I got gas...

EDIT: at 2:30 this morning, we rigged this boat up and they pushed our butts to the closest anchorage, where I blissfully passed out for 5 hours. There is NOTHING like a good sleep when you're reallyreallyreally tired.



mmm. classy title tonight. We moved off the dock bright and early this morning, and I have been plinking away at a series of checklists necessary to advance into my new job here. Loading cargo has been a bit of a treat, as it's comforting to do something familiar on board. What's cool, to me, is that there isn't a loading computur here hooked up to hundreds of sensors to let me know everything that's going on. What is happening is that this barge gets manually guaged using rules-of-thumb and old-fashioned tankerman skills. I was able to get some practice doing fast rate calculations and load planning, and it's a relief to see that I'm equal to the task. I do miss having the eyes in the sky of a mate on watch in front of a computer a la my regular ship, but here, it's also nice being the man on the scene, in command.

And here's a familiar feeling: I'm a little fatigued. First time since I started. I'm going to sleep like a baby later on when we've finished loading.
Anhow, it looks like we'll be busy for the last week of this hitch. In 7 days, I'll be heading home. We've got a couple of evolutions scheduled between now and then. I'm really looking forward to seeing a tow get built, especially. Eventually I'm going to have to be a pro at that stuff, I suspect.
Here's something for you to look at also. Today's Braziliera, courtesy of my wife's TV coverage of this year's Carnival in Rio. They have a thing for headdresses, apparently.