We never had to many to begin with. Now we only have a cook if the client requires third party riggers. If the crew does all the rigging then we get a company cook. If one isn’t available then yeah we fend for ourselves.
HOS MPSV boats on charter get a cook but it’s hit or miss regarding anything you can look forward to at chow time. I eat a lot of cereal these days.
Of course you did, it was Taco Tuesday
You missed out on the fresh guacamole hand massaged by an authentic Alabama redneck.
[QUOTE=RubberRhib888;182875]I’ve been very fortunate in my career to work with some great engineers. All but one is/was a top notch guy. For some reason I’ve always gravitated towards the engineers and wound up hangin and spending a lot of time with them. On NY wire boats there was typically one engineer. 9 out of 10 times I was on the back watch as the AB and did rounds when the Chief was resting. And on the flip side, the Chiefs would come out and make and break tow all of the time. Hell, the engineers were better deckhands than most of the deckhands I worked alongside. Some of the Engineers even threw lines better than the DH.[/QUOTE]
I would always help out on deck as needed. Other times I would stay out of the way until asked. . . . BUT, there were time when we would use one of the idle boats for harbor service if there was a captain and engineer in town. Of course I always ended up handling lines then. Also in San Francisco when I went out many years ago and was waiting for a flight to catch another boat. Ended up spending a 14 hour day with just a captain doing harbor service.