Running in a Lifeboat!
S/S SEABULK POWER
Corpus Christi, Tx.
Hello folks. It’s been a long time since I’ve written yet things have been extremely busy with loading gasoline and diesel fuels. Since arriving aboard this single-hulled bohemoth of an oil tanker, I’ve been able to grasp many new concepts I want to tell you about….
Loading and Unloading an oil tanker requires some know how similar to a balancing act at a Circus. When all the liquids are within the limits of the cargo tanks, and the CORRECT liquids are flowing down a proverbial ‘highway’ of pipes and valves acting as stoplights at an intersection, then everything works in unison.
Besides going back and forth to Florida and Louisiana, we’ve picked up the not-so-old run of going to Corpus Christi, Texas where we loaded Premium gas, in addition to the other grades of gas and Diesel. These trips have only amounted to a couple of days journey, but at times, we’ve anchored just outside of the bay leading into either Corpus or Tampa. The fog had been very thick, recently, while arriving into Corpus Christi so we were delayed a couple of days at anchor.
In the course of working aboard, I was also tasked to help with lowering one of the two lifeboats into the water, and running her around the ship, while in Port Everglades, Florida. Just the fact that a small, boat was lowered from just two wires from its perch suspended sixty feet off the side of the ship and into the water, would make the average ‘he-man’ wince and grimace with uncertainty. But once the boat was free of the hanging wires,and on its own power, it felt as if we were free as birds and now tooting around the small confined area was ‘my time’ to enjoy along with an Engineer and two other Able Seaman.
My time is running short aboard this forty year-old tanker as I am approaching my fifty days of work. There has been an agreement with the previous Third Mate I relieved, that he is to return at the fifty day mark so I can go back home and work on the process on my credentials as a tanker mate. I have to follow through with visiting the local Coast Guard Station and submitting this valuable time aboard inorder to receive such a stamp on my License. Most of my experiences aboard this tanker has been positive, yet never is there a day when the same occurance happens identically nor without learning something new.
I will be home approximately the 11th or 12th of March and look forward to being back at home!
Have a great day!
-Nadir
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