Keith Colburn helped pull Lynn Guitard back aboard after the deckhand went overboard in 15 foot seas during the July 17 Deadliest Catch episode. The rescue came after a rough stretch for the Wizard crew, and it ended with Guitard back on deck before the cold could do its work.
Guitard’s first words after the rescue were, "I'm so sorry. I love you guys," and Colburn later summed up the moment this way: "Everything went right when so many things could have gone wrong," The episode framed the scene as a survival problem, not a clean save, because the boat had to move fast enough to get him in and warm before hypothermia set in.
Wizard Crew Moves Fast
Keith Colburn and Monte led the rescue efforts, and the crew threw a life sling to Guitard before pulling him back onto the boat. That sequence matters because it shows how little room there was for delay: in heavy seas, the recovery had to work on the first try. The crew then rushed to get Guitard warm, which is the part viewers do not see in a highlight clip but which usually decides whether a cold-water overboard turns into a fatality.
The July 17 episode had already put Colburn under pressure before Guitard went over. He was dealing with the harrowing Coast Guard rescue of nine crew aboard the beached Arctic Sea vessel, and he was also fighting issues with his plotter while trying to position and set 160 pots. That earlier detour left him 60 miles off course, which is the kind of operational setback that can cascade into everything that follows on a fishing run.
22 Foot Seas, Four Hours
The crew expected four hours of hell because the conditions had built to 22 foot seas. The difference between 15 foot seas and 22 foot seas is not cosmetic; it is the difference between a rescue window that is already closing and one that can disappear completely if the crew hesitates. That is why the life sling, the quick haul-back, and the immediate move to warm Guitard were the only steps that mattered in sequence.
The episode ended with a dedication to Gregory, Monte’s son, who was a Wizard crewman from 2018 to 2022 and died in a May motorcycle accident. That dedication gives the hour a wider frame, but the immediate story is still the same: Guitard went over, the crew got him back, and the boat avoided turning one emergency into two.
Gregory and the Dedication
Gregory’s death had already put a heavier tone on the season, and the closing dedication tied that loss to the rescue viewers had just watched. For anyone tracking the Wizard, the practical takeaway is simple: Colburn’s crew handled a worst-case overboard call and survived it, but the episode also showed how quickly one cold-water mistake can become the night’s main event.
