The Terrifying Conditions That Forced Deadliest Catch's Sig Hansen To Kick His Daughter Off The Boat
Strong winds, massive waves, and icy conditions are normal experiences on the Bering Sea, but without warning, any of those conditions can turn deadly in moments. It takes a lot for a captain of a crab fishing boat in Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch" to take their boat into harbor because of the conditions on the water — so it was quite a surprise when Captain Sig Hansen of the Northwestern said he was going to be steering his ship into St. Paul Harbor because of the extremely icy conditions.
When the weather gets cold enough on the Bering Sea, the ocean spray will instantly freeze to the boat's deck, equipment and crab pots — when that happens, it adds dangerous amounts of weight to the boat that can end in disaster. So, with the weather not breaking and more and more ice accumulating on the boat, Hansen decides that he has to wait it out in port and that his daughter shouldn't complete the crab season on The Northwestern. "I just feel like she should not be on here with us. That's my gut feeling," Hansen said to the cameraman in the wheelhouse of The Northwestern.
But actually getting his daughter Mandy to agree to disembark and wait out the season is a whole other problem. "Everything is freezing. I'm already nervous, jittery about the whole thing," Hansen said after calling his daughter to the wheelhouse to tell her his plan.
Mandy refuses to leave the boat despite the poor conditions
When Mandy reaches The Northwestern's bridge, he dad quickly lays out the situation to her about the ever-increasing amount of ice on the boat. "We had a window, and that window of weather didn't exactly work," Hansen explained to his daughter. He then tells her that he is heading to St. Paul Harbor and that he will get her a flight out of there and back home to her baby.
"No, there's no point in doing that, I'm not getting off," said Mandy defiantly to her dad when he purposed her leaving The Northwestern. That answer didn't sit well with Hansen and he had to explain to her that this isn't about her, it's about their entire family. "You got your husband on this boat. I got my family on this boat too, that's you and my brother. This is for family. This is for safety. You got a baby at home, and if something bad should happen, God forbid, what then?" Hansen asked of Mandy.
Mandy, still defiant, tells her dad that she was in the same position before and stayed on the boat when the weather got bad — then, like a bolt of lightning, she remembered her new daughter.
Mandy eventually concedes the fact that she should leave The Northwestern
After the back and forth with her father, Mandy finally decides that it is probably best for her to get off the boat and wait out the season because of the weather. Mandy is the mother of a baby named Sailor that is about to celebrate her first birthday on November 10, 2022, and that seemed to be the fuel for her decision to head home. "There's no good decision, and it all really scares me having me and my husband on board, now that we have a daughter," Mandy says as she packs her bag before heading off The Northwestern.
There is no denying the fact that Mandy has the skill and the tenacity to hang with the best crab fisherman on the Bering Sea, but she also is able to have a cool head and make a decision that is both difficult and, most likely, necessary. "Hopefully, the guys know that I am not really bailing on them, but I also got other responsibilities at home," Mandy adds.
When getting to the wheelhouse to say goodbye to her father, Mandy receives an apology from her dad as well as a request, "Well, when you get home, first thing you do is get ahold of me, I wanna see Sailor in your arms," he says to his daughter. The decision seemed as difficult for the hardened captain of The Northwestern as much as it seemed difficult for the new mother.