Tag Archives: #tankerman

Rain

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I am so sick of the rain! It’s pouring again!

It’s been raining every day since I’ve been at home.

I got off the ship on August 29. It had already been raining for a few days. My manager told me that 3 of my apartments were flooded from so much rain in such a short time. I’m surprised my tenants haven’t moved out yet. I guess they would if they could. Nothing we can do for them until the rain stops. 🙁

I have flood insurance, but apparently ‘rain’ is not covered. 🙁

I went to Austin for a week for another travel writing workshop with GEP. I got a break from the rain there. It’s a much drier climate up there, but it did rain on us a couple of days while I was there. Luckily, I spent most of my time there indoors at the workshop and missed the rain.

I do wish I had more time to explore. There’s a lot to do in Austin. It’s the “live music capital of the world” and I was hoping to find some cool, fairly quiet, new singer-songwriters to listen to. Our hotel was just off 6th Street, just packed with live music venues. I never did find any I could really enjoy. The music was good, but they were all just too loud for my taste.

I went straight from Austin to Orange. I was teaching Tankerman PIC again. I only had one student, so it went pretty good. They recently passed their USCG audit and they’re looking to get more courses approved.

I got home Sept 22 and it has rained every single day since! It’s getting depressing. I don’t want to go out anywhere. I don’t feel like doing anything. It’s only 15:30 and looks like it should at 20:30 instead. Dark and dreary (and very wet) outside. 🙁

My yard is flooded. I’m starting to worry about it coming into my house. I’ve been really lucky so far with all the weather disasters we’ve had around here. I even made it through Harvey without much damage to my house (my apartments did flood and roofs leaked- same as happening again now).

We don’t have a hurricane nearby. I’m wondering how much longer can this go on?

Home and Gone

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Hey everybody! I made it home! Here’s a picture of the sweet little supply boat that brought me in to the dock.

I wasn’t home long. Wednesday- Saturday and then gone again.

Sorry I haven’t been able to keep up with the blog. I worked over for a week on the Epic Explorer. The same little dive boat I worked on last summer. This hitch I was there for 2 weeks as mate and then another week as galley hand. Once I started working in the galley, I really didn’t have the internet access to be able to blog.

I got home late Tuesday night, too tired to do anything but go right to bed. Wednesday I was still super tired. I was completely out of it from being up all night to being up in the daytime like a normal person. All I got done on Wednesday was sorting through the mail and paying the bills. I was pretty much a zombie all day. Thursday I went up to Houston for a meeting of the Nautical Institute.

I like to keep up with what’s going on in the industry and I go to those sort of meetings if I can. The NI has a couple of interesting projects coming up. One is a course to train navigation assessors which I would really be interested in (except that I’m still broke and can’t afford the fees).

I saw a bunch of people I knew there. One of them was the director of the maritime program I am teaching for this week at Lamar State College in Orange, TX. He scared me for a while, not sure if the class would be held, but they came through Friday morning.

So Friday afternoon I drove up to Orange to meet everyone and go over some things, pick up the course materials so I can get ready to teach the class. I’m a little surprised at how different it is from the same class I’ve been teaching at San Jacinto. All these courses are US Coast Guard approved and so have to cover the same basic material. I’m having to study just as much or more as my students will!

That kept me busy most of the day yesterday. I also got a hair cut, did laundry and had to run to the store for a few groceries since I ran out of milk. I’m still trying to get used to my change of schedule. I’m still tired and falling asleep by dinner time, but still too much to do!

Now I’m back up here in Orange. I’ll be staying here until class is over on Friday. Tomorrow morning I’ll be up at 6 am, they have breakfast here at the hotel (for free), so I’ll have a chance to have some coffee and eat before I run over to the school. I want to try to be there by 0730 and start class by 0800.

I’m not sure how many students I have yet. I think it’ll only be 1-2. That makes it harder to stick to the schedule since they plan for lots of students with lots of questions. I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes with this new program.

Tanked!

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mobile barge available for training purposes

Whew! I’m glad that’s over! I’m tanked! I’ve spent the last week teaching tankerman up at San Jacinto Maritime in La Porte. And a few days studying hard myself so that I could teach it (I haven’t worked on a tankship since 2002).

San Jacinto is about an hour and a half drive for me. I’ve been getting up at 0430 in the morning. Trying to get out of the house by 0530, so I can be sure to arrive by the time class starts at 0730.

I am NOT a morning person!

Getting by on less than 4 hours of sleep per night is not good for me (or anybody else).

So. I’m glad it’s over. I know there are lots of people who drive like that or even more every day for years. I don’t know how they manage and I’m SO thankful that I’ve never had to do it myself (until now).

The class went well and all my students passed with flying colors. I actually think I studied more than they did. 😉 They all got their course certificates they can turn in to the Coast Guard with their sea time letters. Hopefully, they will be able to get the promotions they were after.

SanJac doesn’t have me scheduled for any more classes (at the moment- that could change at any time). Maersk didn’t have anything last month at all. We’re waiting to see the schedule for July and hoping for at least 1-2 courses there. I still have no word of any real work coming up. It looks like I’ll have a chance to catch up on my sleep next week.

I should be able to post more often too. 🙂