
Are you [bleep] kidding me?
Oh, my lord.
Misery!
Oh, my god.
Just get me through this [bleep] night.
Hang on, hang on.
[bleep]
that was a gnarly [bleep] hit there, dude.
[men scream]
-[man 9] you okay? -[man 10] yeah.
Oh. Man down. Two men down.
[man 10] I'm good.
I'm... My hair's tingling on my neck, dude.
-[johnathan] just get through the night, buddy. -Roger!
[johnathan] okay, guys, we got like a mile and a half run.
-Come on in, take about an hour break. -[man 9] roger!
[sighs]
[johnathan] a lot of stress, man.
These guys, I just want them to get off the deck.
[man 9] grab hold.
[man 10] [bleep].
[johnathan] uh-oh.
What the [bleep]!
[narrator] on the time bandit.
[johnathan] okay, guys, we got like a mile and half run.
-Come on in, take about an hour break. -[man 9] roger!
Tank it up!
[man 9] grab hold.
[man 10] [bleep].
[alarm ringing]
[johnathan] uh-oh.
What the [bleep]!
[man 9] there we go, man.
[man 10] oh, [bleep]. [bleep].
[bleep]. [bleep]. [bleep].
Come on, come on. Come on, come on, come on.
Come inside.
[alarm continues ringing]
[johnathan] what the hell is this?
We got a [bleep] alarm going off, I've never heard that one.
[man 11 speaking]
just turn it off.
[alarm stops]
there you go.
That wave that hit us must have hit the radar or something.
-You did lose data. -I've got.
-I did? -Yes.
You lost data.
[narrator] the storms latest casualty, captain johnathan's radar,
limiting his ability to track nearby ships
and landmasses until he can get it repaired on the next trip to port.
Ugh, I was going to say we just kicked that storms ass.
No, I don't think so.
[laughs]
that freaked the [bleep] me out, that freaked me out.
Why can't we ever have calm weather?
It's like it's winter in bering sea or something.
This was a trying long day, especially for old souls.
[blind dog] damn it.
[johnathan] we're almost done with this trip.
Just got to keep working.
Because we never give up. We're too dumb to stop.
[bleep]. Damn it. [bleep].
[bleep].
[laughing]
[narrator] 328 miles southeast...
Outside st. Paul island...
[man 7 speaking]
...On the saga.
[jake] how big?
[bleep].
[muttering]
[bleep].
[groans]
oh, [bleep].
-Winston? -[winston] yeah?
Get everybody up.
This ain't [bleep] pretty.
This is bad.
Hurry up, everybody, get out there.
[narrator] captain jake wakes to find rolling 12 foot seas
threatening to snap the anchor line.
[man 7] come on, let's go, let's go.
I failed to notify my guys of something very, very simple.
When the waves get really big,
[bleep].
I'm trying to get the anchor.
With all these surges, we might lose the anchor.
All right, guys.
[bleep].
[bleep]. It's a [bleep] big one's coming.
-[man 7] watch it, watch it. -[man 8] hold on.
[man 8 groans]
[man 8] damn it.
[jake] if I don't pull right with the boat, if I don't follow the cable,
it'll rip that winch off and it'll go right over the side of the boat.
There's that much tension on it.
[narrator] jake must constantly adjust the vessel's bearing
to create slack or risk straining
and slingshotting the entire pulley assembly into the sea
cutting down everyone in its path.
Which way is the cable going?
[man 7 speaking]
[jake speaking]
do you [bleep] hear me?
It'll rip that [bleep] winch off and crush you.
-[thuds] -[man 8] whoa.
What happened?
What the [bleep] is going on? Why isn't it pulling?
[man 7] here comes one.
[bleep].
Which way am I going?
[man 7] whoa.
[narrator] on the time bandit.
[blind dog speaking]
mind over matter, dude!
♪ oh, I'm a green green, green horn ♪
♪ I wish I was never born ♪
is that how the song goes?
[blind dog speaking]
I adopted you, one horn.
But you're the horn.
[johnathan] it says "die horn" on the back of his coat.
Die horn!
Today is hug-your-greenhorn day on the time bandit.
It's hug-your-greenhorn day on the time bandit that is all.
Ain't happening!
[laughs]
no one hugged me when I was a horn.
[narrator] what a gem that blind dog is, flawed but man, what amazing color.
Anchored outside st. Paul, on the saga.
[jake speaking]
[bleep], jeremy!
It'll rip that [bleep] winch off and crush you!
-[thuds] -[jeremy] whoa.
[jake speaking]
[man 7] here comes one.
[bleep]. [bleep].
[jeremy] whoa.
It'll rip this [bleep] anchor right apart.
[man 7 speaking]
oh, yeah!
[men cheer]
[bleep].
[man 7 and man 8 speaking]
[jake speaking]
[sighs]
thank god.
Where is everybody?
All right, one, two, three, four, five and...
That's a real good job, guys. You guys did well.
[cheers]
oh, my god, that is not a way to wake up in the morning.
I went to sleep at six,
I should have said wind's going to pick up at this time,
if you see other boats leaving, get me up.
So that was my failure.
[man 7] yeah, baby!
[jake] just can't wait till the storm is over.
It's just one thing after another.
It's just not what I want to be doing right now.
[grunts]
[keith] you can see all this ice fog.
It looks docile, but it adds up fast
and once you start taking spray, it gets really thick really quick.
I think I need a bigger scraper.
There you go, coming up.
[indistinct dialogue]
not the optimum place to be trying to fish, obviously.
Damn it!
No!
The writing's on the wall.
[man 5] no good!
But we're going to recover. We're going to find a way.
We're ready to go to the island.
-[man 6] yeah, love it! -[johnathan] last pot.
-Going to town. -[man 6] yeah, baby.
We did it.
Survived the surge. That's the way you load a boat.
[men cheering]
wow, my boys are so happy right now.
There's some good guys out there, what a good crew.
Bind dog's pretty lucky to be here.
I hope his luck is going to be lucky to be here.
Have to ask him later.
[man 5] get some!
[jake] god, I'm missing home.
It's just time for us to go.
We can just envision traffic jam when I come back out,
all the big boats.
It's really hot fishing out there.
It sucks that you have to come in such weather.
If only, if only...
[jake] I mean, we have had just the worst luck this season.
But we're all safe, cheers to that.
For now.