The red-footed booby is distinguished from it’s cousin, the brown booby, by the color of its feet, but the most remarkable coloration of the seabird isn’t its feet- it’s its bill. They hang out by the fo’csle, hovering and waiting for flying fish to erupt from the bow wake, at which point they dive and skim the wave-troughs in pursuit.
As they hang there, waiting for calories, the blue of their bills appears so incongruous with the drab of their black and white work clothes. It is a color of blue unique to the booby with the texture of fine-grained sand, and as I see it from deck against the backdrop of the sky, it clearly takes as much inspiration from the clear cobalt of the tropical ocean waves as it does from the soft hues of the low latitude sky.
They give me the studied examination of a reptile with dark and calculating eyes set into that blue, sanded face and then disregard me as not-food and never look at me again. I prefer to be not-food. I am glad they aren’t larger.
I have only seen a pair of pilot whales and one herd of acrobatic spinner dolphin from my lowly perch upon the rusted upper deck. I do steel work and rarely get to look out my office window and marvel, but I always see the boobies when they are there fouling my deck.
I decided to read everything my Union Agreement has to say about who does the sanitary work aboard our vessel and when they do it. Suffice it to say, it didn’t make anything clearer.
It says: on one-man watch vessels bridge sanitary is done from 0800 - 1000 by daymen and the gang’s deck is done from 1000 - 1200 by daymen. That’s how we’ve been doing it and how it’s always been done on ships I’ve sailed. Simple.
It goes on to say in Section 56 that on two man vessels bridge sanitary is done by a member of the 4x8 Watch between 0800 - 1000, and in section 17 that bridge sanitary is done by the Quartermaster between 0600 - 0800, (and that it isn’t to be payable as overtime), while the windows aft of the doors of the wheelhouse and the sweeping are to be done by a man of the 8x12 Watch between 0800 - 1000.
With that in mind, Watchmen and Quartermasters are forbidden to do anything but their specific duties while on watch, so sanitary or maintenance has to be done by their relief, whether that is on overtime or not. If it is the 8x12 Watch’s relief, that means me- The Bosun, and I don’t do it if it interrupts my ability to run the gang (per the Agreement) but send someone up to do it in my stead.
And that doesn’t even touch on the sanitary for the Gang’s deck.
So why bother getting clear on it? Because the C/M said the Old Man (a dues-paying member of my union) said we should do sanitary for a 2 man watch, per the contract. There was a challenge there… and in this case, a bit of a smile.
To take this challenge is to lose.
So why issue the challenge in the first place? Dunno. Probably a test. If I take the challenge then I fail the test. The prudent man will smile indulgently and continue on as per past practice and make the officer push the matter. At that hypothetical point, the prudent man would then explain the multiple proscribed methods and then say “but per past practice you’ve paid us to do it this way” and point out how wise it is to not fix what ain’t broke.
“I think we should do it exactly how you’ve always had us do it” or “I think you’ve been right all along.” A little bit pander, a little bit accusation. A win/win....
Or I’ve been out here too long and this is one of those trains-of-thought a man can board and ride for as long as he is left alone to follow the tracks. Add those trains of thought to the conversations that have been re-lived, reimagined, and re-had and you see how some men get lost out here… some of the old-timers sail and live a punishingly hard life until they’re in their 70’s, retire, and immediately die. Some keep sailing, afraid that will be them.
Like being not-food, I prefer to be not-lost.
We just left the anchorage for Qingdao. When I boarded in July the heat was so unbearable I thought I’d never find relief. Acclimatization is a hell of a thing, tho- soon it didn’t bother me too much and I stopped sweating at heat below 85.
Four days ago it was still hot and the days long as we steamed north. It is now cold and bitter, the sun falling behind the horizon at 1700. I have taken to wearing every sleeved thing I’ve got over my sleeveless tropical gear. That 30 dollar “North Fake” jacket I bought in Shanghai last trip is now being put to use over a hooded sweatshirt. I’m wearing sweatpants under my carhardts.
I am cold.
So that’s what I gots- musings from Voyage 4.
As they hang there, waiting for calories, the blue of their bills appears so incongruous with the drab of their black and white work clothes. It is a color of blue unique to the booby with the texture of fine-grained sand, and as I see it from deck against the backdrop of the sky, it clearly takes as much inspiration from the clear cobalt of the tropical ocean waves as it does from the soft hues of the low latitude sky.
They give me the studied examination of a reptile with dark and calculating eyes set into that blue, sanded face and then disregard me as not-food and never look at me again. I prefer to be not-food. I am glad they aren’t larger.
I have only seen a pair of pilot whales and one herd of acrobatic spinner dolphin from my lowly perch upon the rusted upper deck. I do steel work and rarely get to look out my office window and marvel, but I always see the boobies when they are there fouling my deck.
I decided to read everything my Union Agreement has to say about who does the sanitary work aboard our vessel and when they do it. Suffice it to say, it didn’t make anything clearer.
It says: on one-man watch vessels bridge sanitary is done from 0800 - 1000 by daymen and the gang’s deck is done from 1000 - 1200 by daymen. That’s how we’ve been doing it and how it’s always been done on ships I’ve sailed. Simple.
It goes on to say in Section 56 that on two man vessels bridge sanitary is done by a member of the 4x8 Watch between 0800 - 1000, and in section 17 that bridge sanitary is done by the Quartermaster between 0600 - 0800, (and that it isn’t to be payable as overtime), while the windows aft of the doors of the wheelhouse and the sweeping are to be done by a man of the 8x12 Watch between 0800 - 1000.
With that in mind, Watchmen and Quartermasters are forbidden to do anything but their specific duties while on watch, so sanitary or maintenance has to be done by their relief, whether that is on overtime or not. If it is the 8x12 Watch’s relief, that means me- The Bosun, and I don’t do it if it interrupts my ability to run the gang (per the Agreement) but send someone up to do it in my stead.
And that doesn’t even touch on the sanitary for the Gang’s deck.
So why bother getting clear on it? Because the C/M said the Old Man (a dues-paying member of my union) said we should do sanitary for a 2 man watch, per the contract. There was a challenge there… and in this case, a bit of a smile.
To take this challenge is to lose.
So why issue the challenge in the first place? Dunno. Probably a test. If I take the challenge then I fail the test. The prudent man will smile indulgently and continue on as per past practice and make the officer push the matter. At that hypothetical point, the prudent man would then explain the multiple proscribed methods and then say “but per past practice you’ve paid us to do it this way” and point out how wise it is to not fix what ain’t broke.
“I think we should do it exactly how you’ve always had us do it” or “I think you’ve been right all along.” A little bit pander, a little bit accusation. A win/win....
Or I’ve been out here too long and this is one of those trains-of-thought a man can board and ride for as long as he is left alone to follow the tracks. Add those trains of thought to the conversations that have been re-lived, reimagined, and re-had and you see how some men get lost out here… some of the old-timers sail and live a punishingly hard life until they’re in their 70’s, retire, and immediately die. Some keep sailing, afraid that will be them.
Like being not-food, I prefer to be not-lost.
We just left the anchorage for Qingdao. When I boarded in July the heat was so unbearable I thought I’d never find relief. Acclimatization is a hell of a thing, tho- soon it didn’t bother me too much and I stopped sweating at heat below 85.
Four days ago it was still hot and the days long as we steamed north. It is now cold and bitter, the sun falling behind the horizon at 1700. I have taken to wearing every sleeved thing I’ve got over my sleeveless tropical gear. That 30 dollar “North Fake” jacket I bought in Shanghai last trip is now being put to use over a hooded sweatshirt. I’m wearing sweatpants under my carhardts.
I am cold.
So that’s what I gots- musings from Voyage 4.
I can remember a letter I once got from Seaton where he wrote of all the booby birds on deck getting seasick and tossing fish bits in all directions, but the storm was then too intense for them to fly away. Thanks for the memories ...
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