In a clip from last night’s episode of Deadliest Catch, the crew of the Cornelia Marie shows fans what it’s like when your vessel loses power in the middle of the water. In the clip, captain Casey McManus succinctly explains their predicament, saying, “We got no power, we got no pump running, we got no pump running, the crab die.”
McManus continues, saying, “The water on those crabs is good for about 10 minutes.” The boat has to keep the water running through the pumps or else the crab die and they lose their haul, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
While they’re waiting for the engineers to fix the pump, Josh Harris makes a quip, “I thought 2021 was supposed to be better.” You and me both, Josh, you and me both.
Apparently, according to engineer Taylor Jensen, the generator died and, while he “bled everything twice and turned it over,” it still wouldn’t start. The Cornelia Marie needed a new “low-pressure fuel pump,” but didn’t have a backup. That meant, according to McManus, that the biggest generator on the boat was offline. The Cornelia Marie had to run all her power through their second generator and hope it held. McManus says, if the second generator goes, “I’m getting fired.”
Eventually, they got the backup generator going, getting power back and the pumps going again. Instead of venturing further out on the water, McManus and Harris decide to drop their pots where they are. They stay close to port, just in case.
Losing power on a crab vessel can mean detrimental losses…
— Deadliest Catch (@DeadliestCatch) September 14, 2021
Watch #DeadliestCatch NOW on @Discovery or streaming on @discoveryplus. Download and subscribe: https://t.co/uW5wBALPyo pic.twitter.com/qhj8oCeBOT
Only One Episode Left of ‘Deadliest Catch’
There’s only the finale left of season 17 and things are looking dire for the Deadliest Catch crews. With power losses, canneries closing down, and risking shipwrecks to get into port, the previous episode was already fraught with thrills. But, what’s coming up for the finale? This season has been full of disasters, triumphs, and victories for the crews; they already had to deal with COVID-19 during this season, saving fisheries and supporting commercial fishing during unprecedented times; Deadliest Catch has got to go out with a bang.
According to official synopses, Keith Colburn of the Wizard risks driving his boat through jagged ice to find his lost pots, and Wild Bill overturns the Summer Bay attempting to pull into the harbor. What that means, I can’t even fathom. Will he completely overturn the boat? Will it sink, heralding the end of the Summer Bay? Only the finale will tell.
The final episode of Deadliest Catch season 17 airs on Discovery on September 21 at 8 p.m.
