20x13 - Merciless Seas

[bunniefuu]

[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,


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]

[bleep]

[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.

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.


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-a*s 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]


[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]

[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]

[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.