I thought I'd type this up now since my hands will be so fried after cargo ops today that I won't be able to do this later tonight.
So, it's 03:00 and our callout is at 04:30. I got up early to stretch, take a shower, eat some food and get my head around the day in a nice easy pace. Jumping out of your rack and throwing your workwear on in little time is no way to start a hard day of cargo... At least for this guy. I tend to treat my cargo days like marathons. I work on getting my head in the right place before feet enter the right race. I also treat cargo like its a workout, focusing on technique when lifting and squatting, so that A. I don't get hurt, and B. I get a workout in. But being a long day, you typically have to pace yourself in a manner that is going to let you last for 12+.. (Or 16+ hours... ). So, think I'm dialed for the day, just gotta down copious amounts of coffee before heading out on deck.
We got back on the inside yesterday (and off the Gulf) and will be dockside in Ketchikan in a few hours. This was supposed to be our last stop, but we received an email from dispatch yesterday stating that they need us to swap barges after Ketchikan with a tug from Western Towboat, take that barge BACK to Ketchikan, drop it off and then head straight back to port. Pretty simple except we are meeting the Western tug a day or two south of Ketchikan, and then having to backtrack with their barge before heading home. It's all in the name of the game we call work and it just means another few days of pay, so we roll with it.
The Captain, Chief Mate and I were in the pilothouse last night and they were giving me some pointers on how to move the controls around for docking, (between auto pilot, and the various follow-up levers in the pilothouse and aft deck). I needed to get "assessed" and checked off, so I was drilling them with questions and they were doing pretty good about teaching me as much as possible, (and re-learning some of the processes for themselves). The end result was us talking about how I can get some time in the pilothouse while we are landing the second barge in a few days. Learning the docking commands and how they apply to the controls is critical since usually the captain/master will go out on the barge and call the commands to the chief over the radio. Commands like "twist right, easy easy", "a little more on the go", "ease off the go", etc. are what they use to maneuver the barge into place inch by inch. There's typically another tug helping with the maneuvering as well, and the captain has to give different orders to both boats at once. It's definitely an art that will take years of practice. So, they said I could come up and hang out during the landing of that barge and then also get some helm time for the trip back to Everett since we will be "light tug", meaning that we won't be towing a barge on the way home. They also chatted about taking some-off-the-beaten-path routes since we can and are rarely afforded the opportunity to do so.
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