"I wore a Red Sox cap" It's a wonder no one threw you overboard!

Very interesting stories Mark. Keep 'em coming.

Randy

PS: Think Mariano can ever pitch against the Sox again? If they weren't in
his head before, they are after last week! BTW, life in the Eastern cellar
is fine.


"MWB" wrote in message
...

"shiver" wrote in message
...
MWB wrote:

You're welcome, I could go on for hours and hours.

Please do.

I'm sure there are many in this group that would be very interested in
hearing details about what it was like to work on a tug.

Tugs give a rough ride. I didn't mind the 20 plus foot seas, the 10 foot
seas bothered my stomach. I slept like a baby in rough weather and I think
I was a rare case. Looking at the same 5 faces for 90 plus days is a
challenge.

Prior to towing an oil rig we'd have a meeting, even though we knew who
was going to do what, we still talked it over. We would even practice
this. There would only be two of us on the deck and we knew who was going
to do what and when. The tug is going up and down, we're taking seas and
getting wet. I wore a Red Sox cap, t-shirt, shorts, sneakers and a life
vest. You can't set a tool down, it would be swept overboard.

We backed the tug up to the oil rig and handed them a 150' steel cable
which they attached to the rig. That was attached to a 50' braded nylon
surge line 24" in circumference. Then we let out the tow line 1800' feet,
then we'd put chaffing gear on the line to protect it. It takes three
tugs to move an oil rig and the speed is about 2-4 knots. A rig move from
Texas to Florida could take two weeks.

Towing a barge to Colombia was a lot of fun. There wasn't much to do and
we all got our share of the sun. At times I found it boring, but then I'd
think about my wife shoveling snow in Maine and those thoughts
disappeared.

I've had a cruise boat ask me if I'd tell them my position, so they'd know
where they were. And I did, this was before satellite navigation, we used
a sextant, which I was very good at. I've has a USCG cutter point a cannon
at me, been hit by flying fish, been buzzed by the Blue Angels ( for an
hour ) while going up the Mississippi River, got a free case of beer (long
story) in a bar in Colombia...I had the time of my life.

Every day at sea, it seemed something happened. Going up a river, everyone
would be in the wheel house because it was something different. Rivers and
Bayous were a rare treat.


Mark