Real WILD Bears! Kodiak Island Alaska

Posted on July 5, 2023 by Captain Jill

I haven’t had much work since the covid shots came out. Before that, things were finally starting to pick up from the last crash in oil prices and I was getting more work. I’ve had almost nothing since I was laid off late 2015.

Then, I just had to quarantine for weeks before I could join the ship. Locked up in a hotel room. Daily covid tests with a stick so far up your nose you’d think your brain was going to start leaking out. Cold food. Nothing to do but think about how things were so screwed up or distract oneself with mindless crap on TV. Well, at least I was getting paid. I had to consider myself lucky that I had an approved by the elites (“essential”) job.

No work for 5 years due to low oil prices and another 3 now of covid crap and I’m REALLY sick of it! Not that I’ve been physically sick for even 1 day since the covid crap started, but mentally? Yeah, that crap’s been doing a pretty good job of destroying my peace of mind, my daily sense of magnanimity, my outlook on society and life in general.

Lately things have been a little better. I finally got approved to teach again at San Jacinto Maritime College. I was teaching there part time before they had to shut down due to covid. I had to re-apply since it had been so long ago. I was ready to start with a couple of tankerman classes they had lined up for me when another job I’d been hoping for finally came through.

Of course I’d rather be out on a boat anytime than doing anything ashore, so I pissed off my boss at school and jumped at the chance to actually go somewhere other than the Gulf of Mexico for a change. So. Here I am now aboard the M/V Bluefin.

I left home at 0300 Sunday Jun 4 to fly to Kodiak, AK. I wish I was able to leave a couple of days earlier and do some exploring around town before joining the vessel, but I went straight to the boat- exhausted. They let me sleep late (amazing) and gave me the rundown Monday.

The Bluefin is an old fishing boat that’s been converted for research. We are chartered to NOAA to service their buoys all over the world. For this voyage, we are working the North Pacific Ocean. I joined in Kodiak, AK and will be getting off when we reach Yokahama, Japan. It took us about a week and a half to make our way here to Dutch Harbor from Kodiak.

We checked out about a half dozen buoys on the way. Also had to shelter for weather for a couple of days in Shearwater Bay (S side of Kodiak Island)- that’s where the bears were. One of the crew onboard- AB John- had a drone. He takes some amazing pictures (check out his Instagram). He sent his drone over to get some shots of the bears- they were too far away to see much more than big fur balls from the ship (that’s it in the background). Sadly, his drone ran out of juice on the way back to the ship and sank.

I was expecting the weather to be better- more like summer. It is the middle of June already. It’s nice that it doesn’t get dark til almost midnight, but so many days have been overcast, rainy, windy and rough. I’m really impressed with how well they’re able to work those buoys.

The Bluefin is technically a Dynamic Positioning vessel since it has a DP system onboard, but it’s not classed and they “never” use it. I rarely even notice them using the bow thruster. They tell me they usually only take an hour or so to work a buoy, but a couple of times so far we’ve spent 2-3 hours hanging on.

Yes, they literally hang on to the mooring of the buoy while the technicians are checking everything out. We can’t put any strain on the line, so have to maneuver the vessel so that we stay in position very close to where we picked up the buoy and put it on deck. So far, I haven’t had the chance to work a buoy. I’m on watch from 2330-0730 (fantastic watch schedules on here!), so I’ve mostly just been driving the boat. A couple of times they were still working the buoy but the mate wanted to finish the job rather than have me take over (when I’ve never run this boat before).

So we finished up our last one before our planned crew change in Dutch Harbor just in time to avoid another strong weather system. We arrived late afternoon on the 17th. The weather was beautiful. Sun shining and warm for a change- but I was sleeping. Saturday morning was cold and rainy again but I didn’t want to miss a chance to go ashore. I went to the grocery store with the cook and stocked up my stash of snacks- for some reason the owner doesn’t like to supply the boat with that kind of stuff (cereal, chips, sweets, etc) so we all bring our own favorites.

After shopping, we went for lunch at the Grand Aluetian Hotel. They had a really nice buffet. breakfast/lunch with all the usual- plus. Made to order omelettes, prime rib, ham, biscuits and sausage gravy, chicken breasts, baked halibut, pancakes, blueberry muffins, danish, bagels with cream cheese and lox, macaroni salad, potato salad, nice green salad with all the fixin’s, fruit tray (canteloupe, melon, pineapple, grapes, strawberries), smoked salmon, and a fantastic dessert table full of delicious sweets (chocolate layer cake, pecan pie, lemon meringue pie, cheesecake, brownie bites, petit fours, pudding, lemon bars, and more).

I went back again and again, pretty much stuffed myself. Needed those sweets like I need a hole in my head, but damn they were good! I spent about $50, but it was worth it (cost $49 plus tip). They have a seafood buffet on Wednesdays. Everyone says it’s amazing and “not to be missed”. That one costs $65 but I don’t think we’ll still be here by Wednesday.

Yesterday I got to go with the cook again. We went to the store again to check on some last minute grocery items. I found a couple of interesting books on Alaska and fishing (hopefully will review them here after I read them).

We drove around a bit, searching for a good lookout to get a few nice photos. We found the cultural museum (where I discovered my camera battery was dead)- it was closed- and the military museum– it was closed too. We spotted the ‘famous’ Russian onion domed church from afar, but it looked pretty far way so we skipped it. We found a real interesting old house of a former radio station and the ruins of an underground hospital. We never found a great lookout, conscious of other crew also wanting to get ashore and needing the van we were driving around in. We decided to check out the famous “rat bar” and then head back to the boat.

The Norwegian Rat is the best bar in Dutch (at least the only one we found). It sits right on the bay and has fantastic views of the beach and the boats sailing by. They have a huge fire pit outside and I can imagine how sweet that must be when it gets dark in the early afternoon. They had a pretty decent menu, it was hard to decide what I wanted. All kinds of burgers and sandwiches, chicken wings, spinach/artichoke dip, nachos, chili, gumbo, steaks, pizzas, etc. I finally decided on a pizza (pepperoni, mushroom and onion) and Derrick had chili (home-made) and nachos. The pizza was great and cheers from Derrick on the chili too.

Seems I’ll miss out on a lot of the things I was hoping to do here. The military (WWII) museum is closed for repairs and the Cultural museum was not open until Tuesday (today) from 11-16. I’m not sure if I’ll make it over to town again today. Still, I’m glad to be here at all and looking forward to Yokahama.

Are Things Getting Better in the Gulf of Mexico?

Posted on November 20, 2020 by Captain Jill

I’ve been back at work since late October. I joined this vessel in Amelia, LA on October 27. It’s an ex- Tidewater supply boat, the Ken C Tamblyn, renamed Ocean Guardian. It had been stacked for a few years until this company bought it, They had a couple of guys onboard for a few months, getting it ready to go to work. Then they lined up a job and crewed it up at the last minute.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is download.jpg

A company new to the Gulf, has to have a hard time finding work for their vessel. It’s been hell even for companies that have been around for decades. There are hundreds of boats stacked up all over the bayous of S Louisiana. They must have a hell of a salesman, they’ve managed to find work for it with a dive company for at least this one job. In November no less! Winter is not the time of year to be working dive jobs in the Gulf of Mexico.

If I could find work like that, I would be seriously looking for a boat of my own.

Too bad I couldn’t sell a steak to a starving man. Also, I’m still basically broke. Still trying to catch up to where I was a few years ago financially and don’t have any spare cash to invest in a boat or anything else.

I do think this is probably the best time to buy a boat I’ve seen in a long time. We got to work offshore for a while and then had to bring the boat in to Port Fourchon for the last hurricane (Eta). We spent a couple of days shifting between various docks (doing the old Fourchon Shuffle). It seemed busier than the last few times I’ve been in here.

We went offshore to get a little more work done before the weather kicked up again and we had to come back in. We still have no dock space in Fourchon, so shifting around over and over. It seems to be a sign of an improving situation for boats working in the Gulf. Everything comes through Fourchon now a days (personally, I still think that’s a terrible idea- we should not put all our eggs in one basket/port).

There aren’t nearly as many boats in port as there were previously, but the ones that are here seem to have work. I see a lot of subsea boats running in and out with equipment on deck. I’ve noticed a few supply boats loaded with pipe and casing and various tools. Maybe things are finally picking up offshore?

The latest lease sale was a bit of good news, with a larger than expected $120 million bid. I really hope that translates into improved work situations for all us offshore workers. It’s been a LONG 5+ years since the layoffs started in 2014.

I’d really like to get at least one more full year of work in. I know so many people who have been struggling to survive the last few years and just trying to hold on. It would be great to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel and come out strong again. I’ll just have to keep on hoping

What’s Happening

Posted on November 18, 2020 by Captain Jill

So, I was able to find another job after only 2 months at home this time. This company called me out of the blue late Friday afternoon and asked if I could join the ship by Monday. Luckily, I have been keeping my sea bags packed and only had a couple of things I needed to take care of before I could leave.

I flew to New Orleans Monday evening, spent the night in a hotel and had my covid test the next morning before heading to the ship in Morgan City. It’s an old Tidewater OSV. This company bought it cheap and somehow managed to find work for it.

There are hundreds of these vessels laid up all over Louisiana. If I had a steady paycheck or a decent amount of money in the bank, I would be looking to buy one myself. Of course, I would first need to find a job for the boat and I’ve never been much of a salesman. Too bad, now is a time of fantastic opportunities if you have any way to hold on until things get better.

Boats, real estate, etc. I think any hard assets would be worth investing in right now. I’m very tempted to take what little savings I do have left and put it into real estate. Either another small rental locally or something overseas in a place I’d like to spend some time.

That’s a major issue. I can’t decide where to go. I’ve already been trying to move out of the US for a long time. I hate watching what’s happening here. I realize there’s really nothing I can do to change things. I LOVE what this country stands for and I believe in our founding principles 100%. I just can’t stand to see all that just thrown in the garbage. It’s extremely frustrating, depressing and makes me miserable if I think too much about it. I try to ignore it most of the time, but like when I have to fly and the TSA forces the loss of my freedom right up into my face, I just can’t ignore it any more and the whole flight is ruined.

I’m not a big Trump fan, but I have to admit he did do some good things for this country. I was hoping he would win the election (if Jo Jorgensen lost). Bidens plans will just flush us down the toilet even faster. I’d like to see some REAL FREEDOM in the USA, or anywhere in the world for that matter!

My best hope at this point is the Seastead ship. The “Santochi”. I’ve already emailed to ask for a job on there. I don’t see them looking for mariners (they must already have some), but I do see them looking for painters, plumbers, carpenters, etc. If I had any of those skills, I would definitely apply!

The prices for ‘apartments’ onboard seems pretty reasonable, even considering that they’re all up for bid so might come in quite a bit more than their starting price. The real issue is the monthly cost on top of the purchase price. You have to pay a fee, similar to a condo fee for maintenance (fuel, water, electric, etc) and that will add up quickly. Too expensive for me to afford, although IF it was actually going to be run as a libertarian community I would sacrifice a LOT in order to be part of it.

As I said, I would love to see at least ONE place somewhere in the world where people could live with some real, actual freedom. The USA used to offer that. Sadly, that is no longer the case. It hasn’t for a long time now. It’s just getting to be more and more obvious.

The covid panic has brought it all out into the open. We have become a corporatocracy- 100%! We have no real freedom any more. Our state governors have declared that none of us has any right to work, to travel, to shop for food or anything else, to go to church or to gather for any reason. They have made themselves the supreme arbiters of our lives. WHO gave them that power??? I most certainly did NOT! NONE of us did! They STOLE that power and they have NO legitimate authority!

President Trump did the right thing constitutionally by ‘allowing’ the state governors to decide how to handle it, but if I were him (especially knowing everyone hated him already), I would’ve declared that the USA was going to handle the “pandemic” in accordance with our foundational principles. That we would not shut down ANYTHING. That if anyone felt concerned about their ability to deal with a virus that had only a 0.0003% fatality rate and almost no one realized they had until they had a swab stuck up their nose almost to their brain and then replicated dozens of times in order to gather enough of the virus to show up on the (60%+ WRONG) test, they’d be welcome to stay home and quarantine themselves. Everyone else was going to go on LIVING their lives!

Any ship, airline, bus or business of any sort doing business in the USA in any fashion would be 100% immune from any legal action relating to covid-19. People could choose to do business or not according to their own risk tolerance but they would NOT be able to push off the responsibility for their choices onto anyone else!

Americans would uphold their traditions of the home of the brave and the land of the free and NOT the country full of paranoid whiny babies who can’t take any personal responsibility and run home terrified to mommy government over the slightest risk.

The world has gone completely nuts over this covid virus. It deserves it’s name covid-1984! The governments and media of the world are complicit in the worst crimes against humanity by their decisions to TERRORIZE everyone over this disease.

What I don’t understand is why have so many otherwise intelligent people fallen so completely for the SCAM? Why do we pay even one bit of attention to our leaders when they insist that we can’t let even one person die (from covid- when milliions die every day from all sorts of other things)? It’s so OBVIOUSLY NOT ABOUT OUR HEALTH OR SAFETY!

And yes, even tho some people have died from covid, it is still a scam! There is NO reason at all to shut down the world over this particular disease. Ebola-with a 80%+ fatality rate, people melting down into a bloody mess- yes- THAT would be a justifiable reason to shut down the world. THIS disease is NOT!

5 Day Turnaround

Posted on March 4, 2020 by Captain Jill

I got off the Ocean Evolution last week. I had to drive home so I spent a little time job hunting on the way. I stopped in the office when I picked up my truck, hoping to talk to someone there and got lucky. I was able to talk to the HR people and they helped me get my application filled in (I’ve been trying to do it, but it wouldn’t let me past the 2nd page).

I don’t really have any idea if anything will come of it, they couldn’t give me a time frame for when or if I might be needed, but I still felt pretty good when I left.

Next door was another boat company, so I stopped in there too. I was able to speak to a man there who actually seemed interested. We talked for a while about the good old days in the Gulf. Back when things were booming and we could still go to work in shorts and flip-flops. God I miss those days!

It was already getting late, so I was only able to make one more stop that day. Was told there, they would probably be laying people off again next week (now). With the Coronavirus panic wreaking havoc all over the world, I expect that’s already happened. Looks like we’re in for at least another year of horrible job prospects.

I made it home late Thursday and spent the weekend running errands and getting caught up with the foot-high pile of mail blocking my front door. I was also able to spend some time online, looking at things I wasn’t able to at work (not stupid stuff- but internet was super sluggish onboard and lots of sites were blocked).

I saw a post on Linkedin where they were looking for a DPO and made a comment. I was super surprised that they actually called me back. That never happens! Turns out I was accepted for the position and had to get ready to travel again immediately.

This one, the Seven Pacific, will be my home for the next 2 weeks. 🙂

I left yesterday afternoon and am waiting to join the ship here in Mobile now. 🙂

Time Flies

Posted on February 18, 2020 by Captain Jill

I only just realized it’s been almost 2 weeks since I last posted. I’ve been onboard since January 30th and haven’t really had much of a chance to keep up here. It’s kind of strange, since I really haven’t been all that busy, but still on watch 12 hours a day and not able to spend so much time online like I can at home.

I’m back on the Ocean Evolution. I was on here last July for a hitch. It’s a nice boat. Good crew. Good company to work for. I used to work directly for Oceaneering. I spent 5 years on their DSV The Performer overseas. I loved it! I think that has to be my favorite job of all.

If we would’ve stayed overseas, I would never have left. I’d have 18 years here. But, that’s not what happened. They brought the ship back to the GoM (Gulf of Mexico) and it was such a horrible culture shock. I got an offer to go back overseas and jumped on it.

That turned out to be a bad decision. I should’ve known it was too good to be true. It was supposed to be on a drill ship. It would work in Alaska in the summer and Australia in the winter. Perfect! At that point, I never wanted to work on the drillships because I figured they would be so boring, just sitting in one spot for weeks at a time. This one would spend a lot of time underway- great!

Well, it didn’t work out for me. I joined the ship in Singapore. That was pretty cool. I always loved working in Singapore. It’s such an exciting, exotic, fascinating place. I love the energy there. I spent about a month onboard while we all worked hard to get the ship ready to go to work.

I spent most of my time on the bridge, working on correcting charts and publications. Years worth of work that hadn’t been done. Also making voyage plans. Plans that changed every couple of days.

We were supposed to sail from Singapore to Alaska to start work, but we had a lot of issues onboard. Most of the crew that was there when I signed on quit before I did. The rest of them quit with me. Only the captain and second mate were left while they scrambled to acquire new crew for the voyage.

It’s a long, sad story that I probably shouldn’t get into online. It’s not a good idea to air your dirty laundry in public. Especially online, where everybody in the world can see it and it never, ever goes away.

I’m just glad the industry was still going strong at that point and I was able to stay constantly busy with work from the temp agencies. The same ones I’ve been working with the last few years. Sadly, none of them have had nearly enough work since then. I wonder if the shipping industry is ever going to provide a decent chance of employment again?

Between autonomous shipping (theres already a ferry in Norway running around on its own), the STCW that allows shipowners to go to the lowest bidder for crew, and the push to get rid of fossil fuels it doesn’t look good.

Six Long Months

Posted on February 5, 2020 by Captain Jill

It’s been almost 6 months since my last job. I’ve been getting desperate (never a good frame of mind- people can sense it). I thought I’d be able to pick up some work when I got back from my last trip. The Christmas holiday is usually the best time of the year to get temp jobs. People always want to spend time with their friends and families, so they’ll ask for time off.

Well, not this year. Not for the last 4 years before that. I thought before I left for that trip that things were finally improving, but everyone is still too afraid for their jobs to take any chances. Maybe their job won’t be there when they come back, so they stay onboard and temp employees like me are out of luck.

So, I’ve spent a lot of time online looking for work (again). I’ve already applied everywhere I can think of (except MSC– my absolute last resort). I’ve done this at least a half dozen times, just going down the list of any companies with ships. I’ve called each of them at least a few times, eventually giving up when I can’t get past their computerized answering machine/secretary to talk to someone who knows something. I’ve even gone in person a few times.

I’ve filled out the same applications over and over (wondering why do they need to know when/where I went to high school and what my grades were from 40 years ago?).

Every time I actually manage to talk to someone, all I get is- “we’re not actually hiring, we’re just collecting resumes”. I don’t know why they post ads. Some even put up billboards that say they’re “hiring all positions”. I wonder why they’re collecting resumes, they must have thousands on file from the last 5 years of this latest downturn in the oilfield.

It’s been so bad. I’ve been so frustrated that I’ve been seriously thinking about quitting. Just throwing away 40+ years of professional maritime experience (not even counting another few years before I got my first z-card). Just to sit and twiddle my thumbs at home. I’ve been trying to make a few bucks doing things I enjoy- like selling my photography, paintings, writing- but no one seems interested in buying. I haven’t been able to figure out how to get noticed online. I’m competing with millions of others so no one even sees my stuff.

I absolutely refuse to waste my skills and experience. The idea of spending the rest of my life working at someplace like Walmart or McDonalds gives me the willies, but it seems those are the only kinds of jobs I’m “qualified for” on land. I mean, who needs a ship captain on the beach?

So, in order to save money I put an ad in the paper for a room mate. I need someone in my house to help pay the bills so I can afford to do something with myself (other than sit at home vegetating). I’d like to go ahead and make the move to Mexico I’ve been trying to do for years. At least there I can afford to live a decent life. I won’t wind up a grumpy old lady dining on cat food with my measly social security check.

I only had one call so far so nothing to hang around for. I saw a post online for a job fair in Lafayette, LA. They had one company (Pacific Drilling), with one job that I wanted (out of 4 companies scheduled to be there). I had already applied for that job 4 times before, but figured it would be better to talk to someone. I really don’t think anyone ever looks at those online application they all sluff you off with. So I decided to give it one more try and drove up to Lafayette.

I planned to make the rounds of the bayou boat companies again afterwards, so I brought my sea bag with me- just in case.

I got lucky! I was planning to leave after my painting class, early Tuesday afternoon. I got a call from one of my agencies about a possible job. Of course I told them I would take it, but was going to continue with my plans to go to the job fair anyway, in case their job offer fell through.

Turned out, the job did come through. I confirmed it when I was at the job fair. I got there a little late- an hour after they opened up. I was amazed at the crowds of people that showed up. There must’ve been at least 1000 people in the room, just in the hour I was there. Just shows how bad we’re still hurting in the oilfield.

The line for Pacific Drilling, where I wanted to apply, was tripled up across the room and then continued snaking out the door and all the way down the hall. By the time I got to the table to sign in, the stack of resumes was already at least 2 feet high. It was still 3 hours before they shut down the place!

The recruiter I spoke to sounded positive. I was hopeful I would hear back from her, but I’ve learned that it’s a good idea to keep on talking to people until you actually get on the boat. I continued on with the job hunt all that afternoon in the Lafayette area and then headed towards Morgan City.

I found out that afternoon, I would have to take another drug test (I just had one in October) before I would be allowed to join the vessel, so decided the best thing to do would be to spend the night in Morgan City, take the drug test 1st thing in the morning, then continue with the job hunt until I had to be at the dock at 1800 for a ride to the ship.

I joined the vessel about 2000 Thursday. The Ocean Evolution, (I was on it last year). So far, we’ve been sitting at the dock. I was hoping to go straight to work since I really need DP time! The officials have changed that system too, to where your certs expire if you’re not working so many days per year. I’m just thrilled to be getting a paycheck at this point, and at least I’m getting sea time. Every day is precious at this point. I can’t afford to lose my license, or I really will have to retire and no choice about it.

Thanks to this job, I’ll be OK for at least another 2 months without having to take anymore out of my retirement savings. Only 5 more months and I’ll be 69. It sucks when you start praying to be old, just so you can think you’re one more year closer to (hopefully) not outliving your savings.

Count My Blessings

Posted on January 7, 2020 by Captain Jill

I guess you’ve all probably figured this out by now, but I’m generally not an optimistic type. It seems I just always automatically see the downside of everything. The “what if”. That serves me well in my job, but I think not the best for my sanity when I’m home.

Since I got back from my last trip to Chile/Antarctica, I’ve been in a pretty lousy mood. I had expected to be able to pick up some work over the holidays. That’s almost always the best time of year for me to pick up a temp job.

Usually, everyone wants to spend Christmas at home with their families. Since I don’t have any family left, I’ve always been happy to fill in. Problem is, for the last 5 years, no one has taken any time off. Everyone’s afraid their job won’t be there when they come back.

I spend time every day looking for work. I call all my agencies at least once a week. Not even a hint of any work on the horizon (when all the news is about how this is -finally- the year the industry will come back. I’ve been having a real hard time getting motivated to do anything else. I hate being broke and without options!

But yesterday, while I was taking my daily walk around the neighborhood, I ran into an old friend. I hadn’t seen her in a couple of years and it was good to catch up. Sadly, her news was not good.

She was visiting a friend of hers who lives on my street, but was staying at the Salvation Army. Her boyfriend broke up with her and threw her out the day after Christmas. Her car broke down. She lost her job.

Like me and quite a few other friends, she’s been applying everywhere with no luck. It doesn’t help that we’re all over 55 now (and age discrimination is definitely a thing).

Without a car, she’s going to have a hell of a time finding a job. At least we have a bus now, so maybe that will help. It’s not at all convenient, but it goes to the main commercial/government areas. Before I got my truck (’97 F-150), I spent more money paying off the local cops for ‘hitchhiking’ arrests trying to get to work than I made working!

I’ve been thinking about how lucky I really am. I have a lot more options than my friend does (or those billions of people around the world living on $1/day). I have a house, a car, food in the fridge, can still pay the electric bill to keep me warm/cold, I’m still fairly healthy, and even manage to travel every so often. I should stop worrying about “what if” (I never get back to work, I can’t pay the bills, I get hurt, etc). I should be grateful more often than I am.

But I still hate being broke!

Happy New Year

Posted on January 1, 2020 by Captain Jill

Happy New Year everybody! I hope you all had a good time last night celebrating New Years Eve. I just stayed in with a couple of cups of hot chocolate and listened to the neighborhood firecrackers. I tried going outside to watch for a while, but it was overcast and all I could see was a couple of reflections.

What did you do?

So, I did stay up past midnight and I did sleep late this morning, but I woke up without a hangover. 😉

As usual this time of year, I’ve been thinking about the last year and my hopes for the next. This year even more since it’s also the end/start of another decade. I’ve been starting to notice the time creeping up on me more and more and trying to figure out “now what“?

All I can say is I really, really hope this year turns out better than last year (and the previous 3 before that)! I’m still basically unemployed. I’m still trying to find work, but I’ve decided I’m just not willing to work just to “survive”. I have skills. Skills that’ve taken me a lifetime to earn. Valuable skills for the right employer. I’m not going to throw all that away to work bagging groceries.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I’ve decided that after spending 50 years working on the water and spending a fortune in time and money to earn my license it just does not make sense to throw all that away to do something totally unrelated.

People tell me online (Facebook) that “everyone’s hiring” or “there’s plenty of work”. Yes, I agree, they’re right. I see ads all the time for unlimited captain/DPO jobs paying somewhere around $120/day. Wonderful for some of the Ukrainians or Filipinos, but no US captain would take that job. Or yeah, plenty of jobs for deckhands. I can’t afford to work like that!

They can’t understand how I can sit at home, not earning anything, rather than out making $120/day out on a boat working 12+ hours/day (and putting my life and license at risk to boot). Then spending at least a day or two on both ends of the hitch catching up on business at home. Well, here’s the explanation. While I’m home, I can be online looking for a job that actually pays the bills and uses the license I’ve earned. I can be working on my writing or my art that hopefully I can sell somewhere to earn a few bucks.

The only issue is, after 6 months of not having even a whisper of a decent job, I start to get anxious, depressed and completely unmotivated to do anything. So, not getting anything done at home either. I don’t want to go out trying to get a local job. It’s really not my lifelong ambition to work at Walmart. It’s hard trying to put on the act that I really want the job and will stick around (knowing that I’m going to quit as soon as anything offshore comes up).

The few companies hiring offshore already know simply by looking at my resume that I’m not going to stick around. They know anyone with the license I have would jump at the first opportunity to use it. So they don’t bother replying to me either.

I’ve decided to keep on looking for work in my field, but try harder not to stress about it (that is not going to be easy). I still have other things I plan to do this year. I have an art show coming up in our local gallery in July and I have to be there for the reception July 10. I’ve also signed up for another cruise (foodies tour of France), it’s supposed to be in May but I need to move it back to November. And… I’m still trying to make the move to Mexico, so I need to get back down there!

Now, if I can just get a couple of hitches in before July, I’ll be OK. I actually got 3 last year and all 3 were as mate/DPO, so better than the year before when 1 of the 2 was as AB. They keep saying ‘it’ll be better next year’. I really, really hope they’re right this time!

I actually think I’m being forced into retirement (since I want to continue in my field). I had planned to work until now and if I had been able to, I would’ve been able to retire the way I wanted to by now. All my bills would’ve been paid off and I could live nicely off my rentals.

But… now that I haven’t been working, my savings are greatly depleted, and if I don’t keep getting at least that little bit of work every year I won’t be ABLE to keep working after 2021 since I can’t afford to keep paying for the required “training” and my licenses won’t be renewable (lack of sea time), so no matter what, I won’t be working after that unless things improve.

SO, I’m trying to figure out: how in the hell can I make the rest of my savings last me for another 20+ years (hopefully)?

1- move out of the USA! I’m trying hard to get to Mexico.

2- start house sitting. That will allow me to keep traveling (which is just about my favorite thing to do). I’ve been trying to do that already, but seems about impossible when I don’t have any sort of schedule. That is such an issue on so many things. I suppose if/when I just give up on ever trying to get work that problem will go away. 😉

3-? any suggestions?

What are you all doing? Still working? Retired? What are your goals for 2020?

Moving the Graveyard?

Posted on July 18, 2019 by Captain Jill

DS-6+DS-11 at the dock in Las Palmas, Canary Islands

Since I made it to the ship last week, I’ve been watching the ship in front of us. They’ve had divers in the water and lots of activity going on. It happens to be the Discoverer India- the same ship I was on last Spring.

She was getting ready for a job in Africa- Ivory Coast. I got to ride as far as Trinidad. It was a good hitch. She did that job and now is getting some upgrades before heading out to another job.

I wish I could say the same for the rest of the rigs I see here. I can see at least 8 at the dock here. I know of at least 5 more that will be arriving here soon. That’s not counting another couple (at least) over at Tenerife.

While I was on the Ocean Evolution last hitch, steaming through the ‘graveyard’ just offshore Port Fourchon, I could only see 3 ships left. The year before there were at least 10, I think probably closer to 15. All of them fairly new, just sitting there, waiting and hoping for work. It was really sad to see.

We’ve all been hoping that this would be the year when we could finally go back to work. From what I see here, that doesn’t look very likely. The price of oil is still not even up to $60/bbl. Today it was only $57 and change. There won’t be much work until it gets up over $60 and stays there for a while.

I guess everyone but those of us working in the maritime industry are happy about those low prices, but I’m getting more and more stressed out. I don’t have many more years left to build up my retirement funds and my savings has already been demolished over the last 4+ years of not nearly enough work.

How much longer can this go on?

Songs of the Sea: Smooth Sailing

Posted on June 8, 2019 by Captain Jill

Since it looks like I won’t be going to work any time soon, I’ve been looking at the travel posts in my email more closely. I get dozens of them every day. I usually just delete them because I’ve been on call for work for so long. I can’t make any kind of plans for more than a week or two in advance.

Since I got back from my last (only one week long) job, I’ve been calling everyone for the last 3 weeks. No one has anything in the works. So, I thought I shouldn’t waste my time here at home, doing nothing, with no prospects of work. I could go to Mexico and get my paperwork started. I’ve been trying to move out of the US for years and finally got a temporary residency visa for Mexico. 🙂

I’ve been considering moving to Mazatlan, but it seems no one has direct flights anymore. That means I will have to change my plans. Mazatlan will have to wait. As long as I am still even trying to work, I will need to be close to an airport with direct flights to Houston.

I am still trying to move to Mexico, now I just need to figure out where. Puerto Vallarta? Cabo San Lucas? Guadalajara? or San Miguel de Allende? Anybody have any other suggestions?

In the meantime, those travel ads are making me even more anxious to get out of here! This song by Dennis “Menace” Roberts reminds me of the good times down in the islands. I love the music and the video is fun. Nice that they’re using real people in it instead of models too. 🙂

I wish I could get back down there. Now, or some time soon I hope! 🙂

Stock Photography

Posted on May 28, 2019 by Captain Jill

I’ve been stuck at home since my last job got cut short (again). I get antsy when I’m not working for months at a time. I start freaking out about money and bills, then start feeling trapped and depressed and don’t feel like doing much of anything at all. Since October, I’ve only had 5 weeks of work and it’s looking pretty slim for the next few weeks as well. 🙁

I’ve been trying to keep busy. I go see a movie to cheer up if there’s anything decent playing. I’ve stopped going to my usual (entertaining and interesting) Tuesday night political meetings since they’re just so frustrating now. I go to art class on Tuesdays (this morning was the last one for a while- the teacher is taking a break). I may start going to ‘open studio’ instead. It’s on Wednesdays, or Monday nights.

I’m getting around to doing things I’ve been putting off: I was working in the yard til it got too hot, working on my taxes, re-reading books I’ve been saving before deciding if I can now bear to get rid of them, uploading some photos to the stock agencies.

Here are a few examples…

Fresh, organic vegetables at a farmers market

Stock photography- like the blogging, was supposed to be a side gig. A way to earn some income when I wasn’t able to get offshore. I hate to say it, but neither one has worked out that way. Both take a hell of a lot of work to keep up with. So far, I’ve earned a grand total of $7.83 on Bigstock and $6.46 on Dreamstime. A big, fat $0.00 from the blogs.

My thought was to sidestep the editors. To get my work out in front of the public where I figured at least some people would like it enough to buy something. I know it’s possible to earn an income from both blogging and from photography. I know people personally who are doing both.

I wish I knew their secrets. It seems the main issue is how to attract attention? How to be found among the 81 million on Bigstock alone? Or the 500 million ++ blogs in the world?

Just curious, does anyone you know earn anything from either stock photography or blogging? If so, do you know how?

Share Your World- May 2019

Posted on May 20, 2019 by Captain Jill

I haven’t been keeping up with blogging as much as I’d like lately. Part of the reason is I got some work last week and had very little internet access. The other reason is that it takes so much time to do a post justice (especially since they came out with the new WordPress style) and I just haven’t been able to get motivated.

I’ve been home for a few days now. My last job was cut from 3 weeks down to just one week. I’ve been able to rest up and now have the time to check into the blogging world again. First up in my reader was this post from Melanie and her sparksfromacombustiblemind blog.

Is it better to suspect something (bad or hurtful) and not know or to have your worst fears confirmed by sure knowledge? I would rather know for sure. I figure that way I can at least try to do something about the situation. Then again, there are so many things I just can’t do anything about. All the things going on in this country (and the world) make me sick! If I think about it, it makes me miserable. Sad, frustrated, angry, depressed, mean and just miserable. Sometimes I think it would be better to live in ignorance. I’m sure I would be much happier to not know all the things I do know. 🙁

What makes you laugh aloud? Crack up? Laugh until your sides split? When was the last time you had a great big belly laugh? Watching a funny movie, like something from the 3 Stooges or the Marx Brothers or Mel Brooks.

Here’s a screen shot of what gave me the last big belly laugh…

“Boat hack #117 – Form two Little Debbie brownies into a shit shape. Wipe toilet paper across it so the crime scene looks legit. Strategically place in head and sit back and watch your crew blame each other and argue over who cleans it up. Film and post if possible”

I saw that yesterday in a Facebook page I follow- Offshore Supply Boats & Crew Boats. Maybe you have to have some experience working offshore in the Gulf of Mexico to get it, but I cracked up laughing.

Maybe I’m just weird, and still have a juvenile sense of humor, but I really enjoy a good shit-fart-sex joke. The more disgusting, the better. 😉

Do you suppose Noah had woodpeckers in the ark? If he did, where did he keep them? Apologies to the Darwinians in the crowd…this is merely for fun, okay? Great question! I am a “Darwinist”, but have thought about stuff like this many times. One of the reasons I’m a “Darwinist” and not a follower of the Bible. If that story is true, he must’ve had some woodpeckers in there- all kinds of woodpeckers. Some of those guys can really do a lot of damage. I imagine they would’ve put a real hurtin’ on that old ark by the time the floods settled down. Maybe Noah fashioned a special metal lined cabin for them all?

Why is “Charlie” short for “Charles when they are the same number of letters? Another good question! Why is Billie short for Bill (or William)?

What happened in your world this past week that made you feel thankful, joyful or grateful? I am so thankful I got even that short week’s worth of work! It gives me at least a couple of weeks breathing time before I start really worrying about paying the bills again!

Flights- Finally!

Posted on May 8, 2019 by Captain Jill

I’ve been expecting to join this ship since I agreed to take the job in late March. I was originally supposed to start on April 4th for 3 weeks. A week later it got cut to 10 days and a week later to nothing.

A week after that, they called again and asked me to come out for 3 weeks again. I agreed since nobody else had anything at that point. A few days later it was cut to only one week. In the meantime I turned down 4-5 good jobs (all of them for a month or more) only because I had already obligated myself to take this particular job.

Well, I finally got my plane ticket so I am hoping they won’t cancel me at this point. I’m at the airport and should be on the plane already, but it’s been delayed. Only an hour and a half late at this point (I hope). The screen above my head is giving conflicting information. One minute it saying the plane will be departing at 8:00, the next it is saying it will arrive at 9:10 PM.

I wouldn’t really care so much if I didn’t have to be on the bus at 3:00 in the morning! And then a helicopter at some time after daylight (6:11 AM). I really hate going to work and starting my first day already up for more than 24 hours. And then more usual than not, having to go straight to work for at least 12 more hours. 🙁

At this point, I’m so thankful to have the work. Even with all the BS involved.

Please, let me have just one more year of steady work! Let me pay off my bills so I can leave off all this constant stress and BS involved with the merchant marine these days. It used to be such a great life. How did we let it come to this?

Why I Haven’t Been Blogging

Posted on April 27, 2019 by Captain Jill

In accordance with the idea of ‘if you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say it’, I haven’t been saying anything here. I’ve been sharing a few interesting posts on Facebook and Twitter, but that’s about it.

I’ve been at home since I got back from the DS-6 March 19. I’ve been home almost 6 weeks already. I accepted a job right after I got home that was supposed to start Apr 4 ending Apr 25. The start date got changed to Apr 11, then to Apr 16, then cancelled altogether. It looks like the promised upturn in the industry is still a long ways off. 🙁

Because I had accepted that job (and was on call to go offshore from the time I said OK), I turned down 2 other ones that would’ve conflicted with it.

I’m supposed to go out now starting May 8 and just hope to hell they don’t do the same thing again! I’ve already turned down 2 very good (better) jobs because of it.

With all the uncertainty (and major stress) I haven’t been doing much of interest: cleaning house, laundry, pulling weeds, working on taxes, doctor appointment, dentist appointment, look for work (including 2 job fairs), traffic court (fighting parking ticket I got while unloading my paintings at the art gallery- I lost), etc. So, nothing worth blogging about. 🙁

It’s So Boring

Posted on March 31, 2019 by Captain Jill

I’m home. I’ve been back in town since the 19th. It’s been almost 2 weeks already. It doesn’t seem like it. I’ve spent most of that time just catching up on sleep (jet lag) and doing all the things I can’t do from work: mail, bills, doctors appointment, dentists appointment, phone calls, meetings, etc.

I have made some progress. I’ve been able to go to my painting class and I’m working on 2 new paintings and 1 old one. I took my latest finished painting to the From the Heart gallery in Galveston. Too bad I got a parking ticket while I was inside hanging it. 🙁

I thought you were supposed to be allowed to park in front long enough to load/unload stuff. The people who run the place assured me you are. I’m still debating wether or not to fight the ticket. I have no reason to go all the way up to Galveston other than that. I have another few days to decide.

I haven’t been keeping up with this blog much lately. At work I just don’t have the time or access to the internet and at home it’s been hard to find the motivation. I’ve been putting it off for a while now. It’s not that I don’t have anything to blog about. It’s more that I don’t want to bore people and I just haven’t been doing anything very interesting lately.

I did go to a WISTA meeting at the Houston Maritime Museum last Tuesday. That was pretty cool. They’ve moved to their new (temporary) location. It’s much larger than their old place (with plenty of parking). We had a tour by one of the docents who was a real wealth of information. I would’ve liked to talk to him some more, but the presentation was starting (and a full house to see it). Captain Michael A. Morris of the Houston Pilots put on an interesting presentation about the port of Houston and the pilots- past, present and future.

I could write about work, or travel- those things are usually interesting- but I haven’t done much of either lately. I did finally get a job that didn’t get cancelled. I spent a month on the DS-6 in Las Palmas. I even got to get off the ship a couple of times while I was there. It was a nice change. I’m hoping they’ll call me back.

my ship is the one on the left in this photo

In the meantime, I got a call to go to work on April 4. Then it was moved back to April 11. Now it is supposed to start April 16 and I’m only hoping it doesn’t get completely cancelled at this point. Since it’s only for 10 days, it’ll help me get by but it’s not enough for me to actually be able to do anything with my time off (other than keep on looking for more work).

I am SO ready for this downturn to pick up! It’s been 5 years already! I can’t wait for things to turn around so we can all get back to work again. Real work, where there’s some kind of schedule and we’ve got some kind of benefits. Or else the day rates go back up again to where they should be to make up for the lack of those things.

I’m SO tired of spending so much time looking for work. Filling out applications that never get seen. Putting off doing much of anything in case I get called for a job. I should just shut up and quit whining. I’m one of the lucky ones. I still have my license and my ability to go to work. I could just quit and I would probably be able to survive…

But no. I will keep on trying. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life hanging around the house bored shitless. Keeping myself occupied is not a problem. I can do all sorts of things: pull weeds, work on my houses, clean my house, write, paint, work on my book(s), promote my writing (that’s the hard part- trying to find someone who will publish it). I would just much rather be traveling. I’m just bored here. I never, ever thought I’d still be here almost 40 years later.

Still Sticking Around

Posted on March 12, 2019 by Captain Jill

It looks like I’ll be able to stay here a little longer. Yeah! I need all the work I can get after the last 3 years of having so little of it. It’s been rough, tho I managed to survive. Many of my friends have not. People who’ve been working in the maritime industry for decades and who’ve worked their way up to the highest levels have lost their licenses and so their livelihoods. It’s such a waste!

Same as the ships they’ve been scrapping lately (and for the last few decades). There’s really nothing at all wrong with them. In the case of the tankers, the IMO ruled that they must be double hulled. Perfecly good ships, thrown out like yesterdays’ garbage. Driven up on the beach in Alang to be torn apart by miserably low paid peons who have no better options and are happy to have the work.

Lately, they’ve started scrapping the semisubmersibles and drillships. Yes, some of them are (a little bit) outdated- but still perfectly capable of doing the job they were designed for. Even some of the latest 6th generation drillships, barely out of the yard are being scrapped. We’re talking multiple hundreds of millions of dollars for each vessel- wasted!

I’m docked here in Las Palmas looking over at least 11 of them right now. I’m pretty sure there are at least that many parked over on Tenerife. I know there are more in Trinidad, and sitting in the Graveyard off Southwest Pass.

How many billions of dollars are going to be wasted before this downturn is over and we can go back to work? How many thousands of highly skilled people will be kicked to the curb with no other job prospects but a possible managers’ job at McDonalds?

I consider myself one of the lucky ones. I’ve been through these downturns before, so I knew what was coming. I survived the early ‘80’s, the early 2000’s. I even managed to work through the Macondo moratorium. I saved everything I could. I constantly put as much as I could into my savings account. I bought rental property and spent any spare time and money fixing them up so I could get them rented out and paying for themselves ASAP.

Thank goodness I did do that. Those rental properties have been my saving grace. The rents have been practically my only income for the last 3 ½ years. I’ve managed to find a boat job every few months which allowed me to stock up my savings a little bit and take the edge off, but not nearly enough work to keep from sucking up my savings and stressing me out.

I put my best (and most expensive) property up for sale when it became clear I wasn’t going to get any kind of regular work for a while. It still hasn’t sold. I still can’t afford it.

Still, I’m one of the lucky ones. I had enough DP time to renew my DP certificate. I had enough sea time to renew my US Coast Guard license. I had enough money in the bank to (re) take the required classes we have to take in order to go to work. I know so many people who were not able to do those things. They’re not going to be able to go back to work even when things do eventually pick up.

It’s hard to go from a lifestyle of earning over $100,000/year for only 6 months of work. I went from close to double that as a SDPO (senior dynamic positioning operator) to only earning $3000/month MAX from my rentals. I usually had expenses to pay out of the rents, so my take was less than $1000/month. Sometimes I didn’t have anything left and had to live off my savings. It was hard, really hard, to adjust…

Pages: 1 2

Writers Block

Posted on September 4, 2018 by Captain Jill

Or just plain old laziness?

I have to say, it’s a little of both.

It’s not that I don’t have anything to say. That’s never been a problem for me. It’s if I have anything I think will be interesting to say (to you- my readers).

Since my last post, I went back out to sea on the same ship. It was still quite chaotic on there and I didn’t have much time or internet access. I was wiped out at the end of the day and just not up to trying to get online.

I was out for 2 weeks (working nights), home for a week and then out for another 2 weeks (on a different ship- back to working nights). While I was home, I was busy with trying to catch up on the usual: mail, bills, car, paperwork, housework, yard work, etc. I also had to take a physical for the job I was up for. I wasn’t positive I would get that job, so I signed up to work at Maersk again as a role player.

Turns out I did get the job, so I had to leave Maersk after only 2 days. I went straight to the airport from work the second day. Flew over to New Orleans and joined the ship the next day.

I was supposed to spend 3 weeks onboard. We finished the job early. The client was in a huge rush to sign off on completion. We wound up back at the anchorage (otherwise known as the “drillship graveyard”) off SW Pass a week earlier than expected.

Once the ship was anchored, they didn’t need 2 officers on the bridge anymore. They sent me home a week early. I think things may finally be improving a little bit offshore. I’ve had more work since April than I’ve had (total) for the last 3 years. It’s nowhere near normal tho.

They’ve cut costs everywhere possible. Small crew sizes are unsustainable, but the clients (oil companies) are pushing everything to the limits. I hate to think about the problems they are bringing on themselves by being so short sighted. As usual, I’m sure it will take a major accident before they consider doing what they should’ve been doing all along.

I’ve been home a few days now. I’m still trying to recover from switching my schedule back and forth from nights to days again. I need to just spend a couple of days sleeping in, not doing anything else!

I haven’t been able to do that yet. I still have too many things on my “to do” list. 😉

PS- check my Instagram feed for a few photos. I’ll try to get a few more up here in the next few days.

I Haven’t Disappeared

Posted on July 25, 2018 by Captain Jill

It just looks that way.

I got a job for 3 weeks on a ship with very limited internet access. It was really a pretty interesting trip, but I’ll have to tell you about it later cause I’m heading back there tonight. I’ll be gone for another 2 weeks. Hope to be able to get online during this hitch, but don’t be disappointed if you don’t hear from me for another 2-3 weeks.

I did post a couple of photos on Instagram and Facebook.

I’m SO glad to finally have some real work again! Not to be greedy, but now it would be really nice to have some sort of schedule. Three years of being on call and ready to jump on any offer is getting old.

Research

Posted on June 23, 2018 by Captain Jill

I spent the afternoon in Houston yesterday- researching. We don’t have a bookstore anymore since Hastings went out of business (after they caused every other store to shut down). Sad, but the closest bookstore to me is all the way in Houston. Over an hours drive away.

I went to Barnes and Noble for their magazine rack. I don’t recommend it for anything else. It was not very comfortable. I tried the one on Westheimer since I was nearby. It had very few chairs, the few they had were hard wooden ones like in school. They didn’t have a coffee shop or anywhere to get a drink, tho they did have a section with little tables, like maybe they used to have one. They did have a large selection of games and toys tho.

After attending Roy Stevenson’s Travel Writing and Marketing Workshop in Washington last month, I’ve been meaning to follow up and make a list of publications to pitch my stories to.

I spent a few hours in the store, going through all kinds of magazines. Woman’s magazines, mens magazines, fishing magazines, sailing magazines, health magazines, and of course the travel magazines.

I photographed the cover, contents and masthead pages of many and bought a few. I have a few story ideas in mind and need to figure out the right magazines to pitch them to.

Since I haven’t been able to find much work offshore lately, I figure I best get busy with writing (and photography). I finished the first draft of my book. It’s about how to sail around the world and get paid for it. I finished a couple of paintings- but the art gallery I’ve been counting on to get them sold has been in the process of moving since before Christmas. I’ve just been too lazy to upload any photos to the stock sites.

I need to get more motivated!

Real Estate Rants

Posted on June 18, 2018 by Captain Jill

Since yesterdays ‘rant’ I’m feeling a little bit better but still not in the best of moods. I went to the doctor this morning and at least she seems to understand where I’m coming from. Apparently the doctors are getting blackmailed by the Feds just as bad as the mariners are.

Forced to go to the doctor every 3 months now instead of yearly, or it’s ‘malpractice’? I really don’t see the need to go any more than yearly, but I certainly do understand her need to protect her license. Just like I need to protect mine. We’ve both spent WAY too much time, effort and money to take losing it lightly.

So, my choice now is to be forced to spend $1000’s of extra $$ per year (for nothing), get my medical care in Mexico or retire. Wow, some ‘choice’.

I’ll never understand why so many people think it’s necessary to have someone else force us to live the way ‘they’ want instead of living the life we choose. Does everyone truly believe that every single person other than themselves is just out to rape, rob and kill? That we, along with our friends and neighbors can’t figure out some way to solve our problems without the use of force. That the world will go to hell if we don’t have some other idiot up there running our lives, making all kinds of decisions for us that we should be doing ourselves? That the world would really be worse off it we got rid of the sociopaths we allow to run it now?

I really don’t see how it would be possible to have all these enormous wars without governments. How we would have so many big problems with large corporations without government allowing them and helping them to destroy their competition and grow so powerful. People in small groups usually figure out how to make things work without relying on the use of FORCE. In our society, everywhere, that is what it all comes down to.

Personally, I think most people are just the opposite. They’ll go out of their way to help someone else. If nothing else, they’ll ignore it. That is- IF- they have not been ’empowered’ by some group to stand behind. When people join groups, it’s like they’ve lost their minds. All personal responsibility disappears and ‘it’s not my fault’.

A perfect example: I own some rental property in Freeport, TX. Freeport has been on the downhill slide for decades. When I moved to this area in 1978, Freeport was still a going concern. Other than the major employment opportunities (GOOD JOBS) at all the chemical plants around, there was also plenty of work at the port. There were still lots of shrimp boats working out of Freeport and with their related businesses (fuel, ice, mechanics, groceries, chandleries, hardware stores, bars, restaurants, etc), they brought a LOT of money and other advantages to the town.

Even then Freeport was known to be a little run down, but it still had a lot going for it. It would get pretty lively when the shrimpers were in town. That all ended when the city let their police department run wild.

The cops would go around arresting everyone in sight (and not even in sight- plenty of bars raided without any view from the street) for “public intoxication”. I must’ve paid for at least 2-3 brand new cop cars just with my own fines!

They used to go into all the bars in town and arrest everybody in there. Drinking or not. It was just about impossible to prove you weren’t drunk. It was so much easier to just pay the $53.50 so you could get out of jail and go home.

Well, fishermen may be crazy, but they’re not stupid! A few years of that and they all stopped coming to Freeport. The loss of their business started shutting down a lot of other businesses around town (along with loss of jobs for low skilled workers). The docks shut down, the shipyard closed, the ice houses shut down, the mechanics and fuel docks shut down. Grocery stores lots huge amounts of custom. Most of the bars and restaurants went from booming businesses to barely able to keep their doors open (if they did- many just closed up).

Basically, the out of control cops killed Freeport.

Instead of thinking about this mess they caused, the city fathers decided to double down and have lately been coming out with all kinds of absolutely ridiculous rules and regulations. They want to “improve” Freeport.

Question: Who spends tens of thousands of dollars to buy property so someone ELSE gets to dictate what you can and can’t do with it?

Answer: NO ONE! Everyone who buys property (of any sort) buys it so that THEY can decide what to do with it. They can use it, give it away, sell it, improve it, or not.

Somehow, our ‘educational system’ has bamboozled everyone into imagining that their property value depends on what someone else does with theirs. WRONG! Just think for a minute! If YOU buy something to use it, and someone then takes away your ability to use it, you LOSE value in your property. If YOU can lose value like this, so can your neighbor and everyone else. All it takes is a squeaky wheel. This is NOT the way it’s supposed to work here in America. We’re supposed to have the right to own property (but don’t get me started on property taxes). Just look at the definition of the word…own…

adjective

of, relating to, or belonging to oneself or itself (usually used after a possessive to emphasize the idea of ownership, interest, or relation conveyed by the possessive):

2. verb (used with object)to acknowledge as one’s own; recognize as having full claim, authority, power, dominion, etc.:

So, why do people keep falling for this? Because they’re greedy, power-hungry busy bodies that just can’t mind their own business!

Freeport is full of low income people (if they have any work, most are trying to survive on minimum wage jobs). I bought low priced property there, thinking it would be easy to keep those properties rented out. Low costs to buy and repair the properties would help both me and my tenants.

I was able to buy and fix up a property for a reasonable price. Not any more. The Freeport city council passed a bunch of rules that made any repair work 3-4-5 times the cost it was before the rules were passed. I just spent $15,000 to work on a house that originally cost me $4000 for the exact same work before they passed those rules. I guarantee I am not the only person in town who can’t afford to spend that kind of money to keep my property up to someone else’s standards.

And why the hell should I have to bow down and submit to their standards? Who the hell gives them the power to dictate whats right and proper? I sure as hell didn’t and neither did anyone else I know of. Why are their standards any better than MINE? We are all supposed to be equal under the law. That’s in the US Constitution which overrides any city, county or state ‘law’.

And what idiot came up with the idea of making a law out of such a subjective subject anyway? How your property looks to them. LAWS are supposed to be objective! Not subject to the whims of any certain group of people, but obvious and the same to everybody.

Well, Freeport city fathers have decided that they don’t want ‘scum’ like me around. They don’t want any low income people living in their town. They’e flat out come out and said that they will do what is necessary to get rid of us.

Is it really necessary for them to insist that everyone puts in a driveway? That no one can park on the streets anymore, even tho the streets are plainly meant for that? That it’s illegal to park on the grass? In my own yard! That there are very, very few houses in Freeport that already have a big enough driveway to fit more than one car since they were all built long before most people had even one car, much less 2, , 3, 4 that they have now. How many thousands of $$$$$ should a person have to spend to keep up with the Joneses? To keep their property they’ve struggled for years to earn for themselves?

Here’s another one… Freeport has decided to pass a rule that anytime you want to rent a property, they will have to send an inspector (that YOU will be forced to pay for). They will ensure that your property is “fit for human habitation.” Well, damn! I had always assumed I was a human. I thought all my tenants were humans too (maybe 1-2 of them not so much). Who the hell are THEY to determine what kind of living conditions are on offer? That should be between the buyer and the seller, period!

Oh yeah, they won’t allow you to occupy it until you’ve brought it ‘up to code’. Which pretty much means you might as well tear it down and start all over since there is no way you can bring an old house up to modern standards without spending 10 times what the house is worth! Which is their objective.

They’re harassing the hell out of everyone in town who doesn’t measure up to their high standards. Why the HELL should some high on the hog a**hole decide what’s OK and what’s not? Just because they felt like running for city council and I had an actual job to do? Sorry, but in THIS country, we are NOT a democracy, we are a constitutional republic and that means my rights are protected from the majority whims! That was the whole point of the Bill of Rights!

Unless and until what I am doing OBJECTIVElY HARMS someone else, they have NO right to STEAL my property which is exactly what they are doing with their stupid rules!

Is it right that they get to even make these rules, simply by coming up with them at a meeting when most people involved (the huge majority of the people who live in the city) are not even informed of the meeting (oh yeah, its in tiny print in the back of the newspaper that nobody gets), and certainly aren’t able to be there? NO, obviously it is NOT right. It is 100% WRONG! It should not be accepted!

People wonder why there are so many shootings, where ordinary people just seem to lose it? This sort of thing makes it completely clear to me. When a group of people gets together and conspires to STEAL everything you’ve worked for, and you have a slim to none chance of ever being able to get it back. Yeah, I completely understand it.

DON’T tell me I should go ‘vote’! The times when voting mattered for anything are long gone! The politicians have been out of control in this country, from the lowest dog catcher to the highest President of the USA for decades. WHY do we even need them any more?

I’ve said for years, that we DON’T! We would all be a hell of a lot better off throwing the whole lot of them under a rock at the bottom of the stinkiest, slimiest sewer which is where they belong! Program a computer with the Constitution and Bill of Rights and let it throw out any ‘law’, rule or regulation that doesn’t comply. We DON’T need politicians, we DON’T need leaders, we DON’T need ‘authorities’. We NEED to take back control of our OWN lives, liberties and property and we’ll never be able to do that until we stop begging for someone else to ‘take care of things’.

The entire Freeport city council should be run out of town on a rail! AFTER hanging them! For their arrogance, stupidity and just plain meanness.

What Happened?

Posted on June 17, 2018 by Captain Jill

It’s a long story. I’m going to start this out by joining in on Linda G Hill’s SoCS. Her theme for this week is “reservation”.

It’s hard to acknowledge that I haven’t posted on here since early February, when I got off work on the Epic Explorer. I hadn’t realized its been that long. I really thought I had been posting more often than that. I’ve been so busy, it just got too easy to let the blogging slip out of mind.

I’ve even had reservations about starting back up again. It’s been so long, I’ve gotten out of the habit of trying to write something fairly frequently (at least weekly) and keep up with what my favorite bloggers were up to. It’s so easy to let it go when I have so many other things going on, and even when I don’t- I just don’t feel like doing anything.

I don’t like to be so negative all the time, but it’s been really hard to try to come up with something positive to say. I’ve always been one of those to see the ‘glass as half empty”. At this point I’m probably ‘clinically depressed’. Here I go again, running off into the so easy to fall into trap of thinking of all the negatives. I’m still out of work, still broke, still trapped here with no money to do anything. There’s still really not much hope of finding work, so no hope of escaping the trap. What am I going to be able to do with myself?

I really don’t think there’s any point to life, other than to live it the way YOU want to. Why bother if all you’re going to do all day every day is what someone else forces on you? I’ve tried my whole life to find ways to live my life according to my values. I work hard, and save what I can so that I can enjoy my time off. Since I’ve been laid off (without any help from unemployment after paying into it for 40+ years), I’ve tried to find other ways to make some kind of income still doing something that I didn’t consider pure torture. I’ve always liked the arts, so I’ve been trying to transition into working in some way with that sort of thing.

I’ve been writing, painting, photographing. I’ve tried to find ways to earn an income from all of those things. So far, I have had a few successes. I’ve won prizes for my photos and for my paintings. I’ve sold a few articles. Few and far between and not nearly enough to pay the bills. It’s hard to concentrate enough to work on this sort of thing when I’m spending so much time and energy looking for a ‘real job’. One that will pay the bills.

won “Honorable Mention”

I tried last night to think of what I have to be thankful for. Mostly in the past. I came up with a few things I can still be thankful for right now. I still have a roof over my head and enough money to keep it for at least another couple of months. I still have my health (in general, tho not good enough to be able to keep working for much longer). I have a few good friends I can always count on. I have rental properties that will bring in enough income to survive on for at least another month. I have internet access again (tho it is still screwed up, just not as bad as it has been). My truck still runs, even at 21+ years old. Without it I wouldn’t be able to get to the few and far between jobs I have been able to get over the last 3 years.

I spent so much time and effort, my whole life, to be able to just live and enjoy life. I did all the things we’re told we have to do. I studied hard, got good grades, went to college, got a good job, a great career. I even went back to college to get a BA degree (in math- which has proved totally useless). I saved as much as I could. I invested what I could spare. I worked hard at every job.

And after all that, what happened? Like hundreds of thousands of others, I was thrown in the trash heap when my company felt it had to satisfy their stockholders.When the price of oil dropped like a rock, the oilfield dried up. When that happened all the shipping jobs were immediately taken. Seafarers around the world are hanging on to any job they can find.

People around the world are clamoring to take captains jobs for $150/day! The STCW has given owner/operators the ability to go for the lowest common denominator- they’re all hiring the cheapest crews they can find. Apparently you can live like a king on $150/day in the Philippines, or India, or Ukraine. Who in America can survive on that? You spend decades and tens of thousands of dollars for your license (and the enormous amounts of responsibility you get with it) and then throw it away for that kind of wage? It’s been almost 3 years now with no hope of getting a ‘real’ job again.

I hate to think that I have wasted my entire life, working my way up the hawsepipe, doing everything ‘right’ and still to end up in the exact same place as I would have if I had never made any effort at all to improve my life. It sucks! But it seems to be reality.

Yes, I’ve had reservations on posting like this and depressing you all. I’ll hope that even this kind of post is (somewhat) welcome after being out of touch for so long.

Here’s to getting back into blogging. 😉

Interesting Lecture

Posted on January 11, 2018 by Captain Jill

I just wanted to let everyone know about this upcoming event. It’s at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. It sounds really interesting and if I was going to be in town I would definitely go. I’m leaving tonight to head offshore for a couple of weeks. Yeah!

Today’s prompt for Just Jot It January is: humiliate. I’m not sure I’ll get a chance for another post today or not, so enjoy this one. Maybe it’ll interest you enough to check out some history. The story of the Glomar Challenger (photo below) is really pretty cool, but even more interesting is the saga of the companies other ships, the Glomar Explorer. 😉

Lecture – Can Do! A History of Texas Leading the Way in Energy by Paul Mattingly

Tuesday, January 16, 2018 – 6:30 PM

Running Time: 2 hours

An innovative cast of characters have lead the way in the energy industry–Harry Wiess, Herman Brown, Howard Hughes, Herbert Hunt–and established Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast as the epicenter of the international energy industry. Author and historian Paul Mattingly will tell the fascinating, little-known stories behind the biggest projects of their time and explain the numerous interconnections including the Glomar Challenger, Apollo program robots, Texas Instruments and the proving of theory of plate tectonics.

Mattingly will conclude with how Texas continues to lead the way in new sources of energy for the future. A book signing of “From Orange To Singapore: A Shipyard Builds a Legacy” will follow the presentation.

Members $12, Tickets $18

JusJoJan: Drama

Posted on January 1, 2018 by Captain Jill

Starting out the new year without all the usual drama. Why? Mostly because I’ve been staying home, sticking to myself, too paranoid and depressed to go out to celebrate the holidays with everyone else.

I decided to join in on Linda’s Just Jot It January challenge again this year. The idea is just to write something (anything) every day during January. Hopefully it will be enough to start a good habit that will continue.

I’ve been trying to transition from working on the water to a more sedate lifestyle. Not by choice, but only because there has been approximately ZERO work for the last 2+ years! I’ve been trying to make a living with a more creative focus. I’ve been doing a lot of writing, photography, painting, etc.

I’d love to be able to just relax, chill out and stop worrying about all the ‘drama’ going on around me. Crazy issues always coming up with tenants, roommates, family, work (or lack of work/finances) and just the normal everyday shit going on in the world.

I wish I could just focus on one thing. Writing, for example. I’ve started a book, I’m on the last chapter, but haven’t worked on it in a couple of months now. I just can’t get motivated to write when I’m trying to deal with all the rest: how to pay the bills, crazy woman in my house (she’s gone now), finding a job, city sending me threatening letters about my properties/tenants, getting income taxes sent in, brakes gone out on my truck in the middle of Houston traffic!

Oh yeah, I’ve been having a wonderful life these last few months. But you know what? I think I would get so bored if I didn’t have all this shit going on around me. I do bring a lot of it on myself.

I grew up in a crazy house, two of them. I’m sure I would’ve been taken into protective custody if any of that had happened today. Both my parents houses were pretty wild. Constant drama at both places. My brother was lucky, he could pick and choose. He could stay at Dads where he was treated like a king, until he wasn’t. Then he would go home to Mom’s where he could do whatever he wanted.

I was stuck at my Dad’s most of the time. He was really strict on a lot of things, but very open about a lot of others. He ran a pretty strange household for back then. First of all, he didn’t work anymore. He retired in his early 30’s. Bought a bunch of property and a sailboat and got out of the rat race. I’ve always admired him for that.

He worked on his boat and rented apartments to all the ‘poor’ people in town. Our apartments were full of the local fishermen, bartenders and drunks. We had parties on the shuffleboard courts every weekend and big pig roasts in our empty lot every couple of months. Dad would have me play the piano upstairs for his drinking buddies.

Moms house was a whole different adventure. We were allowed to keep pets over there and have friends come over. We had cats, dogs, fish, gerbils, hamsters, rabbits, turtles, parakeets, even a kinkajou once (that only lasted til it bit my mom real bad one night). My stepfather would hang out drinking beer and making crude comments all day while we tried our best to ignore him and stay out of his way.

Between the two of them, there was always some drama going on. I think in a way I miss all that. I try to keep my life interesting and not boring. I’m not bored often, but that’s because I always have something I should be doing. Most of those things are only because I say so.

I don’t have to write, work on my photos, paint, blog, etc. But I like to do those things and even tho they’re a lot more work than I ever imagined, they keep my busy and I still enjoy messing around with it all.

I’ve actually cut down a lot. I hardly even go out anymore. That eliminates a lot. I miss out on all of my friends, but I can’t take the chance of going out to see them any more. It’s sad, but this place is not the same anymore.

They’ve taken all the fun out of life here. All in the name of ‘safety’. Screw safety! I’d rather have a LIFE back! Stop shoving us all into tiny little perfectly ‘safe’ boxes and let us enjoy our lives. So what if we screw up occasionally? So what if we have a little accident every once in a while, that’s how we learn! That’s all part of LIFE!

Stop pretending life is about being safe, or secure. It’s NOT! Life is about taking chances, experimenting, seeing the world and everything in it, meeting new people and learning new things. None of that is about being ‘safe’!

I could do without all the drama around the issue of safety! The theatre they put on at the airports with the TSA. Geez, how long are they going to keep that up? How long is it going to take for people to wake up to the fact that none of that is anything BUT a SHOW?

I’m so tired of other people trying to control me! Aren’t you?

Best of 2017

Posted on December 31, 2017 by Captain Jill

Here it is, the end of another year. I can hardly believe it’s another one gone by so fast. Like everyone else, I’ve been thinking a lot about what happened last year and how to make things better next year. Here’s a quick rehash of CaptainJillsJourneys from 2017.

Here’s a month by month of my most popular posts (not counting the moonshine recipes which are by far the most hit on!)…

One Word Photo Challenge: Drink

Travel Theme: Turquoise

My Wish

K is for Kestrel- #AtoZChallenge

Still Out Here

Going to Court Tomorrow

Working

Back to School

Change of Plans

The Jones Act vs Puerto Rico

Sea Trials

Shipping Out

Seems funny that I’ve had so many popular posts about work this year, when I’ve really hardly worked at all. 🙁

I wish I had more interesting travel stories to tell, but hard to come up with those when I haven’t been able to go anywhere (due to lack of funds/work). It’s hard to believe a whole year has gone by and I’ve done so little with my life.

Yeah, I keep myself plenty busy every day. I have to-do lists every day that I never even manage to finish. But they’re full of all the normal little everyday things you need to do around the house. Plus, spending lots of time online, looking for work and still filling out those damn online applications!

I’ve made forays into writing, painting and photography. Unbelievable how much time those things can take up! So far, nothing has come out of any of them, but I’m still hopeful. I have made a few contacts at least.

I just feel like a chicken with it’s head cut off. Running around like crazy and never going anywhere. My goals in life have all been tied to work and without any work for so long I’m just stuck in a rut and don’t know what to do with myself.

Today I feel like just saying ‘to hell with it all!’, ‘I quit!’. But then I come to my senses and wonder HOW??? Should I just give up and throw away everything I’ve worked for my whole life? My license (my ability to work), my property, my house, all my stuff? Everything but what I can easily carry with me?

So far, I can not make myself give up everything, but I also know if I don’t get work soon I am going to lose it all anyway. It takes money- lots of money!- to keep all of those things! Those few short jobs I’ve managed to find over the last couple of years have allowed me to still have a few thousand dollars left (out of $75,000 when I lost my job).

Most of that will get spent this month on fixing one of my properties. It needs to be leveled again and previous contractors refuse to honor their guarantee. So, I’m stuck having to pay another $15,000 to fix it. Otherwise, I will continue to lose $800/month on that property.

I also screwed up and mailed the check for property taxes 1 day late and now I owe another $5500 by the end of January!

If anyone wonders why I took that last job, this is why. It’s very hard to make good decisions on finances when you’re under so much financial stress.

Some people have told me I should just give up and go take a job at McDonalds or Walmart. Why? Jobs like that won’t come close to paying the bills. If I’m working like that I won’t even be able to keep looking for a real job (or on my other projects that might someday earn me a few bucks).

All I can think to do at this point is to keep on hoping that things will get better in 2018. A lot of the ‘experts’ are saying so, but they’ve been saying that for the last 2 years. I’ve got enough to be OK through February and then???

I hate to think of what’ll happen then. 🙁

All I want for 2018 is WORK! PLEASE!!!

Looking For a Ship

Posted on December 29, 2017 by Captain Jill

Not just the title of a pretty good book! I’m back home, rested up and back on the job of looking for a job.

I’ve already called all my usual agencies (C-Mar, Oceanwide, CLS, Northstar, Spencer-Ogden) and no one has any work now or for the foreseeable future.

Some linkedin contacts have mentioned a couple of places overseas. I’ve been trying to contact them, but so far no response. Looks like the situation is still the same. Thousands of us out of work, resumes stacked til filing cabinets overflowing and still no hope of work any time soon.

The price of oil has been flirting with $60/bbl over the last week, but it’s still not enough to get anyone moving. We keep hearing ‘next year it will be better”. It’s 3 days away from ‘next year” and I’m hoping like hell it really will be better!

I don’t know how others are managing to survive. Well, yes I do, most of them have families to help them out. They’re lucky. The younger ones have mostly left the industry and found something else to do. They’ve let their documents lapse and won’t be able to come back. Of course, they didn’t have all that much invested in this industry yet anyway. There’s a huge difference between an AB and an unlimited master as far as costs (and everything else).

I’m heading up to Galveston today to move my art. The gallery where it’s been showing is moving (they’re having their own problems) and all artists are being asked to help move. Looks like it won’t be on display again til late January, maybe February. Just another way to try to survive!

First Few Days On the St Louis Express

Posted on December 21, 2017 by Captain Jill

I joined the St Louis Express in Houston at the Barbours Cut Container Terminal. I got there around 1030 at night after driving around looking for the ship for a while. The ship didn’t get in til 1900 and they told me to get there soon after.

I was excited to join my first container ship, so tried to get there soon after 7, but as usual things got in the way. Turns out, I really shouldn’t have showed up ’til morning anyway. I had to find a spare room to spend the night in, then move in the morning when the guy I was relieving got with me.

view from my cabin, starboard side looking forward

view aft from crane #4

So, first thing we did was get me checked out in the crane. I’ve run cranes before and do fine with them. These cranes are way up off the deck. I’ve tried to count the rungs on the (straight) ladders, but keep losing count. We have 4 large cranes onboard. The climbing up and down has been killing me! I hate to admit it, but I may not be able to handle this job for another month if it consists of so much up and down climbing. 🙁

I haven’t even been here a week yet and I’m already worn out! I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into by signing on as a dayworker. “AB Maintenance”. On the other ships I’ve worked on, they just did the usual maintenance work. The big difference here is the cranes. I’m really concerned about my ability to do that part of the job. I hate to be a crybaby or a quitter, but I really can’t afford to take any chances. Especially now, when I’ve been out of work for so long. It’s already been over 27 months with just a few little 1-2 week temp jobs every few months to keep me going. I can’t afford to get hurt.

Other than crane ops, I’ve been doing a lot of greasing. I have my little green bucket filled with rags, grease gun, screwdriver, pipe wrench, WD-40, and crescent wrench. I carry it around in the mornings from 08-10 and work on greasing and exercising all the movable parts on board. So far, I have only got the aft mooring winches and roller chocks done since I usually only do that work from 08-10.

After the morning break, the Bosun (the boss of the deck crew) has had me chipping with the AB on the catwalks. We take off the gratings and crawl around underneath and get as much rust off as we can with the needle guns and air chisels. After coffee in the afternoon, we clean up the mess and the OS paints everything with corroseal. Next we prime it, then paint. It’s a big project, but gives everyone a chance to get overtime.

walking up the main deck port side

lots of ship traffic S Florida

We left Houston 2200 Sunday (night). The weather was cool and the seas were calm. We had a nice ride across the Gulf of Mexico. I was hoping to see the Florida Keys when we passed but they were too far away.

We got to Savannah this morning around 0900. It took a few hours to run up the river and dock. We spent the night at anchor due to fog and the weather was still pretty grey and misty. We were all fast by 1130.

coming up the river to Savannah

First thing we had to do was to move all our cranes out of their cradles and hang them over the offshore side. If not, they’ll interfere with the dockside cranes loading the containers onboard. Same with the pilot ladder (it’s attached to an accommodation ladder).

we’re docked just forward of the first containership in the photo

After lunch, it was back up in the crane. This time in crane #4 to load some crates into the engine room. They have a large hatch right behind the accommodations. It opens up right over the engines. It’s pretty cool to see all that machinery. My first day, I was in the crane and we had to change out a part for the engine. Someone mentioned it cost about a half million dollars. I’m glad they told me afterward!

So far, the sailing board is still set for midnight tonight. We’ll be off to Norfolk and then after that, on across the ‘pond’.

passing downtown Savannah, tug coming alongside

I’ll post more later. My new smart phone and it’s ‘mobile hotspot’ seems to be working OK so far, but we still have to be in cel phone range for me to use it. As soon as we left Galveston, we lost signal and only got it back on arrival this morning.

Shipping Out

Posted on December 15, 2017 by Captain Jill

Well, I’m off! I’m leaving soon to join a ship. I’ll meet her at Barbours Cut on the Houston Ship Channel. It’s a container ship, so probably won’t be in port for very long

I don’t know much yet about what I’ll be doing or for how long. All I know is, we’ll be going to Northern Europe and I should be gone anywhere from 35 days to around 70 days since they don’t crew change overseas. I’ll probably get off in the same place I got on after we make a couple of round trips.

Here’s a picture of the ship I found on google.

I hope I can get some better photos while I’m out there. 🙂

I’m not exactly looking forward to crossing the North Atlantic in the middle of winter, but I’ve been hunting up all my old winter clothes from when I used to work in Alaska. Hopefully the weather won’t be too bad.

If you want to keep track of where we’re going, here’s a link that’ll show you where the ship is located.

I’m told the ship doesn’t have internet access (for the unlicensed crew- I’m pretty sure they have it for the ship itself). I’m told it does have email. Because of that, I finally broke down and bought a smart phone. I’m hoping I can get my computer to work through its hotspot so I can keep in touch here.

It may work. It may not. I won’t know til I get onboard and have enough free time to mess around with it. I’ll probably try to go ashore every chance I get anyway, just no idea of how that will go yet either. I’m going out as AB Maintenance. That means I’m not a watch stander and will be working days.

Of course, I wish I could’ve found work as an officer, but after more than 2 years of trying I really can’t wait for one of those jobs to open up. I have to take anything that I can get and thank goodness the SIU at least has some AB work for me. None of the officers unions did. It will be a real different hitch for me.

Hope you’ll stick around for the adventure. 😉

Another Trip to Houston

Posted on December 8, 2017 by Captain Jill

I was up in Houston yesterday. I don’t go up there any more than I have to. I usually plan to do everything I need to in one trip. It’s ‘only’ an hour and a half drive, but with traffic it seems longer.

Yesterday I did a little shopping, stopped by the SIU to see if they had any work coming up, and finished up at the WISTA event.

Turns out, the SIU did have something for me. They called me this morning with good news. They had a ship for me!

Now I have to go back up there and do some paperwork. Hopefully I will ship out about this time next week. 🙂

I don’t really know anything about the job yet (except that I’ll be going as AB maintenance- not watch standing). I’ll find out more this afternoon.

Knocking on Doors

Posted on November 30, 2017 by Captain Jill

I flew into New Orleans Tuesday morning and picked up my car. I got on the road around 1030 and headed for Bayou Lafourche. It took about an hour to get there.

I spent all day knocking on doors at every boat company I could find (about 20 of them). First stop was Gulf Offshore Logistics right as you turn off the highway to head down the bayou. I filled out an application and waited to speak to someone about the job situation.

Turns out, it was a friend of mine who I needed to speak to. I forgot that he had changed jobs and went to work at GOL. We talked for quite a while and tho they weren’t hiring right now, he did at least offer me a little bit of hope.

I went on down through Raceland, Cut Off, Galliano, Golden Meadows, and back up to Houma. I got the same story everywhere I went. They had 20 boats total and 15 were stacked (just making up the numbers of boats but the ratio is what matters). No one was hiring at this time.

One company even showed me their (long) list of previous employees they would be calling first when things did start to improve. A couple of places said they thought they might start doing a little bit of hiring after the first of the year.

I didn’t get to see every company I wanted to. I missed Harvey Gulf and Hornbeck. Those were two of the most important ones I wanted to see. I have heard they are actually hiring. I just ran out of time. It was 1630 by the time I got through and too late to get back to New Orleans and over to Covington.

I met a couple of people yesterday who gave me some encouragement about that. One recently got hired at Hornbeck. He basically told me I had to go in person. If I did that, he was pretty sure I would get in. So… I am thinking I should blow off the last day of the Workboat Show and go over there Friday morning.

I spend all day yesterday at the Show. I met up with my old friend Captain Bill who was also looking for work. We met up with some old friends and former shipmates who were working the Show. We had a quick lunch at the food court (BBQ which was awful!). Bill had to leave early so we said goodbye and I continued wandering around the amazing amounts of boat stuff on display. 🙂

During the day, I talked to quite a few people about the situation offshore. Everyone agreed 2017 was done for. Most were hopeful that 2018 would be better. Some were more pessimistic and thought it would be 2019 or later (or even never).

I’m not sure I can manage to hold out for another year. I think most mariners are in the same boat. It has just become too hard to keep our credentials current. The IMO, USCG and the companies have decided it is imperative to continually load us down with super expensive, shore based “training”.

Renewal started out fairly easy to comply with. We just needed to do a couple of things like take a physical and renew RADAR every 5 years. Now, we still have to take a physical (but every 2 years-minimum), we still have to renew RADAR every 5 years, but we also have a slew of other requirements to renew our mariners credentials. Without those we can not work anywhere on the water!

That’s not even to mention all the ‘training’ the companies require. They all want different versions of the same course and refuse to accept the same training from anyone other than their approved providers! All of those courses are required to be renewed every 3-4 years too!

I can state for a fact that unless you are working on the water, there are very few jobs (I can’t think of a single one) that would both pay you enough and give you the time off you need to take all those courses. So…. how is anyone going to be able to go back to work in 2018, 2019, 2020 if they are not already working now?

What Are the Odds?

Posted on November 27, 2017 by Captain Jill

I hate to be so gloomy all the time. I do have to admit I’m one of those people who sees the glass as half empty. Lately it’s been harder than normal to keep my spirits up. I’m not used to being unemployed and broke. I don’t like it. I really, really don’t like it.

This morning I got a call from one of the temp agencies I work with. When I got the message I thought “oh great, I finally got some real work”. When I called them back I found out they needed me to be there tomorrow! I could’ve cancelled out the last part of my trip without losing too much. I could’ve been there late Friday, but they had to have someone tomorrow.

Of course! I am leaving tomorrow for the Workboat Show in New Orleans. I’m heading over a day early so I can head down the bayou and visit a few boat companies in person (since the online applications don’t seem to be doing any good). The job wouldn’t pay enough to cover the expenses I’ve already paid for (and can’t get back). I’ve worked there before and already know the drill. Sadly, I had to turn it down.

So few jobs around, and I’m so broke I’m hardly ever doing much. What are the odds that an actual job comes around at the exact same time I can’t take it due to previous engagements?

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Lecture – Can Do! A History of Texas Leading the Way in Energy by Paul Mattingly

Tuesday, January 16, 2018 – 6:30 PM

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: