Thursday evening, I packed up the majority of my belongings from where I'm staying, did some laundry, called the family and got ready to ship out. I must have had "late coffee" because by the time I was tired and off to bed, it was midnight. Needless to say, Friday morning came really early. I was asked to be at Dunlap at 09:00, but I had a few stops to make along the way and elected to leave the house at 07:00, which gave me plenty of time. I got to the yard at 08:00 and waited around for a while before sticking my head in the door at the main office.
After meeting some folks in the office, the port captain told me to go ahead and take my stuff onboard the Polar Endurance and find my cabin, so I did. I was immediately greeted by the chief mate and some of the repair guys who were prepping the boat for departure. The cook arrived, took inventory and headed to Safeway to pick up everything that was ordered from the night before, plus some other times. We literally had a flatbed full of food, enough to fill 2 pallets, which we promptly craned over to the ship and shoved into the galley. The rest of the crew slowly trickled in and once everyone was there, our captain called a meeting on the bridge to talk about roles, safety and the trip in general. We pulled in the lines and headed south towards Seattle around 13:00.
We got into Seattle around 16:00 and grabbed about 50,000 gal of fuel to top off the tanks. This took about 3 hours, so I helped the cook organize the galley and put all the food stores away. We have enough snack food to entertain a couple elementary schools worth of kids for at least a week or two. The freezer is packed with just about every type of meat, ice cream, frozen veggies, fruits, etc. I will be amazed if I return from this trip having not added at least 10 lbs, which probably isn't a bad thing.
After fuel, we moved over to where our barge was tied up on a buoy. The AB (Dan, who incidentally brought his Xbox and is itching to do some gaming with me) climbed aboard and began the process of handing over the cable that pulled up the towing bridle. After a few head scratching moments and untangling, we got it all connected (about an hour process) and a few more of us including myself, climbed aboard the barge to check tie-downs and secure the mooring lines. The barge is about 300' and has containers stacked 5 high all the way around. There are boats, trucks, schoolbus, machinery, a house (yes, a prefabricated building) all tied down on top of this barge. It's quite impressive to look at, and kinda freaky as well. There's about 10 miles of chain zig zagging back and forth holding everything down to the pad eyes.
Once everything was checked, we climbed back aboard the tug, pulled the lines, flipped around and took off.
We've been steaming north since last night pretty quietly, towing at about 6-7 knots I. The cook made up a pot roast for dinner, and a gooey-goodness casserole for breakfast and BACON on the side. I'll be standing a 2-6 watch both am and pm, overlapping with the AB and the chief mate so that I get enough time in both the deck/engine room, and the pilot house. So far, so good and everything is going as planned. I got up early for watch today because I had a slight headache and didnt want to just lay there and suffer, so I've been hanging out in the galley, playing ipad games and chatting with all the crew as they trickle in and out. Dinner is prepared by the cook, but we are free to grab anything and everything and anytime. You want ice cream and shrimp for breakfast, no problem. I'll stick to my grape nuts, thanks. :-)
The crew is all really cool and approachable. It's only been one day, but I've gotten to know them all fairly quickly and I get the feeling that they are "cool with the new guy". Hopefully we all get along, crammed into this small space for 30+ days. I think I will be good, but time will tell. Everyone has their preferences and it takes time to figure them out, for instance... I'm fairly certain that the Chief Mate likes being in the bridge alone. He doesn't talk much and when the end of my watch comes around, he will typically be the first to say "looks like your off watch"... Okey dokey, heading to bed. The other Mate likes to sleep as much as possible when he's off and is cold blooded on the bridge, so he keeps the windows and doors opened. I'm figuring them out, and its kinda fun solving the social puzzle.
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