'Deadliest' Gets Some Recovery Time

By LillyKat
PTR Senior Staff Writer

A break in the storm.

Er, I should say storms.

Plural.

After watching three weeks of hurricanes and squalls rip apart the ships and crew of Deadliest Catch, we had a mellow episode last night.

Sort of.

The Wizard Avoids Davy Jones Locker: So, what does one do when one springs a leak in one's engine room that starts to a) flood the ship, and/or b) wreck $250,000 of crab because the tank holding the freshly circulating sea water is now emptying itself into the engine room? No problem. Some strips of rubber, a few clamps, some elbow grease and you're good to go! 'kay, it was a little more hectic than that, but I have to hand it to Captain Keith and the gang - they pulled off one heck of a patch job.

Anchor Follies of the Northwestern: Four hours and several near death experiences later, Captain Sig is able to retrieve his $5,000 anchor from the bottom of the Bering Sea after it was snapped off during one of those hurricanes. He nearly capsizes the boat in the process ... buy hey, trifles, right?

A New Captain on the Cornelia Marie: My favorite senior deckhand/relief captain, Murray, took the helm this week - the first time in 17 years the Cornelia Marie has set sail without Captain Phil in wheelhouse. Phil is recovering in an Anchorage hospital. Turns out that whole thrown-out-of-bed / might-have-a-punctured-lung thing was a coincidence. Turns out the reason Phil was in such bad shape was due to a blood clot that originated in his leg. It made its way up his body, passed through his heart and onto his lung. Holy egadzoods, Batman! So, his poor health had nothing to do with being tossed around like a rag doll on the ship. Can you believe that? Considering he just lost his mom to this sort of ailment, and by all accounts, this condition normally kills people, it's a flipping miracle Captain Phil is still with us. And I'm surely glad he is. Like we've been saying, these guys are one tough bunch - and they do have some Guardian Angels looking after them, too.

New episodes of Deadliest Catch air Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on Discovery Channel (with multiple replays throughout the week). You can also tune into all new episodes of After the Catch at 10 p.m. to hear the captains' insights on the season's highs and lows. Visit the official Deadliest Catch Web site for the latest on the captains and crews of the Northwestern, Cornelia Marie, Time Bandit, Wizard, Early Dawn and North American.