S15.E10: Curse of the Russian Line

[thewhiteowl]

Casey and Josh haul in their biggest ever pots prompting  gold rush to the Russian line. Bill gets some inside intelligence while Harvey confirms the numbers his own way. Arctic storm Elsa strengthens.

[kassygreene]

Jeez.  For an episode with no manufactured drama, I found it pretty gripping.  Those guys earn their checks, that's for sure.

And I think that's the most talking Norm has done on camera since The Legend Of The Northwestern....

[millennium]

This show has been on the air so long that the ships are starting to fall apart.

The Josh/Casey jubilation felt scripted.   A money gun?  Really?

Tired of all the memorials on this show, each ship trying to outdo the other with tributes to the dead.   People die.   Move on.

A business competitor just did to me the equivalent of what Steve "Harley" Davidson did to Casey.   I hope there's a hell for guys like that.

Great seal footage at the beginning.

[AZChristian]

I LOLed when Josh made the comment about pulling in the biggest pots in his "entire career as a captain."

So these are your biggest pots in 20 minutes????

[Lonesome Rhodes]

How many times have we got the Disco spiel about how awful the weather would come up?  Of these times, how many have we seen virtually all the captains proactively hightailing it to safe harbor?  Maybe 10%?  "Elsa" must have been a helluva deal.

We never got an explanation as to the crane being available prior to Sig leaving on his earlier trip.  I bet it was just sitting there.  Then, out of nowhere, Norman AND Mandy show up?  Why the hell didn't Sig wait for them, even if that crane was not there?   Sig's real gambit, it seems, was to make a short trip, knowing full well he was coming back for his brother and daughter.  If he fell into something, great.  if not, he serviced Disco.  Draaaaama!

General question...when setting the total harvest, did the government include that ginormous bio mass up north?  Where did they say the Opi's were/where were they sampled?    

[smores]

On 6/11/2019 at 10:58 PM, millennium said:

This show has been on the air so long that the ships are starting to fall apart.

Cruise ships have to have a major dry dock every 5 years for maintenance and making sure they are sound, etc.  Some of the captains are good about investing in their boats, like the guys on the Northwestern, and I'd venture to say Bill, but others just seem to run them until shit literally falls apart.  There's no way the hull should be literally rusting away if they are checking the thickness of it yearly, which seems like a reasonable thing to do when it's the ONLY thing keeping you alive.  And considering you don't know if you'll encounter ice or not, you're dependent on the hull remaining intact to keep the boat afloat.  If the hull is compromised to begin with, grazing some ice could puncture it, which would be bad. 

[kassygreene]

I seem to remember the Wizard had major seven figure work done two or three years ago.  And the Time Bandit had intensive work done in dry dock a few years before that, a trouble-plagued refit that I suspect was not helped by Andy's penchant for cheaper contractors - as an example, the engine room was spray-painted (powder-painted?) so badly they had to scrape it all off and have it re-done.

[Lonesome Rhodes]

12 hours ago, smores said:

Cruise ships have to have a major dry dock every 5 years for maintenance and making sure they are sound, etc.  Some of the captains are good about investing in their boats, like the guys on the Northwestern, and I'd venture to say Bill, but others just seem to run them until shit literally falls apart. 

Keith famously went whole hog on dry-docking the Wizard (so did the TB) and upgrading systems and reinforcing the hull a very few years ago.  He was coming off some bad financials and went into debt well north of $2 million in so choosing.  He has been richly rewarded for doing so and was debt-free well before the 2018 season commenced, per my reading of various tidbits here and there.  

This is in direct contrast to the Cornelia Marie and Saga and other foolhardy operations.  They paid a major price for their parsimonious approaches.  Disco likely saved them from bankruptcy, imo.

Edited June 14, 2019 by Lonesome Rhodes

[kassa]

I remember Sig making very pointed "jokes" at Phil about the lack of maintenance on the Cornelia Marie.  They both laughed, but it seemed clear that Sig really disapproved and wanted Phil to step up.  Of course Phil was a minority owner, so maybe he simply didn't have the clout to insist, but Sig may have thought he could try harder.

The Northwestern does appear to be meticulously maintained year after year.  And I think that standard is serving Jake A well as he refurbished the Saga to something pretty impressive considering its origins.