Updated

With the king crab season in the books and the bairdi crab season basically finished, the fleet returned to the Bering Sea for the highly lucrative, and highly dangerous, opilio season.

The first thing all the captains noticed was the harsh weather. Thanks to some natural factors, they were looking at some of the worst weather in any of their veteran careers. One captain who was nervous about braving the high waves was Josh Harris, helming the Cornelia Marie for the first time since his father passed away. He had an uphill battle as a slow start to his bairdi season forced him to do some last-minute work while his colleagues were moving on to the new fishing.

Fortunately, some good intel from the Wizard’s new captain, Monte, should help him. Meanwhile, Monte ran into some real danger on his ship. In the middle of some of the biggest waves ever, the Wizard goes dead stick. Unable to steer the boat through the treacherous waters, the crew was at a loss for what was wrong. The captain suggested a good-old-fashioned system reboot which did the trick just in time.

While some captains battled nature, Sig Hansen was battling his crew. The veteran fisherman, known for his hot temper, posted a note on his cabin door telling the crew to wake him when they get to the dock to load pots. However, the crew dragged their feet and had to wait while another ship loaded up. Always paranoid about being late to the hot fishing grounds, Sig was livid that he had to stall with his crew while other boats got out on the water.

To compensate, the angry captain started micromanaging his crew until the job was finally done and they could get out on the water, hours behind Sig's original plans. For the captain that wanted nothing more than to be ahead, one nap put him way behind.

While Sig huffed and puffed over lost hours, captain Wild Bill was surprisingly sanguine about being two weeks late to begin his bairdi season. During last week’s episode he learned that his ship had some bad water damage to the engine. Repairs that were meant to take a couple days ballooned into two weeks after he made the call to replace everything and get it back to perfect condition before braving the rough seas. It’s unclear how the loss of time will affect his ability to hit bairdi and opilio quotas, but his crew was content to celebrate the return to function.

The episode, despite its debacles getting started, ended on a high note with the Cornelia Marie crew. Thanks to Monte’s intel, Harris managed to quickly wrap up his bairdi season by meeting his quota. The celebration was a bit delayed after his resident greenhorn crew member took an accidental line hook to the skull, resulting in a nasty gash on top of his head.

However, after his captain determined there was no concussion and just an ugly cut, the greenhorn was eager to get back to work. The episode ended with the crew back on land toasting to a successful bairdi season and a fresh start on opilio.