January to January

At this point I don't think anyone except for the tastemakers in the White House is saying that the economy is recovering. As for that, well, I get that at some point you need to keep talking about the emperor's new clothes lest a panic develop over the monarch being butt nekkid. Nobody likes a panic among the people.


 But it's nowhere near like it was last January here at the HQ.

http://bigironbegfish.blogspot.com/2015/01/slammed.html


 Our workload has picked up some, but it's not the nonstop frantic running around it was last January. This is nice in that everything is working, we have time for preventative maintenance and are well-rested. But last year we were making mad bank for daddy, transferring thousands of tons of oil every day. That, coupled with the then price of oil, I wouldn't doubt it if we were moving more than a million bucks a day.

    We're maybe doing 40% of that these days. More work than we used to do when I first started bunkering in Philadelphia, but I'm sure that money last year was nice from those of us whose boats worked the spot market.

    The maritime industry is hemorrhaging jobs down in the Gulf of Mexico, as it does when the economy goes to hell. The insane, unsustainable tonnage and salaries very obviously were never intended to last very long, and they didn't, but it must have been nice for those who rode that wave.

 Me, I stayed the course, conservative that I am, and it's paying dividends now. I'm working, while many folks are not, and believe you me, I'm thankful. Without engaging in too much brown-nosing, I work for a company that seems to keep the golden rule, and that keeps the meat in the seats when it comes to mariner loyalty, at least for my friends and I out here.