Spring is in the air. The trees are beginning to bud, the flowers are in bloom, and of course the men of men are busting their hump on the cold waters of the Barring Sea as they stake their claim on Alaskan Gold – King Crab! If you haven’t heard, the fourth season of the Deadliest Catch is upon us.
The fourth season opens a bit more precarious than expected. As the Wizard treks north from her home port of Seattle to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, she is ambushed by a rouge wave that cuts a small incision around one of the welds on the side of the ship. You guessed it; she starts to take on water which is every fisherman’s
worst nightmare at sea, especially in these cold waters. Lucky for the crew, they made it safely into Dutch Harbor for temporary repairs. So is this leak an omen of what will come for Wizard this crab season? Let’s hope not.
If I had to label Season 4, I would say it is the season of family. We start off with Capt. Sig Hansen hoisted his family’s crest on the bridge of the Northwestern to honor his brothers who work on the boat. Then we have Capt. Phil Harris who has his two sons working the Cornelia Marie. Now we have a new family member, Capt. Jonathan Hillstrand’s son Scott has now joined the crew. Can Scott live up to the Hillstrand tradition and become a crab fisherman? Time will only tell.
Like each season before this one, all the captains of the Fleet gather at the local water hole in Dutch Harbor, the Latitudes to discuss the upcoming crab season and the all important “captain’s wager.” This year’s wager is a bit of whopper – it is a weekly bet on who has the best string of pots. The catch is that the captain must call the string before it hits the water. The captain who has won the most strings at the end of the King Crab season is the winner. So, which of the captains will win this year’s prize Sig, Jonathan, Phil, Keith, or Sten?
So, what makes a crab season so interesting? The rough work these men of men do, the danger that lurks around each crashing wave, the weather, or the captain’s wrath? No, it’s the greenhorns. This season has it plethora of greenhorns. Here how it breaks down -the Northwestern has one, the Time Bandit has one, and the Wizard has two what about the fourth ship?. Even before the boats shove off to the crab grounds, these greenhorns were already making their presence felt…and not in a good way.
So far we have seen the Wizard in distress, a new band of greenhorns, a family member following his destiny, the Northwestern starting several hours behind the fleet due to a propeller shaft replacement at Dutch Harbor, a new “captain’s wager” and of course Capt. Phil’s Jake pissing off his old man with another abuse of his father’s credit card. Wow, what else will Season 4 have in store for us? I am not sure, but I can’t wait!!! See you all next week!
