Rough seas

When I make my movie, there will be a scene depicting the impossibility of sleep on the boat in rough seas.  And with a few choice new room mates.  First, the seas.  Rough.  We offloaded this turkey and beat feet to a couple catcher boats that were waiting for us with fish all ready.  It was looking like a Murphy moment for a second.  We couldn't find a fish for two weeks and as soon as we are stuck on a dock everyone is catching fish like colds.  But here we are and among the things that woke me-or I should say would have woke me up if I were sleeping- was the winch.  The winch means fish.  So yay.  After a few go rounds of these little fishing trips I'm beginning to see the correlation between work and money.  Yay fish.

Apparently we were full steam ahead in what I would approximate as the worse sea since the paleozoic era.  The plum line in the galley was a full forty five degrees off during some of the more exciting rolls.  All you heard was stuff clanging everywhere, people spilling, and the slight groan of a stressed hull.  I took a peak out the port hole and...I didn't look for long.  Fortunately, even at eleven PM it was still light out so I could see the swells rise above the boat entirely.  My little port hole was kissing or under water half the time I spent looking out of it.  Stools that were previously bolted down found themselves strewn about the breakroom and the drinking fountain had some sewage-like sludge thrown up out of the drain.  Yay storms.

But if that wasn't enough, we got a new batch of fresh meat that isn't looking too fresh.  One of the girls, who was a borderline re-case bailed before we left.  Another guy should have.  This other guy is my room mate.  I would post the song but there is none of that on the internet here.  So I walked into my room the other day and it felt like I was rooming at a freaking hostel in Beirut.  Or at a bus station in San Francisco.  This guy is in there taking a nap.  Little did I know how strongly this would foreshadow what was to come.

I tried talking to him a couple times.  "Hey bud.  How are you?"  Nothing.  A little later, "What shift are you?"  Nothing.  I saw him in the bathroom later and asked if he spoke English.  He said "Yep."  I mentioned that I tried to say hi a few times and got the same blank stare.  No biggie.  So apparently this guy took himself out of the offload like he was playing fullback for the Niners or something.  Just told someone random in the freezer that he needed a half hour nap.  And away he went.  Hey buddy, this isn't a football game.  It's like a baseball game where once you get pinch hit for-you're out till next time.  Guess he didn't get the memo.  He did the same thing yesterday when C shift was cleaning the factory for all the fishies we are going to be getting today.  He told the foreman this time, "Hey, I wanna go back to Seattle."  Ya, ok buddy.  We'll just drop you off real quick.  He's acting like a 5 day steam is a fucking liquor store run.  Sweet.

Reminds me of when we were doing conditioning at CRC and my man Deej held up his finger to the coach like, "gimme a minute coach".  Coach looked at him like he was literally insane.  You don't get to do that.  At all.  Nor do you get to tell the foreman you need fucking graham crackers and a nap.  Smooth move buddy.  You're gonna get milked for any labor you can perform and chewed and spat out with no bonus and a charge for your days of obsolescence.  Hope I spelled that right.  Gotta go.  Time to stack some bags soon.