Ganked!

 Well, here I am. 

     So it's been a minute since I got the dread phone call of 'we need you to cover so-and-so on (insert vessel name) for a few days,' which some of us call 'getting ganked.' 

   I got ganked the other day. It's Sunday morning and I am not on the HQ. I'm in fact rafted up TO the HQ, tied alongside the HQ, but I'm master after God on a chartered barge my company is using. I got called in to do what I think is the last job while it's in my company's possession. It's a nasty, not well looked after thing. Think of a ghetto mechanic's loaner car and you'll know what I mean. Is it legal? Yes. Registered/ insured? Safe? Yah, pretty much. Yup. Is it clean? No. Is it quiet, smooth and tidy at least? Lol. Is there a risk of tetanus, impetigo, scabies? Oh, mais oui.

      I'm also getting a little Hard Lying pay for my trouble , to soothe the burn. I offered to give it to my port captain in exchange for not sending me over here, but no go. 

       It came down to the job we were doing yesterday. For reasons of us being old, reliable and most of all, available, my company, one of our charterers and a cruise ship company all for some reason like using B, Big E, and myself to bunker their latest class of cruise ship when it visits NY. Not that others can't do it; they do the job at times, but we get buttered up and battered and presented freshly washed, powdered and in Sunday best, when needed. Which, I mean, is mostly our shoreside staff patting our heads and telling us to run along, but hell, it's nice to be told you matter every once in a while. By which I mean, the first time in the  17 years I've been with my employer. 

     But yeah, to return to the matter at hand, it's weird. I don't like being ganked. Nobody does of course, but I find it particularly galling, even knowing it was the company's absolute right to get some work out of me, as the HQ hasn't been super busy. Still doesn't make it nice. 

          So I get told I'll be here for 3 days. Today is day 2. Tomorrow in theory will be my last day and as soon as I wake up the day after tomorrow I'll be free to head back to the HQ. In theory, anyhow. 

        In a very true way, this is also good for me. It makes me appreciate the hard work we've done to make the HQ a good place to live and work. 

    Unfortunately, my company also sent some old foreign guy to camp out on the HQ while I was away, just in case the HQ got a job assignment while I am away. Big E, B, and myself are all senior, and normally you'd just have 1 master aboard to be the big cheese, the PIC, da boss. The 3 of us together are a bit of a talent sink to have on one vessel, but OTOH our record is impeccable, and we can do the weird shit as needed, the jobs that have managed risks. Plus, I already told the office years ago that if they split up B and I, I'd be leaving the company shortly after. I can be unhappy anywhere, after all, and bitching aside, I'm happy where I am most of the time. I know too many guys who always look hollowed out; dead eyed, exhausted, drawn and pale, listless, depressed and anxious- guys who jump 8 inches off the ground when someone drops a book on the floor... so it goes when you can't trust your shipmates to not fuck the dog (screw up) when you're asleep, which means sleep is an elevated risk activity, which means quality sleep is elusive.  

 No.

       Everyone, EVERYONE at my job, screws up at times. Makes small mistakes. These days, it's a bigger deal to get a date wrong on a form than it is to damage a dock by hitting it hard, at least according to the bellyaching of the office workers who buzz around our heads like flies around a cow pie. On the HQ we each have our strengths and weaknesses. B is an observer- the guy sees EVERYTHING. Doesn't miss a thing out on deck, or on paper. He's a detail guy, but he also doesn't pick up a wrench unless he has to. Me, I'm the seamanship guy, and I have the deep bench when it comes to math, legal compliance and fixing shit myself. I also miss the details. I'm the guy most likely to not dot the i or to leave a rag in the toolbox. Big E is the logistics guy and morale officer He's got the inventory, supply list, and chain of custody stuff, and of the three of us, works hardest on the intangible things to keep us positive and proactive mentally. Of course we all can do the job, which is to sling oil. So, with two of the three of us always on board together, we have a near zero incident rate beyond the occasional act of God. So when I go to bed, I can rest easy that Big E or B Has Got It. If I get the dreaded knock on the door at 2am, it means that someone needs a hand, not a handholder. 

 Sometimes it takes a ganking to remember all that.