Just thought I’d make this thread for you. I have worked in the maritime industry for 8 yrs. I have worked on tugs 1150 hp to line haul boats 11,500 hp. I have worked away from home for up to 127 days straight on a line boat. I have moved barges, rigs, dealt with ships and any weather you can imagine. Let me tell you what to expect on boats:
Live aboard tugs:
-small cramped living quarters
-they get dirty fast
-if a wave comes you feel it
-community bathroom
-small galley
-they get stinky if you don’t keep the msd taken care of.
Line haul vessels:
-ton of living space
-laundry room
-nice galley
-living room
-good bathrooms
-easy to keep clean
-drama
-complaining from other crew members
-1st mate tryin to put work off on the 2nd mate
-2nd mate tryin to put work off on the 1st mate
-captain complaining when his bed isn’t made right
-captains bitching about the engineers
-2nd mate whining to captain about the 1st mate
-1st mate blaming it all on the deckhands
-lot of phone signal loss
-wife or girlfriend bitching if you don’t text every 5 minutes (don’t try telling them you’re working they don’t believe that)
-lots of new people in different fleets
Things to bring:
-14 pair of socks
-8 pair of underwear
-7 pair of jeans
-steel toe boots
-14 shirts
-headlamp
-lounge clothes
-ipod
-phone and charger
-laptop
-toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, lotion etc
-hats
Things to remember:
-change captain and pilots sheets every 7 days
-clean captain and pilots bathroom every watch
-change captain and pilots towels every watch
-if the captain is right-he’s right. If the captain is wrong- he’s still right
-if you are a deckhand then its always your fault.
-wash your ass!!! People Will turn against you if you don’t
-don’t eat before watch change. Snacks on watch are cool but dont pig out on the food the cook is making before watch change.
-if you are on 6-12 watch relieve your man at 530. 12-6 relieve your man at 1130. Any questions email me. Three57facelift@yahoo.com
No I wash mine every 4 days but smart people keep extra clothes in case they have a pair of jeans rip, the boat breaks down and you run out of water etc. Plz if you aren’t a new hire keep smart ass comments out. This is to help new hires. Thank you.
[QUOTE=imwhoflungpoo;86109]No I wash mine every 4 days but smart people keep extra clothes in case they have a pair of jeans rip, the boat breaks down and you run out of water etc. Plz if you aren’t a new hire keep smart ass comments out. This is to help new hires. Thank you.[/QUOTE]
Seriously, I don’t know why anyone would ever have to bring so many clothes to a vessel they’re working on especially if they get to do laundry often? How big is your seabag for Christ’s sake? Come on…you’d need a full sized suitcase for all those jeans and shirts!
sorry but I calls em as I sees em and your recommendation for clothes to bring is overkill by a factor of three and besides, everyone gets to feel the point of the stick if they post stuff which is dumb so take your lumps quietly unless you want to feel the business end of “the stick” again
Yeah that’s a ridiculous amount of clothes to bring. Unless you are hand washing in a bucket and hanging them dry in the engine room you only need about 3-5 complete sets of clothes. You can’t ask for someone to keep smart ass comments to them selves. If you’ve been doing this as long as you say you know better. You just invited all sorts of abuse.
I bring 5 full sets of clothes. The clothes I fly in count as one set. I bring one more pair of socks and underwear and that’s about it. I try to pack light when it comes to travel. When I worked 1 week on and 1 week off on a tug, I brought 3 full sets of clothes. But to each their own.
I don’t know if I was gone for 4 months I think that’s about what I would pack. Also if you are a new guy make sure your mom packs you spare underwear, I’ve had a FNG tell me once his mom did not pack him any underwear & he went a week in August with just one pair. I think he learned a lesson though. LOL
[QUOTE=Fraqrat;86123]Yeah that’s a ridiculous amount of clothes to bring. Unless you are hand washing in a bucket and hanging them dry in the engine room you only need about 3-5 complete sets of clothes. You can’t ask for someone to keep smart ass comments to them selves. If you’ve been doing this as long as you say you know better. You just invited all sorts of abuse.[/QUOTE]
I mean it Fraq, give us your version of the “advice for the new guy” for a Turdwater boat
Come on…don’t hold out on us or out will come “the stick” and you know what that means!
missed this earlier…for the love of God please tell me it is a typo
[QUOTE=imwhoflungpoo;86104]Things to remember:
-change captain and pilots sheets every 7 days
-clean captain and pilots bathroom every watch
-change captain and pilots towels every watch
-if the captain is right-he’s right. If the captain is wrong- he’s still right
-if you are a deckhand then its always your fault.
-wash your ass!!! People Will turn against you if you don’t
-don’t eat before watch change. Snacks on watch are cool but dont pig out on the food the cook is making before watch change.
-if you are on 6-12 watch relieve your man at 530. 12-6 relieve your man at 1130. Any questions email me. Three57facelift@yahoo.com[/QUOTE]
I’m sorry poo, but as I said before…you write it here you own it here
Well they only have like 10 boats working in the gulf and five are “newer” vessels. The others are 20+ year old stretch jobs. The newer vessels are probably in fairly good shape. The older junk well you can polish a turd but its still a turd. If you are assigned to the old junk the following items are required.
Current tetanus shot
Bible, Rosary beads, prayer rug, Gris Gris sack or whatever your religion calls for this is for all the prayer you will do nightly to be able to make it through the next day
Some type of respirator to be worn at all times because in the entire life time of the vessel the HVAC ductwork has never been clean and you will probably get legionnaires disease
A brand new pillow because the ones you find onboard will be yellow orange and reek of head sweat
Some type of mattress cover to put over your mattress which may very well be an original piece of equipment
Shower shoes to wear while walking on your stateroom deck will probably not have been swabbed in God knows when same goes for shower
4 pair of work clothes purchased from Goodwill to throw in the garbage when you leave you will not want to bring any creepy crawlies home with you
The best thing to bring are some filled out applications for other companies to drop off while you are down in the area
Also bring a nice set if clothes for the above mentioned interviews
To further make smart ass comments from original post you won’t need 14 shirts. By the third day of cramming stinky shirts in your locker the whole stateroom will be foul. Most cellies will have threatened you with bodily harm by then. Your clothes will have been thrown in the passageway before you will have a chance to let 14 stinky shirts pile up.
So are y’all saying you take all of your clothes home every time you get off the boat? I definitely have more than a weeks worth of clothes onboard, and the clothes I wear to work are not worn again till I go home.
I was mainly throwing that question out to c.captain and ryanwood86 because they are drillship and supply boat guys. I doubt they get moved around to terribly often.
Most of my stuff stays on board but I still travel light because storage space is limited. If I do get moved, the guys can grab my one suit case and leave it in the warehouse. I bring some other crap with me so I travel with another suitcase, 1/2 of it is taken up by PPE. I fly to work so less is more.
<-----Buys his work clothes from thrift stores. Seems like I’m always stained with something. I can’t get out of the shower without having intercon grease, fuel or oil on me!
I keep a lot of clothes at work. Two sets really, one for regular watch standing and then another set for when ever I end up in ship yard or a chance to go out on deck and do some work. I also have way too many socks, but again if I’ve been in ship yard I change my socks twice a day.
I also don’t switch boats ever so I have essentially moved in and dread the day I go some where else. But for my regular crew change I have a my computer bag, a large bag that I throw the stuff I take back and forth from the house and every now and then I take my backpack full of books home to switch everything out. But I have gotten in the habit of just changing out the books I have just read by throwing them in my big bag.
My advice is take what ever you feel comfortable with and don’t mind taking from boat to boat if you do a lot of jumping.
Things to remember:
-change captain and pilots sheets every 7 days
-change captain and pilots towels every watch
What hell hole are you working where the officers can’t take care of their own sheets and towels? Hell I bring my own sheets and towels as the ones on board always suck.
-don’t eat before watch change. Snacks on watch are cool but dont pig out on the food the cook is making before watch change.
Please explain this one? Before you go on watch or right before you go off?
Also a lot of us work 12 hour watches, so not eating on watch is just not an option.
The only thing that i leave on the boat are a few spare toiletries and my pillows. Where I work you can be switched to another boat or laid off at a moments notice.