Tag Archives: #what’s it like to work offshore

Buzcador Barges Through the Bayous

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It took longer than expected, but we were finally ready to go. The plan was to be towed out from Berwick, down the Atchafalaya River and out through the bay. The Buzcador would depart Berwick as an “unmanned barge”.

Wondering why we had to get towed out? Why we couldn’t stay onboard? Because even though we were light ship, we had no cargo, little ballast and just enough fuel and water to make it- we were still really pushing our luck with our draft. We didn’t want to take any chances with our engines.

The Atchafalaya is not a very deep river. It has a lot of shallow spots. It’s also unique in that it’s actually replenishing the land in it’s delta. Most of the rest of Louisiana is loosing ground to the sea.

Our draft was over 12 ft and we knew we would be touching the bottom in at least a couple of places. Also, the intake for our engine cooling water was going to be sucking mud the entire time- not good!

So, we got underway about noon. The mighty Miss Edmay would be pulling and the Basin Endeavor would be pushing. The Buzcador would be ‘dead ship’ until we hit the sea buoy.  No engines, no power, no lights, etc. We all scrambled over to ride the Endeavor out.

We did alright until we got to ‘Crewboat Cut’. We ran hard aground! I didn’t expect to have any trouble until much further down the river. The Atchafalaya River is always changing tho. We used to avoid this area by taking a bend in the river called the “Horseshoe”, but that stretch has been discontinued for navigation and the navigation aids removed. No telling what it was like.

Our 2 tugs tried hard to get us off the bottom. They struggled for at least 2-3 hours. Pushing and pulling, twisting and turning. The decision was made to call for another tug. We broke free just as the new tug “Mr Nicolas” arrived on scene.

They made fast and we proceeded on down the Atchafalaya. We made it as far as the ‘Lighthouse” before we were hard aground again. Another couple of hours spent to break us free, while questioning our chances of making it all the way out the river. The Lighthouse was only the 1st of the shallow spots I knew about. We still had at least 3 more to pass for sure.

The decision was made to turn back and try a different route. We cut the Endeavor loose as we turned into Bayou Chene and made our way through the ICW to the Houma Navigation Canal. I had some doubts about whether we would have the same problems there. I’d been through that way before and run aground there too.

Turns out, it was a good decision. We made it all the way out with no problems at all. I slept through most of it since I was going to be up all night on lookout. Nice scenery. I was  up to see Cocodrie, and the last lowland parts of Louisiana as we made our way through Terrebonne Bay and out Cat Island Pass.

We turned the tugs loose at the sea buoy, stumbled around in the dark until the engineers cranked up the engines, and we were off!

More to come! 😉

Home: Get Ready to Work

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I’m home. But only for a short stay. I got home from my FRC (fast rescue craft) class last night. I’m leaving for my course in Leadership (management level) on Sunday. FRC was only 3 days. Leadership is 5 days. All these courses are required (by law) for me to keep my license.

So, I really only have today and tomorrow to catch up on a lot of stuff. I’ve got to go for an eye exam this morning (also required for my license- yearly). I’m going to the dentist tomorrow morning. I need to get a haircut. I need to try and get my computers fixed. I need to see about getting my house exterminated (pretty sure I’ve acquired mice since I’ve been gone- and some sort of LARGER creature that is rampaging around my attic at night).

When I get back from the leadership course (in Baltimore at MITAGS), I’ve got to get my USCG physical done (required yearly so I can keep my license). That entails blood tests I’ve got to get done for my Dr to renew my prescriptions. I’m trying to do that through an online service since it’s MUCH cheaper (and I REFUSE to get sucked in to the Obamacare trap!!)

After I get done with all the medical crap (and “training” crap) I need to do in order to keep my license (without it I am not ALLOWED to work), then I need to try to figure out my tax situation.

Since I am not working for an American company now, they don’t take anything out of my paycheck for taxes. This is the first time I’ve been in this situation. I’m pretty sure I’m supposed to pay my own taxes quarterly now. All I know is, I’ve got to get my accountant on it so I don’t get screwed (any more than usual) by the IRS next year.

I’m still in the pool at work so I’m figuring I’ll be due back around Dec 4 (leave Houston Dec 2). That means that in my “month off”, I’ll have had 14 days at home. That’s pretty typical now a days, considering all the required courses and not required (except by the company) “training” we have to take in order to keep working.

How the HELL did it come to this? A free country where most of your time is spent trying to complete government mandates (license to work, TAXES)?  A job at sea once was the ultimate in FREEDOM. You just had to do your job and nothing else mattered. Now, it’s almost the complete opposite.

First of all, if you piss in the jar and it somehow ‘fails’ the test, then you’re OUT, completely and totally. You can not work for ANYONE for a LONG time. You might as well forget about ever working at sea again. What that piss test has to do with your job is totally beyond me, it’s just a bunch of pure BULLSHIT that has tied it to your ability to do your job, but it has become all important. 🙁

After you manage to pass that hurdle, of the company deciding that they OWN your time OFF the job as well as on it, then you can try and pass the ‘physical’ hurdle. Some (very few now) companies are happy enough with the required USCG physical (which gets harder and harder every time there is some sort of incident that gets some news coverage).

Most companies now have their OWN standards. They have their OWN doctors they send you to for things like MRI’s and even psychological tests! Here’s an example of what one recently thought was important that I could do: balance on one foot on a trampoline for a couple of minutes. Another thought I needed to be able to climb up and down the stairs for 20 minutes while carrying a weight of 50 lbs (for a company where it’s not allowed to carry weights of over 35 lbs)! Remember, you can’t set off the BP/pulse monitor either while you’re doing all that!!

Then, once you pass all that and you’re actually allowed to show up on the job, you have to complete a ream of paperwork before you can actually START even the simplest job (JSEA, risk assessment, PROMT card, etc). Oh yeah, you have to be dressed to the hilt in all sorts of ‘safety’ gear: steel-toed boots, hard hat, hearing protection, safety glasses, coveralls, gloves, lanyard for your hard hat.

But NO knife! They are ‘prohibited’ as DANGEROUS. WOW! What twisted logic we have to live by offshore.

So, here I am, a person who chose to go to sea for the FREEDOM it once offered, now suffering from an overdose of ‘safety’ which has completely destroyed the freedom. The same thing is happening on shore. All over the country.

What the HELL has happened to America? A country founded by people from all over the world who once valued their FREEDOM above all else? We’ve turned into a country of whiny-baby scaredy cats, willing and able to sue anybody and anything and blame anybody but ourselves, we need to be ‘protected’ from the big bad world and even ourselves. 🙁

I wonder is it some sort of disease? Something that causes people to lose their common sense? Or is it some kind of intentional mind control, something put out by ‘our leaders’ to get us to stop thinking for ourselves and just do whatever they tell us, no matter how stupid (no knives, airport strip searches, etc).

My guess would be the second one. 😉

Crew Change- Not Today

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Have you ever been so happy and excited one minute, only to be plunged into the depths of despair the next?

That’s what I saw happening here a couple of days ago. It was supposed to be crew change day. The 18 happy people who were due to get off after spending 4 weeks at work here were wandering all over the bridge in excited anticipation.

When the chopper finally arrived (at it’s usual time), they rushed to get their life jackets on and finish their turnover with their reliefs. As the minutes passed by, I saw more and more anxiety on the faces of those who were supposed to be leaving.

I had the forward camera zoomed in and aimed at the chopper. There was a problem. It was swarming with orange coveralls. Our crew, trying to track down the cause of the trouble. The pilot had noticed an oil leak on landing.

We do have some VERY skilled men on board here. They’re experts in what they do. Plenty of good engineers, hydraulic techs, electricians, electronic techs, etc.

Within 5 minutes of the arriving crews disembarking the chopper, our ships crew was up there with the helicopter pilot, looking everywhere for the source of the leak. I’m not sure what they found (I’m just a DPO here and not ín the loop’), but the decision was made to fly the chopper back to Luanda with only the pilots on board.

What disappointment I saw then. So many happy faces were now completely turned around and sad now. 🙁

We had hopes they would send another helicopter that afternoon to pick up our departing crew, so people were still hanging around with their fingers crossed, but 2 hours later the word came that the replacement helicopter was cancelled. (They have a rule that if they can’t be back at base by 1700, they will not leave).

AARRRGGGHHHHH! 🙁

Now we would have to find someplace to put all those extra people for the night. Not such an easy thing. We’re already almost always running fairly close to capacity for bunk space (just like every other rig). We just managed to find room for everyone without having to sleep together. 😉

Everyone at least got some rest before going home. The leave-takers were in a better mood after a few hours of sleep. In the morning we got the good news that there would be an early flight. The chopper (NOT the same one) would come out just to get those people they had to abandon here the day before.

YES!! The smiles were back!! Everyone managed to get off and new flights were arranged to get them home from Luanda. Hopefully everyone got home OK and their plans were not too badly disrupted.

It’s bad enough to spend 3-4 days of your owed time off traveling, which is the way things normally work. It’s really bad to have to spend any extra time at work. Most of us work offshore for the scheduled time off, not for enjoyment of the job itself. It’s hard for us to accept losing even 1 day.

I guess most people would think we’re so lucky (and we are, really). They see we work 28 days on, then 28 days off. They don’t really see that we are stuck here and working 12 hour (minimum) days, 7 days a week until we’re due to go home. Most people are pretty run down by the time they’re due off. Because of that, most companies have limits on how long you’re allowed to stay offshore before they force you to go home.

I’ve tried to figure out which schedule is better, working out here with a month on/month off schedule. Or the typical American schedule of an 8-5 workday (not including a couple of hours-unpaid- driving time), with weekends and holidays off. Lucky to get a weeks vacation once a year.

It seems to me we still have the better deal out here, but it’s not nearly by as much as you would think.

Only 4 Weeks

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I’m ‘late’ going to work this time. I’m not exactly sure how that works since I’m still in the ‘pool’. I wonder if I’m going to work for my usual schedule or if I’m only going to be going for 3 weeks.

If I am only going to the rig to fill in for a person who is coming back for his regular schedule, then I will get off in approx 3 weeks. If there is not a regular person here that I am filling in for, then maybe I will be here longer.

I think I need to wait til the weekend is over to email my ‘handler’ in the office. Just like the last couple of ships I’ve worked on here, I get conflicting answers from the different people I ask about it on board.

It’s weird being in ‘the pool”.

On my last ship, they asked me if I preferred it to a regular rig. I told them I thought it would be a good idea to stay in it until I had a chance to complete most of my mandatory training. I thought so because I thought it would be easier to arrange the courses if I didn’t have a set schedule.

At the end of my last trip, I found out that this company figures training time as vacation time and so I now OWE them at least 18 days! I was not very happy to learn that (to put it mildly).

Now I really don’t see any advantage to staying in the pool except that I do still like to go to the different vessels. I always did like to see how the different people do basically the same job differently. I always liked meeting all the different people. I always liked working on the different ships and going to different places.

But, now with the huge issue I had with the people at the airport about my overweight luggage, I’m not sure I want to have to deal with that every time I come and go. Since they count training as vacation time, it seems they’ll always be pushing to send me back to work after 4 weeks no matter what I’ve been doing with my time off the rig.

Well, they already told me that it’s not up to me. It’s not even up to the crews (including the Master or OIM) of the rigs I’ve been working on. The decision of where I’ll be working is up to someone in the office. So, I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what happens and then make MY decisions after that. 🙂

I'm On Board!

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I finally made it back to work yesterday. I was supposed to leave to come back to work last Tuesday. I had to wait until I got a visa from Angola before I could actually leave to get on the plane. My company emails me a document that I have to  print out and bring with me. I got it late Monday and flew out of Houston at 1600 Tuesday afternoon.

I got to Luanda early Thursday morning 0500, stood in line for quite a while (they took everybodys temperature, checking us all for ebola). Then got my visa put in my passport and so ready to move from the international airport where I flew in, to the domestic airport where we fly out on the helicopters to the rig.

Instead, I was surprised when the agent informed me that I was not on the list to fly that day. I got to spend the night at the hotel. I didn’t do much there but try to sleep. I also TRIED to catch up on some emails, but that’s it. The internet at that hotel is SO horrible. IF you can get it to connect at all, it is SO slow. It’s really not even worth bothering with it. But for some reason, I always do try. It’s very frustrating!

I did manage to get a few hours of sleep, not enough to really get back to normal but much better than the usual rush to get right on the ship and to work. I did appreciate it.

Yesterday, I was up at 0430 and on the way back to the airport at 0530. I had a huge problem with checking in for the helicopter flight.

It seems the baggage allowance is only 15 kg. I have 2 bags. My hand luggage is 10.7 kg. I will not go anywhere without it. It has my computer, my paperwork (licenses, passports, health records, etc), medicines, kindle, phone, cameras, cords, adapters, etc. I really don’t know WHY that little bit of stuff is so heavy, but I think the bag is probably at least a couple of kg all by itself.

My checked luggage weighs 15.6 kg (this trip). I have pared it down as much as I thought I could get by with. I am willing to have them send that out to me later. Last trip they lost my checked bag on the way to Angola for weeks. So, I could get by (if I have to) without it. I did mention that to them a couple of times but they ignored me on that.

Of course I would prefer to have it. I have my own comfortable (as much as possible) boots. A jacket (it gets cold on these vessels at night). I froze last hitch until someone remembered somebody left a jacket in the drawer and I borrowed it. A few changes of clothes. Toothpaste and shampoo that you’re not allowed to bring on board the planes with you anymore since 9-11 (and they charge a FORTUNE for out here- $38 for a tube of toothpaste!). A few snacks (sometimes the food really SUCKS and you just need a little taste of home- literally).

Most people here come back to the same vessel every time. So most people can leave all their clothes, etc on board. Most people do not NEED to bring everything they’ll need for 4+ weeks with them every time. But since I am still in the pool and never know where I’ll be assigned next, I DO need to bring everything with me, back and forth, EVERY TRIP.

The people checking us in at the airport for the helicopters don’t care about that. They don’t like to cut any slack. I do understand that the helicopters are very strict about their weight limits. They can not and will not fly if they are overweight. Or even close to their weight limits.

BUT, there is some variation in the allowances. For instance, they have a standard allowance for body weight. I’m not sure what it is, maybe 100 kg. So, if I weigh only 50 kg, ( I WISH),  then I should get more baggage allowance. But it doesn’t work that way.

I was lucky to be in line with the OIM and a couple of other guys from my rig that had some room in their bags. We split my extra weight 3 ways between them and then I was finally allowed to check my bags! WHEW!!

I really don’t know how I will be able to cut my baggage weight any more than I have already. I will have to see how I do this trip and if there is anything I don’t use that I could possibly leave at home. I really think they ought to make allowances for people that don’t go back to the same vessel every time.

I’ll worry about that when I have to get ready to come back to work next hitch. For now, I’m just glad to finally get back aboard and start settling back in for another 3-4 week long hitch out here. 🙂

Drills Today

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Wondering if we’ll have fire and boat drills today?
Is it worth trying to go to sleep? Or would it be better to try to stay awake so that you can get some good rest after it’s all over?

Weekly (at minimum) drills are a necessity on most vessels, but boy do they get old fast.

It’s already so hard to get enough sleep out here and then we have to do these drills every week (as well as safety meetings). It’s really amazing but almost every time, we’ll have at least 1 person who doesn’t know where their muster station is, how to get there, or what they’re supposed to do when they do get there.

It’s not like that on ships that have a crew full of professional mariners. They are trained and will almost always do the right thing, even go and check out their gear when they come aboard.

On vessels that have ‘crew’ other than mariners (construction, cruise, fishing, drilling, etc), most of these people are NOT mariners and don’t come from a seafaring background. Even though the STCW (Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping) mandates that every mariner has to take a basic safety course before going offshore, I’ve noticed that all these other people do NOT have to take that course (or others).

THEY are the people who actually NEED that course (at a bare minimum), but of course the IMO and others who make the rules really have NO idea what they are doing when they come up with this stuff.

I’m falling asleep whether I want to or not. Here’s hoping the drills go fast today.

Capt Jills Kvetching

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OK, fair warning here, I’m going to be bitching (a bit) in this post…

This week I’m in Houston re-taking the Basic Safety Training (BST) course. This is a class that the USCG (Coast Guard) started requiring all mariners to take back when they were trying to get the US in compliance with STCW (Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping) around the turn of the century (STCW 95 went into full effect in the US Feb 2, 2002).

BST is a very basic course that is supposed to teach you what you should know before you can go offshore. Things you would know if you’d ever spent more than a couple of days (working) out there. Things like ‘what is a station bill? what is a muster station? what are the alarm signals? what do you do if someone falls overboard?, where can you find a lifejacket? how do you use a fire extinguisher? etc.

STCW is an international standard and the USCG is in charge of making sure all US mariners comply.

For once, the USCG actually made a rule that sort of made sense. They decided that if you were still sailing during the 5 years before you had to renew your credentials, (still working offshore where you were required to do safety training and drills every week), then you wouldn’t be required to spend another week of your supposed time off and a few hundred dollars (minimum) to ‘learn’ how to do such things as put on a life jacket or about the different types of fires.

It’s really pretty sad to have to require someone who’s been going to sea for 20 years (or even ONE year) to spend a week of their time off in this kind of class.

At this point, the USCG still does not require us to take the BST class more than once. They have caved in to the IMO and WILL be forcing us all to re-take the BST refresher course starting in 2017 (but they’re not yet). So far as I know, there are no approved ‘refresher’ courses since this is a fairly new ruling. Hopefully, the refresher course will only cover what we don’t do every week on board the ships. Things we CAN’T do (supposedly) out there like jump in the pool and/or put out real fires.

Maybe they’ll be sensible and just let us do a one day course on only those couple of things (I can hope, can’t I). 😉

In the meantime, certain companies don’t really care what the rules say. They insist that no one could possibly be ‘safe’ unless and until  they finish going to training for THEM.

I see it more and more often in the Gulf of Mexico. The drilling companies (clients) are especially bad about it. Instead of accepting Safegulf or Rigpass, (both of which cover the same very basic materials and are pretty much the same as the BST but more for the rigs vs the boats), each company wants you to go to THEIR training before you go offshore (even tho it’s all pretty much the same material).

Some of the trainers won’t even give you any proof that you attended the class! They don’t want you to be able to go to another company and avoid having to take it again (so they will get paid again for teaching you the same stuff they just taught you 2 months ago)!!

I have no idea why. Well, yes I do, but nobody likes to admit it. All the STCW courses cover the same material. They HAVE to. The USCG requires certain things to be taught. They require that we spend so much time on each subject. There is very little leeway in how these courses are taught.

The purpose of the STCW was to ensure that everybody in the entire world has the EXACT SAME TRAINING. Every country that is approved (on the white list) has basically the same courses teaching the same things. That is so that we can all be certain that every seafarer from every country will have at least the same basic minimum knowledge base.

Now, it seems the intent of the STCW is being subverted. I am hearing that some countries will not accept training from other countries. The sailors have to go and spend all that time and money taking the classes again for the country they want to work in! In fact, the US is one of those countries! (I am simplifying it a little here).

The USCG will not accept a course if I go to another country to take it. For example, if I went to take Basic Safety Training in Greece, they would not accept it. If someone from the UK were to come here and try to get a mariners document, they would have to re-take the BST course here. The USCG is supposedly in the process of changing the rules (again) but in the meantime, its a real pain in the ass for a lot of sailors around the world!

I’m actually lucky this time. I am starting a new job and the company is sending me to the ‘training’ this time. I have pretty much always had to spend the time and money out of my own pocket for all the other times I’ve had to do this.

I spent over $50,000 (!!!!!) re-taking classes I already took in order to get my chief mates license between 2002-2008!

Basically, I am just sick and tired of having to take the same classes over and over again. There’s very rarely even anything new covered in them. The very few things that have changed are things we could have got out of a safety alert or an email. But nooooooo, we have to go spend a week and a few hundred bucks (minimum) to sit through all the rest of the stuff that has NOT changed.

I think if I have to do it again at this point, that will be the last straw. I would just have to say the hell with it and give up sailing altogether. 🙁

And they wonder why it’s so hard to recruit mariners?

It’s very sad that this is what it’s coming to. People say to me, “how can you be against “safety””? OK, let’s get this straight! I am NOT against safety!! I AM against these people (companies and governments) making up rules and checklists and “training” to COVER THEIR ASSES instead of doing the RIGHT thing!

IMHO, the real purpose of all these things is so they can send us to a class for a few days and then send us offshore and if we ever get hurt they can say “it’s not OUR fault, we sent them to TRAINING, they should have known better”. In other words, it’s all about CYA.

Of course, no one will actually ADMIT that.

Instead of actually giving a new person the time to learn the job PROPERLY on the job, with the people they will be working with who know the specifics, they send a new person off for a few days in a classroom.

OK, that’s better than nothing, I admit it, but it’s  NOT better than the way they used to learn things BEFORE these rules were put into effect!

We used to take a new person offshore and train them on the job. We would make sure to watch over them and ‘mentor’ them until we were all sure that they knew how to handle themselves. There were enough people out there for that system to work very well. Now that the companies have cut the crew size down to the bare minimum (or less, in many cases), no one really has the time or energy to watch over a new person like that.

So, now we have to trust that they know everything they need to know when they show up on board. After all, they’ve been “trained” and there is no way anybody can just ‘watch and learn’ anymore. Everybody out there now is going to be expected to pull their weight.

Personally, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see that there were MORE accidents and injuries since the start of all this STCW and company “training”. (Don’t even get me started on the paperwork component of all this: JSAs, tool box talks, etc, etc, etc). So far, I have not seen any kind of apples to apples comparison. I’m not sure anybody wants to see that done. It might show the companies that all their talk about safety is just that- TALK!

They might just have to come up with something a little more effective at making things safer out there, like maybe putting a few more people back on board the vessels? Or maybe cutting down on all the extra workload each person has had to shoulder since they cut out over half the crew years ago? Or maybe actually letting a person get some rest before they go to work on crew change day instead of putting them straight to work after they’ve just been up for 24+ hours traveling! OMG, they would have to spend a few bucks on a hotel room!!!

Nawwww, that would never happen, they might just have to spend a few more dollars on those crew members then they do on all their ‘safety’ programs. Not ever gonna happen. 🙁

Capt Jill Gets Published!

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I got home from my weekly Campaign for Liberty meeting tonight to find an email informing me that a story I had written had been published in the Maritime Executive magazine. I am still so excited! 🙂

This is the first time my writing has been published in a major magazine. I had been published in a couple of school newspapers and had written a couple of things for the Women’s Maritime Association.

The Maritime Executive used my story just like I wrote it. I expected them to edit the hell out of it since I’m not a professional writer (yet). They also used my photos for the story. 🙂

I wrote about what it’s like to work offshore where you get to work by helicopter instead of by car. Check it out, here’s the link…

http://www.maritime-executive.com/article/Zigzagging-to-Work-on-a-Helicopter-2014-05-20

I would have liked to have put a photo in this post, but I just dropped my main computer off at the shop today (hoping to get bugs removed) and so I don’t have access to my photos. I hope they’ll have it fixed by the weekend.

Let me know what you think about my article. Did you like it? Want to know more? Want to know more about different aspects of working out there? What do you REALLY want to know about it??? 😉

Thanks!

Songs of the Sea: Southern Cross- Crosby, Stills & Nash

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At work last hitch, I got into a conversation with my watch mates about nautical music, or more generally, songs relating to the sea. We had a great time coming up with a whole bunch of great music. This was one of our favorites to sing along…

I love the images of those sailing ships in the video. I always wish I had another chance to sail on one of them but I’m very grateful I got to go even once.

This song and the lyrics make me want to just chuck it all and take off for the islands. Maybe one of these days I will. 😉

Here’s to some more inspiration…

“Southern Cross”

[Intro. (Acoustic Guitars)]
Oooh …Got out of town on a boat goin’ to Southern islands
Sailing a reach before a followin’ sea
She was makin’ for the trades on the outside
And the downhill run to PapeeteOff the wind on this heading lie the Marquesas
We got eighty feet of the waterline nicely making way
In a noisy bar in Avalon I tried to call you
But on a midnight watch I realized why twice you ran away

Think about
Think about how many times I have fallen
Spirits are using me larger voices callin’
What Heaven brought you and me cannot be forgotten

(Around the world) I have been around the world
(Lookin’) Lookin’ for that woman girl
(Who knows she knows) Who knows love can endure
And you know it will

When you see the Southern Cross for the first time
You understand now why you came this way
‘Cause the truth you might be runnin’ from is so small
But it’s as big as the promise, the promise of a comin’ day

So I’m sailing for tomorrow my dreams are a dyin’
And my love is an anchor tied to you tied with a silver chain
I have my ship and all her flags are a’ flyin’
She is all that I have left and music is her name

Think about
Think about how many times I have fallen
Spirits are using me larger voices callin’
What Heaven brought you and me cannot be forgotten

(I’ve been around the world) I have been around the world
(Lookin’) Lookin’ for that woman girl
Who knows love can endure
And you know it will, and you know it will yes

[Instrumental (Electric Guitars)]
Oooh …

So we cheated and we lied and we tested
And we never failed to fail it was the easiest thing to do
You will survive being bested
Somebody fine will come along make me forget about loving you
At the southern cross

[Ending (Acoustic Guitars)]

Not many things more awesome than the clear, wide-open, star studded skies out on the open ocean. It’s one of the best things about being a sailor. 🙂

Southern Cross