Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Apartheid

There is a class struggle going on on the Katie Ann.  The peasants, or processors, lie on the bottom and scavenge.  The key crew, or elites, get the creamy pickings off the top.  For example, the captain gave all of our copenhagen away.  This might not seem like as big of a deal as apartheid, and perhaps it isn't, but a clearer example of stepping on the little guy has yet to be conceived.  And we are segregated a bit too, just not by race.

The point here is that I had to make some chew.  Felt like I was in prison whipping up some hooch or something.  I bought some cigarettes from the store-after finding out there was no more chew-with hopes of a trade.  But before long I learned that no one had any.  And so it began.  I took about half a dozen marlboro lights and opened em up.  It was a lot like whipping up a blunt, only we were keeping the tobacco and not the wrap.  I stuffed the tobacco into a zip lock baggy and added some maple syrup.  You know, to moisturize the dry tobacco of the cigarette.

One of the guys here was telling me about making some hooch in jail and this sounds strangely similar.  The wheels are falling off of the wagon out here, let me tell ya.  Not only am I in the process of making chew out of cigarettes in a plastic baggy with maple syrup, but I'm also wearing someone elses contact lenses.  That's right.  Close is good enough in horse shoes, hand grenades, atom bombs, and apparently contact lenses.  It's actually not that bad.  Thank you to my boss for getting those together for me.  I don't care what they say James, you're ok.

Many people are leaving the boat.  They'll be disembarking in droves as soon as we hit the dock in Dutch.  People are getting impatient.  Little things are becoming moderate irritants.  The sea is driving people crazy.  Strangely, I'm not quite losing it.  I just wish I had some dip.  And I'm almost losing it for the very reason.  If my concoction works, then we'll all feel better.  I think all the other boats in the fleet have finished their seasons or are close to it.  We are 30% of the way through ours.  The Katie Ann is the laughing stock, I mean pride of the sea.  This isn't to say that I laugh at it.  I love the Katie Ann.  But anyone with experience on other boats has something to say about the Katie Ann being a joke.  No big whoop.  Just need to make a few changes.  And maybe we should switch the Apartheid up to a simple monarchy.

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