I'm making a quick experiment today, nothing terribly exciting, just adding a blog entry via email.
I arrived on board the Discoverer Clear Leader today, a TransOcean drill ship. The ship is new, only having arrived in the Gulf a few months ago, I think. I'm working with a few former Boa Sub C guys, which is good. I like being around guys who know what it's like on my regular boat. The accommodations are nice here, more importantly, the beds are very comfortable. I left the hotel this morning to arrive for transportation around 2:15. I had a little sleep on the ride to the heliport, and had slept a bit yesterday afternoon, but once again I find myself in that odd limbo of not knowing exactly how much I slept for the day, or for which day, for that matter.
It's terribly cold here at the moment, has been for the past several days. I always get the same response when I say it's cold, that, being from MN, I must be used to lower temps. The thing is though, I don't spend any time outside when it's cold out in Minnesota, and this is such a distinction! I'm guessing with the windchill today, the temperature outside was in the 20s, and the winds were really strong. Today, being Sunday, is the day for a fire drill. So in these poopy conditions, I got to stand outside for the better part of an hour. And steel-toe boots do nothing to keep the toes warm; when the drill was finally over, I clumsily hoofed it back inside with my frozen and numb tootsies.
The... void that comes over me upon returning to the Gulf has dissipated a little. I suppose it's the initial anxiety that comes with the anticipation of going offshore. I'm fine if I go from one hitch directly into the next, and I can spend weeks offshore on the Boa, but coming from home back to the Gulf is painful, kind of heartbreaking a little. After a few days it quietens, just sort of goes back underground. That it exists, this discontent, this anxiety, I'm starting to see as a good thing. Of course there are all the melodramatic ideas of never being able to have a good life, or the fatalistic that one doesn't deserve this or that, but recently, I've started to think there's a lot to be learned from having lived this life, for however brief a time.
I arrived on board the Discoverer Clear Leader today, a TransOcean drill ship. The ship is new, only having arrived in the Gulf a few months ago, I think. I'm working with a few former Boa Sub C guys, which is good. I like being around guys who know what it's like on my regular boat. The accommodations are nice here, more importantly, the beds are very comfortable. I left the hotel this morning to arrive for transportation around 2:15. I had a little sleep on the ride to the heliport, and had slept a bit yesterday afternoon, but once again I find myself in that odd limbo of not knowing exactly how much I slept for the day, or for which day, for that matter.
It's terribly cold here at the moment, has been for the past several days. I always get the same response when I say it's cold, that, being from MN, I must be used to lower temps. The thing is though, I don't spend any time outside when it's cold out in Minnesota, and this is such a distinction! I'm guessing with the windchill today, the temperature outside was in the 20s, and the winds were really strong. Today, being Sunday, is the day for a fire drill. So in these poopy conditions, I got to stand outside for the better part of an hour. And steel-toe boots do nothing to keep the toes warm; when the drill was finally over, I clumsily hoofed it back inside with my frozen and numb tootsies.
The... void that comes over me upon returning to the Gulf has dissipated a little. I suppose it's the initial anxiety that comes with the anticipation of going offshore. I'm fine if I go from one hitch directly into the next, and I can spend weeks offshore on the Boa, but coming from home back to the Gulf is painful, kind of heartbreaking a little. After a few days it quietens, just sort of goes back underground. That it exists, this discontent, this anxiety, I'm starting to see as a good thing. Of course there are all the melodramatic ideas of never being able to have a good life, or the fatalistic that one doesn't deserve this or that, but recently, I've started to think there's a lot to be learned from having lived this life, for however brief a time.
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