My Guilty Pleasure

Tuesday nights are my guilty pleasure.

I love to watch Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch" series!

Yes, I know, rather odd for a woman to watch ships with freezing cold sailors battling the worst of elements and the greatest of odds to catch some smelly old fish and crab in the Bering Sea. I think it is the teamwork concept. Plus I love to see the greenhorns, the newest members on the ships, test their sea legs. It's kinda like a fish-out-of-water moment.

Okay, that was a bad joke.

But seriously, about that teamwork concept - every single one of those guys have to work together, watch out for each other, and bring in the opis and kings during the crab seasons so they all benefit and get a paycheck and make it back to harbor safely. Their very lives are dependant on each person on the boat. One brief moment and death could await them. I guess that's where the name comes from.

It's especially precarious during opi season in the depths of the winter months. Besides the fishing, they also have to spend time at various intervals smashing the ice off the boat to keep the weight from sinking them. Then there's the endless days on end that they just work, work, work without a moment's rest or sleep until all the strings of pots are back on board or reset for another catch.

It's kinda weird, but the guys become important to you. There they are risking life and limb doing something they love (for some strange reason), in the worst of conditions to bring some seafood delicacies to our tables. They're living life to the fullest every single day. Wow!

The last episode of the season is quickly approaching. That's when they show some of the boats coming into shore with their families waiting to welcome them home after being away at sea all those months. Very touching seeing those old salts in a more human light.

Of course, I always wonder how bad they smell after being at sea without a bath for months on end. Hey, I'm a girl - we wonder about those things!