Oh Captains, My Captains...

So, my first full season of Deadliest Catch has come to a close.


WAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!


What the heck was I thinking by NOT watching this show?! It's not like I didn't know about it! Hell, RubyAnne has been trying to get me to watch it for ages now! But no...it took a holiday marathon over Christmas to make me sit up and say Whoah!!

This show has a little bit of everything! There's action, adventure, suspense and Jonathan Hillstrand.

Yes, I'm in lust with a , goateed, mullet wearing, tattoo'd crab fisherman.

Go figure.

Anyway, I thought I'd post a few observations here about what happens out on The Vast Bering Sea...

~ Mike Rowe is probably the single best narrator in the business today. And not just because he's HOTT with his shirt off ;)

~ Of all the Captains~and I hold each one in the highest regard~I think that Sig is probably the most skilled captain.

~ Of all the deck hands, I find Edgar to be the most engaging. Perhaps it's only how the show is edited together, but Edgar has a sparkling personality and a wicked sense of humor that comes out.

~ I just don't like Captain Keith of the Wizard. No idea why. Just something about his personality. He seems to like to hire greenhorns, and then hates the jobs they do. Well, if you don't like having 2 greenhorns on your boat, don't hire them! Hire more experienced fishermen! I'm sure that there are men who have worked crab boats before who are looking for work up in Dutch Harbor. Hire one of them instead of some yutz who's never crabbed before.

~ While I didn't like Captain Sten Skaar of the North American at the start, I grew to appreciate his professionalism at the end. Sten had the daunting task of entering King Crab season 2 weeks behind schedule while still having to catch his quota. At first, with his fancy Norwegian sweaters and ski bands, I thought "Oh, another rich boy trying to be a tough guy", but Sten proved to be a formidable captain, even after his vessel was badly damaged in a storm. What I truly appreciated about Sten was, when he told his greenhorn he wouldn't be back next season, he put a positive spin on it, unlike when Keith let Moi go. Now, granted Moi wasn't exactly the greatest deckhand in the world, but I thought Keith could have handled the whole situation better, like Sten did. Sten handled it with class, telling his greenhorn to take the experience and build on it, because he'd fished the Bering Sea. Keith just wanted to yell and scream at Moi (and anyone else who happened to be in his path) and be the big bad captain. NOT classy, Keith. (see how much I dislike him? This was about Sten and I turned it into a rant about Keith LOL)

~ I was secretly overjoyed when the Wizard turned out to have a hole in one of it's tanks, allowing the crab to escape. Ha ha!! Wizard 1, Keith 0!

~ Time Bandit and the Hillstrand boys...'nuff said :)

~ Captain Phil and his offspring, "Ding" and "Dong". It was a hard, hard season for the Cornelia Marie and her crew. Her beloved captain having serious medical troubles, coughing up blood and forcing his young sons to maybe have to grow up and take responsibility before wanting to. His oldest boy Josh, seemed to take the situation the hardest. Worried, he spent much time trying to convince Phil to turn the ship around and head to the hospital for treatment. Eventually, Phil relented to both his son and his friend Murray and sailed to the hospital in St Paul where he learned that a bloodclot had passed thru his heart and into his lung. In the end, Phil had to sit out the remainder of opilio crab season while Murray took over the boat and his sons tried to concentrate on fishing. These events eventually led to Josh rethinking his vocation...

~ The Nothwestern is, to me, the prettiest boat in the fleet.

~ After the Catch...The Captains of the Vast Bering Sea, sitting in a bar, talking to Mike Rowe with beer all around. I just wish it was longer and less structured, because I'm sure there were some terribly funny moments we missed out on.

~ I really want a Time Bandit hoodie :D

~ I'll settle for a Dutch Harbor tshirt like the one Mike Rowe wears all the time :)