5/15/2008-Afternoon update
It's not every day that we have an afternoon update. They're really quite rare actually, especially given my recent habit of writing the update right before I go to bed. I find myself with an hour to kill this afternoon though, as I'm currently hooked up to the platelet machine.
Anyhow, it was a stupendously busy day. If every day was this busy I'd hire someone to write these updates for me, or at the very least I'd dictate them. Maybe I'll make that my goal in life, since I really don't have a goal otherwise.
So we started off this morning with a 0630 crew up for a 0700 call at Foss. Heather's currently taking captain class, so Caleb and I headed off to Foss by ourselves. As luck would have it the Intrepid Kelli lives not far from Foss, so we swung by and picked her up on the way. We'd been tasked with pulling one of Foss's boats off of one pier and setting it on another, so it could have some work done. Pretty much the same job we did the other day for them, only with a different boat.
It's kind of nice moving tugs around, they've got cleats in the right places, and they're covered with rubber just like us, so hooking up to them is a snap. We got the 8 made up and backed the boat in question away from the pier, and as soon as he had enough room Caleb swung the Bandit in behind and started pushing on her stern. It works out pretty well to move them around that way, the Bandit and the 8 can just push against each other, and by swinging their rudders and varying the throttles as needed you can put the boat pretty much anywhere you want it. Some boats don't lend themselves to it, but it's a good technique on these tugs.
So after that we dropped Kelli back off and ran back to the yard, where we had three jobs waiting for us. First up was a big empty ramp barge that needed to be moved into range of one of the cranes. I guess they have some gear to pick off of it. We got the 8 and the Bandit hooked up as soon as we got back, and I hopped onto the barge with my radio to do my pilot job. Normally I just ride on the tow and radio instructions to the tugs, but today was a little different. I was helping to untie the barge, when I suddenly found myself on the pier instead of the barge. I guess I climbed down without realizing it. Climbing back up looked like a lot of bother, so I just went with it and directed the job from the pier. I'm not even sure anyone noticed, but it was kind of fun to do it from a different perspective.
After that we had to pick up a more or less abandoned fishboat from the end of the North Pier and haul it around to the South Pier where it'd be out of the way. This particular boat is something of a pain in the ass to deal with, but I suppose I shouldn't really complain. We've been moving it about once a month for the last four or five years, so if you added it all up I could probably put an addition on the house by now.
By the time we finished up with that it was time for lunch, and we made it back to the pier in time to catch the gut truck. After careful consideration I decided to have the penguin burrito, which was delicious. I'm pretty sure it was penguin, either penguin or camel, I didn't want to ask which. It's never a good idea to ask too many questions at the gut truck, you're probably not going to like the answers.
So after I was done throwing up we got the boats fired back up for one last job. We had to move that empty dump barge that's been hanging around for the past month or so. I keep expecting it to leave, but it continues to stay. It's kind of fun to move around with the 8 actually. It's huge but since it's empty it doesn't really weigh that much. What I'd really like to do is haul it up to Kenmore or something to see how fast we could get it going. It feels fast, but moving it around the yard we tend to take things pretty slow. I find we knock down a lot fewer piers that way.
Okay, well that about wraps it up. Our photo today comes courtesy of E, our longtime staff photographer. She got this photo of us moving the Sandra Foss this morning, which I hope is to your liking. If not you can take it up with E, but I wouldn't if I were you. Be good, Brian
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