Keith Colburn helped pull Lynn Guitard back aboard after he fell overboard in 15-foot seas during the July 17 episode of Deadliest Catch. The rescue came in a stretch of rough fishing that left the Wizard crew racing against cold water, heavy weather and the kind of mistake that can turn fatal fast.
Colburn was already dealing with the aftermath of the Coast Guard rescue of nine crew aboard the beached Arctic Sea vessel, and then had to fight a problem with his plotter while trying to position and set 160 pots. In that kind of weather, a boat cannot afford confusion for long. The crew threw a life sling to Guitard and pulled him back on board before rushing to get him warm and avoid hypothermia.
Guitard’s own words captured how close the call felt. After the rescue, he told the crew, “I’m so sorry. I love you guys,” a line that landed with the force of someone who had just stared down the sea and made it back. Colburn hugged him and said he was thankful the ordeal did not happen at night, when the risk would have been even greater.
That is the part of the story that stays with the episode. Colburn said, “Everything went right when so many things could have gone wrong,” and the line fits because the margin was so thin. The team expected four hours of hell in 22-foot seas, and the rescue worked only because the crew got to Guitard quickly enough to keep the cold from taking over.
The episode also carried a heavier note at the end, with a dedication to Gregory, Monte’s son. Gregory had been a Wizard crewman from 2018 to 2022 and died unexpectedly in a motorcycle accident in May, a loss that hung over a night already marked by near disaster. The July 17 rescue showed how fast one emergency can stack on top of another, and how little room the Wizard has for error when the water turns violent.
What stands out is not just that Guitard was saved, but how close the rescue came to going the other way. The crew got him aboard, warmed him up and kept working, yet the unanswered question remains how long he was in the water before the life sling reached him. In seas like that, those minutes matter.
