Unless I had a WAY bigger buzz going last night than I thought, he didn't. He had a stroke, this is the beginning of the end I believe. He goes to the hospital and shows signs of recovering then takes a dip and dies. If I'm wrong I need to think about only having one screwdriver on week nights.
He's still technically alive but I thought he died out on his boat. Continue to pound the screwdrivers. The other odd thing is that I always thought these crab captain/boat owners were loaded. I mean I get that fuel and bait and repairs are expensive but when they post multi million dollar catch totals and only pay out a few hundred thousand to their crews I thought the rest went into their pockets. Judging by the way the Hillstrands were talking it sounds like they're all hand to mouth. If they don't put a great captain on their boat they'd be sunk. I know a bunch of commercial fishermen on the East coast and it seems a 50/50 split if their loaded or broke.
I get the feeling that a lot of these guys make decent money and blow through it. Jonathan was talking about leaving the boat and going marlin fishing. One of the previous seasons showed the Time Bandit boys finishing up earlier than the rest of them and they went to somewhere in Mexico to do some sport fishing. How many seasons per year do these guys get? I know there's opies and king crab and sometimes they do bairdo(?) or maybe cod. Is there more? Figure they're getting 30-50k per season (full share guys). If they do 2-3 seasons, they're making some decent coin but yeah a lot of them seem pretty broke.
They live hard to play hard. When they finally get home for 2-3 months at a time with pockets full of money, they blow it on whatever, whenever they want. They use it to feed whatever their vices are as well. Seeing Phil down last night and the reactions of the guys and the entire fleet sucked. Too bad it goes from sucky to even more sucky.
I am just glad that Phil and Jake made up about the drug stealing thing because he is addicted. It would of sucked if they never talked again before he died. Also, did anyone catch the After the Catch episode? It explains about the switching of the two Jakes. Phil actually discussed the idea the year before with Sig because he wanted his son to gain experience by working under another captain. Also, the did the switch at sea because if they didn't do it then it would have been more than a month before their boats would meet again.
There's a chat with Johnathan where he says: I figure its a lot like a larger version of farmers here in the midwest. You make have a huge crop yield but a lot of your money goes directly back into buying stuff for next season.
Sorry I forgot to post the link to the interview, lots of interesting stuff in there: <a class="postlink" href="http://deadliestreports.wordpress.com/2007/05/04/discoverys-livechat-with-captain-johnathan-hillstrand-of-the-fv-timebandit/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://deadliestreports.wordpress.com/2 ... imebandit/</a> Someone asked what they do for the rest of the year.
Honestly, that was a hard episode to watch. I will admit that I got teary eyed on a couple of occasions.
Me too and it's only going to get harder as Phils end gets closer and closer. The Boys were a wreck. Seems everyone in the fleet was actually.
Seeing Captain Johnathon like that killed me. I lost my best friend 8 years ago...seeing Johnathon cope brings it all back. Watching next week is going to be rough, but I think Discovery will get it right.
I caught up on this season with the 4th of July marathon and man has it been a brutal one leading up to last night's episode and especially next week's. I watched a couple of minutes of After the Catch and could completely relate when Mike Rowe mentioned that we feel like we know these guys. I don't think I ever realized what an emotional investment I had made in the men on this show over the last several years.
That was a rough one. Seeing these tough "manly men" break down is hard. Johnathons meltdown was by far the hardest so far to watch. I'll have to stock up on tissues for next weeks. Also, seeing Jake and Josh go at each other, off of the boat, kinda sucks. I can only imagine the guilt Jake is feeling having just been busted stealing Phils pain pills and admitting he's an addict right before all of this. Sidenote: Why oh why does ATC and Rescue Me have to be on at the same damn time?!!
Finally watched the full episode and ATC last night. I am calling the potential for uncontrollable sobbing next week right now.
Wow that was really rough. Discovery did an excellent job with it though. I think next week is going to be even harder as the other captains react to the news.
I am not looking forward to tonights episode. I get all teary and then sniffley. I have to stop to blow my nose and then I can't hear what's happening.
What I am impressed with is the way that Discovery is handling the whole thing. Even the After the Catch shows discussing Phil.
That was really hard ... I knew it was coming, but it still can't prepare you completely. I have been watching Deadliest Catch since 2005 and I will miss seeing Phil Harris on the Cornelia Marie. R.I.P. to one of my favorite captains. I'm going to try to dry my eyes and watch this tribute, then I will be teary again soon.