A hurricane in the Arctic? Yes, and some of the worst tidal surges and crashing waves anywhere on Earth are what’s in store for Summer Bay Captain “Wild Bill” Wichrowski on this week’s Deadliest Catch.
Our exclusive clip shows that when Mother Nature wants to cause some havoc for sailors, it doesn’t matter what ocean or latitude you happen to find yourself in.
The captain and his crab boat the Summer Bay are shown heading on to the Bering Sea, as swells take hold that are as high as a building.
Wild Bill surveys the scene and says: “We got some hellacious tides coming. Oh boy. I’m just looking at how everybody is doing individually, and just keeping the waves off the boat.”
His crew are on deck in storm gear gleefully pulling up pots in between the crushing ice-cold waves, while Wild Bill watches from his perch up in the captain’s room.
When he sees that there’s crab, he looks happy, especially considering the conditions. Wild Bill says: “There are a few crabs in these, looks like it’s the good stuff.
“I mean, we’ve fought to get down here and, we are gonna get our a** kicked by the tides.”
The crew and Bill are facing the biggest tidal surges in the United States. Each crab pot retrieval will pose a huge challenge for the Summer Bay crew.
“Six-second intervals…every six seconds you are on top of a wave, there’s no time to recover between them,” Wild Bill says of the relentless pounding.
A massive arctic hurricane assaults the whole fleet with high winds and big waves. Tonight you will see these same winds create issues for Captain Jake Anderson on the Saga as an unstable stack threatens to capsize his boat.
But our exclusive clip shows that in a rush to set and retrieve pots, Wild Bill risks it all as he sails straight into the storm to make his precious quota.
Deadliest Catch airs Tuesdays at 9 PM ET/PT on Discovery.