A++ for the sock recommendation, wool socks are awesome!!!
D- for the nylon undies recommendation, wool undies are awesome!!!
I disagree wholeheartedly! Yes I look like an idiot trying to get my bag up the gangway, yes people watch and laugh at me, yes it it a pain in the ass. But 99.9% of the journey to the ship is not the gangway. And lugging a bag with no wheels through the airport sucks.
Plus getting rolling luggage 100 feet up the gangway is much easier and less comical then watching someone try walking a duffle bag the 100 feet down the center aisle of an airplane without hitting sombody upside the head.
P.S. I rarely find the need to use the gangway anyways. Depending on the ship there is oftner either a crane running, or a sallyport open or a stern ramp or a ladder set up on the pier. Hell some ports now use movable elevators instead of gangways.
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Ok, but how many air miles did you collect in the last year? I’m betting it was under 100k with no roustabouts or workboat deckhands on the receiving end.
I’ve seen air crew wearing LL Bean shoes before but I’d be less skeptical of a photo of Tessy than of one with anyone who flys over 100k per year rolling a Bean.
Want the best luggage? Then, next time your at the airport, take a hard look at what the big boy widebody pilots are rolling with? Want the best luggage you can actually afford? Then take a hard look at what the old battle axe stewardesses are rolling off small regional commuter planes
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Yeah deff not that many miles but what works for me doesn’t be always work for others ,
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P.S.2. I’ve also found there is no better way in the world for determining the attitude of the Bosun then walking up to the gangway, dropping my bags on the dock and telling the AB on watch to radio the bosun to put my bags in my stateroom pronto.
Of course that’s a total dick move but that’s the whole point of the exercise and I’ve got the while hitch to make it up to him. I need to know from the start how he’s going to react to an unreasonable request. Good answers from the bosun include “yes sir” and “go fuck yourself” (to which I shrug my shoulders and reply “oh I’m planning to once I get the lube out of my luggage”). A poor answer would be a littany of complaints and slow action. The unacceptable answer is leaving the bag on dock and pretending he didn’t get the message while shooting daggers at me through his pupils.
As a high school teacher in the Bronx once told me: It’s easy to be nice and everyone’s favorite teacher… the trick is to be unreasonably strict and a total dick the first week then ease up once the kids are in line. But if you’re the nice guy on day one and suddenly drop the hammer on week three you are in for a very long and miserable school year.
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Harsh man. I’m pretty sure he went to sea at some point and had a suggestion. Much like most of his input to this forum, not a bad one in my opinion.
(Just moved over to your other license post and now see why you threw down)
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I have icebreaker wool underwear at the house. For me the trade off is for
maintenance, I don’t want to sink wash my skivies and I’m only a 3rd so I
don’t want to ruin 35 dollar underoos by throwing them in the washer and
dryer.
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My wife is a flight attendant, she rolls with whatever jetblue will shell out for her luggage stipend.
I’m a one-bagger for travel so I carried that over to ship life. A month traveling with a 25liter bag is the norm for me and pretty frequent 4-5 day backcountry hikes have me conditioned for backpack travel forever now. But preference is preference, so belay my last. roll aboard luggage is dumb to me.
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For a month, what if you were doing a 3-4 month hitch?
I’m cheap and my gear usually weighs in around 45lbs. The LLBean rolling duffle puts me over the 50lb mark. My bag without wheels is under 50.
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Please try on this glove, OJ…
Master Unlimited, 15 years “hauling gear” onto tankers, able to use the CFR and do research.
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From my experience on this site I will listen jdcavo. He hasn’t given me bad advice yet.
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Is there really any difference between 1 month and 3-4 months? If I can survive for a week with an extra emergency set/laundry day clothes, then I can go indefinitely.
Protip: the best thing to do is learn how to ranger roll all your gear and get packing cubes.
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Ah yea that’s true, you can only wear one set of clothes at a time right!
Maybe a few extra sticks of deodorant and tubes of toothpaste. Other than that there’s not much difference.
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I’d that seriously $30 for ONE pair of underwear?
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Calvin Klein is about the same price and they won’t stretch or break for years, totally worth it
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What’s the stuff that the ship usually stocks that you can buy on board?
Yes $30 but they don’t stink and the family jewels are worth it. 
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