the best laid plans...Bend over,

Wait! You're going the worng $#*#$*&ing way!

    Dammit I should have kept my idiot mouth shut.

  Well, we were in Bay Ridge anchorage in New York harbor, cleaning the house up, tidying and doing final laundry.  Four. FOUR fucking hours before crew change, the tugboat mated to the barge I'm babysitting calls us up. 'We need to get on the hip. We just got ordered to Baltimore, sailing immediately. "

 30 minutes later the anchor's up, the tugboat is stretching out the tow wire, and we're on our way out under the Verrezano Narrows bridge, bound for Ambrose channel. I'm typing this in my bunk, as I'll be standing watch and eating the last of my salad here at midnight.
      I was met with silence when I delivered the news to Inappropriately Hot Foreign Wife. She and I are both spoiled by my unusually regular schedule. It's been a few years since I got diverted and crew change got screwed up. Comes with the job, but I've been lucky.
    Apparently my wife had a nice romantic day all planned out for tomorrow. Her first words to me were "Ohhh-kay. Eye neeed fight wit' chu now." She wasn't serious, as she's a good 'un, but spent the next few minutes reassuring herself that I wasn't going to go run for a high vantage point and a high-powered rifle. I had had 30 minutes to get the tug made up on the wire and the anchor up, so I was ok by then.

 Well, semi-OK. I'm not riding all the way to Baltimore. I'll get off in Wilmington, DE on a crew boat, there to get to the airport in Philly. All goes to plan, I'll lose 12 hours with the fam and have a quiet evening tomorrow night with them. I told my wife to break out a magnum of Moet & Chandon, 'cus daddy's thirsty and it's a school night, which makes lounging on my patio sound pretty good.

Still, this is better than having to bust my balls over cargo ops. I'm riding a barge and standing watch. Tomorrow I'll be home at some point, hopefully before midnight... and hey, they have these wonderful places at the Philadelphia airport where you can sit and they bring you beer.