ring ring

I must have spent two hours on the phone last night. This is about 2 hours more than I spend on the phone most days.
When I was sailing on the ATB this past summer, some of the deck gang goofed on the captain for calling them or the ship while he was home on his 3-week off period. Some guy said that the poor old guy must have no life.
I have to say that I get calls every week from guys who are home on vacation, just to touch base. This ship is a tight community, and we spend more time together than we do at home... so, no, I didn't join in on the bitches who were goofing on the captain. I'm one of those people too, and so are most of my friends.
When I first get off the ship, I stay out of touch for about 2 weeks, and then I'll check in with one of the guys on board, and communicate mostly by voice mail. I talk to the bosun and most of the permanent mates on my off time, and they call me, too. Last night I spoke to four people who work on this ship, and all of them had spoken to at least one other person from the ship in the past 24 hours. Not a single one of us lives anywhere near the others, either. It's just the way this ship is. We're not company men, we're not rah-rah union men... we work here for the people, and for no other reason, as I've said before.

Anyhow, after much spitting of chaw and what I suspect may have been a hootenanny, the shoreside gang at the refinery finally finished pumping cargo to us, and we left at 8am. I on;y slept about 3 hours, but it is beautiful outside, sunny and cool, just a sparkling day, so I'm going to walk a couple of miles (20 laps around the deck) and enjoy the weather before I take the wheel at noon.