Remember being able to get off the boat after my watch and so long as I could pass an alcohol breath test and or climb across the tires. (No gangways) what’s so funny is up until coming back to south Louisiana this is still SOP in the mainstream commercial ports outside of the oil field. I just was wondering when we quit getting off the boats after watch. Post BP oil spill? Post 9/11? I’ve had plenty of shore leave to keep me more than happy to be aboard but the young men and women coming into the industry don’t get a chance to stretch their legs with their fellow crew mates from time to time without fear of being chastised.
I don’t know what year but the whole industry is infested with rats!
[QUOTE=z-drive;145668]I don’t know what year but the whole industry is infested with rats![/QUOTE]
I hope you are not disparaging rats when you say this but actually mean “lawyers” and “bankers”?
[QUOTE=c.captain;145672]I hope you are not disparaging rats when you say this but actually mean “lawyers” and “bankers”?[/QUOTE]
You know what I mean… the little rats that run to the office or captain with everyone else’s business. what happened to what happens on the boat stays on the boat? If you need to fire someone, fire them, or if its an urgent safety/environment whatever crisis then yes but not over petty shit. too many rats.
Rats done run the fun outta Fourchon.
In what oil port would you actually want to get off the boat? I havent seen a dam thing with in walking distance of a boat in any place I have worked.
[QUOTE=Jemplayer;145826]In what oil port would you actually want to get off the boat? I havent seen a dam thing with in walking distance of a boat in any place I have worked.[/QUOTE]
that’s on purpose…the Bosses commandeth it! NO FUN FOR THE SLAVES!
Damn. Remember some good times at the Hurricane Junction in Port OConner, Tx. [QUOTE=Jemplayer;145826]In what oil port would you actually want to get off the boat? I havent seen a dam thing with in walking distance of a boat in any place I have worked.[/QUOTE]
Morgan City, Cameron, Galveston, Port Aransas, Sabine, Theodore. It was always nice to get off and go get fresh breakfast, lunch or dinner or just take a walk.
[QUOTE=z-drive;145668]I don’t know what year but the whole industry is infested with rats![/QUOTE]
I agree that Joe Boss has planted spies abroad his vessels…especially at ECO…where I hear everyone is a spy for Massa Gary
[QUOTE=z-drive;145673]You know what I mean… the little rats that run to the office or captain with everyone else’s business. what happened to what happens on the boat stays on the boat? If you need to fire someone, fire them, or if its an urgent safety/environment whatever crisis then yes but not over petty shit. too many rats.
[/QUOTE]
Yes I agree…spies for Joe Boss in every wheelhouse
[QUOTE=OBXmariner;145841]Morgan City, Cameron, Galveston, Port Aransas, Sabine, Theodore. It was always nice to get off and go get fresh breakfast, lunch or dinner or just take a walk.[/QUOTe]
Seriously? I would rather stay on the boat then set foot on the dock in any of those places except Galveston. Then again I find very little amusement in just sitting in a bar to get drunk. As for a meal I got better food on the boat and I’m a better cook then anything those places can offer. But I’m also a city boy with champagne taste and hate most seafood.
Galveston might be the only one in that list with something to intreast me, but again nothing with in walking distance. Only thing on pelican island is a gas station a couple of miles up the road.
Really who wants to round up drunk hands because you got a last minute call to make a run or deal with the paperwork because said deckhand slipped and busted their head coming through a watertight door?
[QUOTE=captrob;145836]Damn. Remember some good times at the Hurricane Junction in Port OConner, Tx.[/QUOTE]
Mannequin + Iguana + Europirates T-shirt.
If its loose you should just tighten it up.
I’d be the first to say it’s not about the right to go out and drink on my off watch. It’s about having the right to step off the vessel and go enjoy some time off the boat. Maybe a walk in the park. Grab a pole and fish. Go to church on Sunday or Wednesday. Maybe get together with friends and family. Volunteer at the Salvation Army or Seamans Center. But if your rights are surrendered willingly because of worrisome alcoholics and other obstacles you have no control over how do you manage your time off the vessel. Commercial vessels aren’t meant to be prisons for high paid mariners.
The Department of Homeland Security is the anit-Midas. Everything they touch turns to shit. Both the U.S. Coast Guard and the Secret Service were taken over by Homeland Security in 2003.
You’re right about that, but the oilfield became a prison before then. I was lucky to work for a pirate company for a while. Shit pay and equipment but all the freedom you wanted!
We have no issue going up the street for whatever when we’re at a friendly dock. I agree there should be no reason to not go for a walk or whatever off watch.
Hell sometimes you don’t even have to leave the boat for people to start tattling on you. Our office received an email from a “concerned mariner” from another company with pictures of one of the crew smoking outside without a hardhat on. (with no crane around for hundreds of yards.) Seriously, how bad does your life have to be that you have to get into other people’s business like that. But that’s the industry we work in now. Plus with all the cameras on board (only sixteen on our 165 ft. boat) there’s no such thing as plausible deniability anymore.
What happened to going next door and coming back $5 richer in quarters from playing poker with the other company’s boats? Does anyone still socialize down on dah bayou?