blessed, blessed anchor watch

 There are few things I value more than unhurried watches. 

 I guess that's a dumb statement. I mean, everyone who works on a boat likes not being harried and under pressure. Given my job and the nature of the work we do, my work cycle is unpredictable. Maintenenace, both regular and unscheduled, has to be shoehorned around work... and that's normally fine, until it isn't. During cargo watch we're on, well, cargo watch, and not supposed to be doing  scheduled maintenance, or anything, really, that distracts from cargo ops. When things get busy, we have to forego sleep to do maintenance. So it goes. There isn't anything brutally time-consuming about our scheduled PM's, so it's fine, and unscheduled stuff is unscheduled by nature. If we can fix something in-house, we fix it. If not, we call in shoreside support. If it's something that shuts us down... well, we shut down. Since we're a 24/7 operation, we really do try to get the mail delivered, you know? 

 This past winter and spring was just brutal, time-wise. We were all-out, with very little downtime. Inevitably, little things get put off until a delay or other snafu gives us time to sort out the things we weren't able to do when we wanted to do them. 

 This makes a quiet watch not so quiet, really, but there's something VERY positive to be said to have the ability to sit and look at a job project, plan it out a bit and then do it, tidy up and move on, without having to rush rush rush. In these circumstances, changing a serpentine belt on a generator or changing the oil on a pump or putting on a harness and going up a ladder to change light bulbs becomes unstressful, just a thing to be done, and not a giant monkey wrench thrown in the gearbox. 

 And you know, the past few weeks have been exceptionally hot. I've been on the verge of overheating a few times. Being able to stop and go inside while working on a project can be a luxury, but it's one I have when we're not rushed for time.I have about 3 hours worth of stuff to do tonight. In a pinch, I could do it in about 2 hours. That extra time is a treasure.