So where do you think Jake got the idea to pull his own tooth with pliers?  From his dad of course!  Read the story below.  It’s an excerpt from Discovery’s new book, Deadliest Catch Desperate Hours and there’s alot of Phil Harris in it!  In the book, Capt. Phil tells lots of stories as do the other skippers and deckhands.  Keep in mind these tales span a lifetime of fishing and may have taken place last year or twenty years ago.  This is a good one….

–Captain Phil Harris
The day before we were leaving for king crab season, I had an abscessed tooth, and it was just driving me nuts.  There’s no dentist in Dutch Harbor, and at that time there wasn’t even a doctor.  There was an EMT.  And he goes, “Hey look, I can’t pull a tooth.  I don’t have the anesthesia, the equipment, the staff.”
    
I said, “You got a pair of pliers?  You gotta get the mother out of my mouth, man.  It’s just driving me nuts.”

So I was sitting in a chair with two of the biggest guys on the boat holding me down.  And this guy goes in with just a regular pair of hardware store pliers, and he’s trying to pull my molar.  And he ends up breaking it off.  There’s no novocaine, no drugs, no anything. I’m wide awake and sober.  Now there’s blood everwhere, and there’s just a chunk of tooth stkicking out, not enough for him to grab.  We’re in a pickle.

So now he gets a regular claw hammer and a chisel–a regular cold chisel you use to cut metal, not a surgical instrument by any means.  What he hoped to do was get down to the gum line, and give it a real good whack, and hope the tooth broke in pieces that he could grab with a pair of needle nose pliers.

I mean, that was about as painful as you can get.  I’ve done alot of things that were painful, and I can take pain with best of them, but that was almost more than I could stand.  There was blood pouring out of me.  The guys on either side, they’re puking–they’re holding me, turning around, and throwing up on the floor, turning back, and holding me some more.  I’m just to the point of passing out.  And he’s whacking me over and over.  He pulled out a couple chunks, but there was a big bunch in there that he couldn’t get out so I went fishing like that.

After we made the first trip it was all I could take, so we made arrangements in Anchorage to fly a guy in–some sort of surgeon.  the guy’s name, I never will forget, was Luther Paine.  They knocked me out, pulled everything out, and I was back on an airplane a day later.  And in retrospect I should have done that in the first place.

One of our fans brought this cartoon to our attention - thanks. I thought this was especially funny as we start the Marathon weekend. Check out their website called “Player Vs. Player” or pvponline.com - funny stuff.

Now, be careful, the marathons are very addictive - before you know what’s happened you have been sucked into one episode after another:)

“Deadliest Catch” is going to get even bigger starting this weekend with season 2 & 3 marathons airing all day and night on Saturday and Sunday.  And then it will just be a couple of days til SHOWTIME!  Stop by over the weekend if you can pull yourself away from the Discovery channel and read a few Phil Harris excerpts from Discovery’s new book, Deadliest Catch Desperate Hours.

(Photo courtesy of Bonnie.  Thanks Bonnie!)

After months of delay, the two shirts voted on by our fans in the forum are now a reality and for sale in the Cornelia Marie Online store.

Discovery Channel already started showing the shows from last year to lead up to the new episode on April 15th. Get your shirt now, before the first show begins.

We found out over the weekend that the 184 foot, F/V Alaska Ranger sunk about 120 miles west of Dutch Harbor early Sunday morning. Our prayers go out to the families. One of the four people who lost their lives was the Captain, Eric Peter Jacobsen, 65, of Lynnwood, Wash

KIRO TV in Seattle interviewed the Captains adult children. News story here.

They said there must have been something terribly wrong for a boat of that size to sink and they would like to know the details. Yes, I agree. The weather was not rough and something strange must have happened for them to take on water so fast. Usually, when a boat takes on water - there is enough time to be rescued before having to abandon ship.

The F/V Alaska Ranger was a factory trawler and not one of the fishing boat in the F/V Cornelia Marie crab fishing fleet. This was a large vessel with 47 people on board. It drags a large net (trawl) from the stern of the vessel to catch its fish. Once caught, the fish are processed and frozen right there aboard the ship. These guys stay out at sea for along time and it’s not an easy job.

More details can be found here.

Here’s a little something about what Capt. Phil and the crew have been up to while crabfishing…

Friday, March 21, 2008 — Stillwater, Okla. – Until recent years, the marine market went mostly ignored by the mobile audio industry. KICKER Audio thought of no better way of helping to jump-start its marine business than seeking out the toughest, most rugged bunch out there for its next “demo” vehicle.

KICKER recently partnered with the extreme fishing vessel Cornelia Marie, one of the four ships featured in the famed show “Deadliest Catch,” which airs on the Discovery Channel. The show, which is about the dangers of Alaskan king-crab fishing, consistently carries top ratings among 18-34 year-old males, and begins its fourth season April 15.

A few conversations with co-owner and captain of the Marie, Phil Harris, were had, and he and his crew loved the idea of putting an all-out audio system in the boat. Phil was responsible for making the Cornelia Marie one of the top-performing boats last season despite some major mechanical difficulties, and hopes to make this season just as good.

And so, KICKER dealer Safe & Sound in Anchorage was called on to “deck” out the ship. “This was the most unusual and fun job we have ever done,” said Terry Spessard, owner of Safe & Sound.

Following an exhausting five-hour truck ride and then 12-hour ferry ride just to get to where the Cornelia Marie was docked, Spessard and crew installed a system in the wheelhouse and one outside on the main deck that became an instant hit with all on board.

“Because of this fantastic system, it’s what keeps us up at night to get our work done,” said Harris. “It’s as loud as I could possibly have asked for.”

After the installation was completed, they ended up loading the Cornelia Marie with a 15-inch Solo-Baric L7 subwoofer, two 12-inch CompVT subwoofers, four sets of 6.5-inch RS-Series Component speakers, and three weather-hardy KB6000 box pairs.

KICKER Brand Manager Roger Demaree summed it up. “Some of the original feedback we got was that the Discovery film crew often had to tell (Phil’s guys) to turn the system down because it was too loud.”

“Everybody in the fleet knows about the system, and are completely envious of our gear,” Harris said. “KICKER has given us absolutely, bar none, the best-sounding system out there.”

The new season of “Deadliest Catch” airs April 15 on the Discovery Channel. Make sure to check out the Cornelia Marie’s website, and look for extensive coverage of Phil and crew in an upcoming issue of Rolling Stone magazine.

Phil will also be signing autographs in the KICKER booth at the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Finals, May 3, in Las Vegas. KICKER audio systems and SoundGate integration products, divisions of Stillwater Designs and Audio, Inc., are available for the mobile and home audio aftermarket at authorized dealers worldwide, and also through selected Original Equipment Manufacturers. Consumers needing more information on KICKER, SoundGate, or Livin’ Loud® may call the Consumer Information Line at 1-800-256-5425 or visit brand websites at www.kicker.com or www.soundgate.com.