New Day

It's Sunday, we're at a lay berth awaiting orders for the next job, and I feel I have earned the rest. For the first time since I came aboard on Wednesday, I got a decent night's sleep- 6 uninterrupted hours' worth, which was wonderful. I find that without the regimentation of standing watches, I tend to work 20-hour days, which is harmful out here- we can't work more than 15-in-24 without a damn good reason under the law, and are supposed to have 6 hours' rest after 12. At any rate, I'm feeling good again, and enjoying the prospect of spending a day aboard this tub where I'm not running around with any sort of situational awareness.
     Coming aboard a new class of tank vessel, everything's familiar-ish, but the little differences are disorienting. I can't sit in my bunk and listen to the engines and work up a mental picture of what's going on on deck. The engines are larger and different from those I'm used to, and they don't change pitch like mine do. I don't know where the rope locker is. I can't time cargo discharges so that I know that I can go grab a sandwich between stripping out cargo tanks. If I need a tool, it might take me 10 minutes to find it. Little things.

 But some good things are happening too- I am enjoying New York harbor again after a few months away. I am watching the traffic, seeing familar faces, saying hi to friends out here. Good stuff.

 This, like Salma Hayek's underwear drawer, is where the good stuff is at. The Cargo Control Room.

Like Salma, herself, I feel that I look better with longer hair. This is the longest my hair has been in years. You can tell I took the picture after a few weeks at sea 'cus o the beard. 

 Tug "Oyster Creek."  One of the small (3,000hp) class of boat that my employer fields in NY harbor. The pulley and lines on the back deck that lead to the winch are the push cables, used for shoving barges from behind (as opposed to towing them). The Texas Bar across the stern is for towing- it acts as a fairlead for the tow wire as it stretches out behind the tug. 

 HORIZON NAVIGATOR. Outdated, small, ugly as the south end of a northbound donkey, but she's one of the few American container ships out there, and pays very, very well if one works on board.

 The view from my office yesterday. Beats the shit out of waiting 10 years to get a view of a frigging parking lot, don't it!

 Both a submarine AND proof that drugs are bad. "We take a sub, right," *snorts 3 lines of cocaine* "and then, we put, like... a jet on it!" 

USS Intrepid- next time I see this museum ship, she'll have a goddamned SPACE SHUTTLE on it. How cool is that!

 Lay berth- on the right is an old concrete hulk, a storage ship that is no longer used. I climbed the mast to take this shot. 

*needs work*