Back at work and into the first weekend, it is definitely that time of the summer where things have slowed down and our biggest threat to sanity are the swarms of recreational boaters. Right now we are waiting on a slew of ships that the barge we are handling the next few days has loaded for. It’s nice when the client plans loads like this where we bring the barge to load once, and then bounce from ship to ship for the discharges. Occasionally, and for reason unknown to me, they will load the barge with a tiny amount and then have us run to a ship for the discharge. We then turn around and run back to the terminal, usually the same one, and load another paltry amount to do it all over again.

From a risk management standpoint I’ve never thought it made much sense. The riskiest evolution we do is landing and sailing the barge, particularly at the tide sensitive berths that the bunker barges are often loaded at. So ideally the more ships you can load for at once, and the less times you have to come and go from the berth, the better. It doesn’t always work out that way, and I’m sure a lot of it has to do with scheduling conflicts and uncertainty.

In case you’re wondering, this is the kind of stuff tug boaters start bitching about when its slow. We then move onto the food, each other, and eventually the dearth of our floating worlds…..politics and religion.

Anyway I’ll go back to inspecting safety equipment and asking the deckhand when dinner is ready.