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Just finished a 65 day stint on a VLCC cruising up and down the west coast. I think I'm going to take off till November. Though I'm interviewing with Transocean next week just out curiosity. If they can wait till end of October I might switch to the Oil patch.
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| # ? Jul 27, 2012 03:46 |
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| # ? May 21, 2013 08:36 |
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There's a lot of work in LA now. We had our night jobs go open. Sounds like the hall is pretty empty.
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| # ? Jul 28, 2012 07:41 |
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August's Professional Mariner (AKA American Tugboat Monthly) has an article about the salvage plan for the Costa Concordia. It's pretty interesting, and pretty  They're gonna get the thing floating again, in one piece. That's how  it is. I'll try to find pictures when I'm on a computer again.
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| # ? Jul 29, 2012 17:35 |
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Holy crap, I was surfing the forums and considering posting an "Ask me about working on an oil tanker", only to discover an entire thread. I haven't scanned through everything yet, but I'm sure gonna start. Anyway, I'm a third mate on a product tanker, I'll be getting my second mate's license before the end of the tour. Sounds like we may have some deck officers floating around in the thread already, but if there's a question I can answer, I'll do so.
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| # ? Jul 31, 2012 05:17 |
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Welcome to the thread! We need more deckies to hold back the tide of ginger bears invading these here forums!Stratafyre posted:I'll be getting my second mate's license before the end of the tour. That's still a thing that exists? Canada just goes OOW -> Chief Officer -> Master nowadays... Well of course there's a ton of restricted, near coastal, <X GRT you can get, but they got rid of the 2nd mate license years ago.
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| # ? Jul 31, 2012 10:34 |
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Got offered a 3 A/E position with Transocean or their drillships. Money is pretty good...for some reason I'm hesitant though. Anyone work for them?
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| # ? Jul 31, 2012 14:06 |
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FrozenVent posted:That's still a thing that exists? Canada just goes OOW -> Chief Officer -> Master nowadays... Well of course there's a ton of restricted, near coastal, <X GRT you can get, but they got rid of the 2nd mate license years ago. B-but, how do you know which mate should be slightly more arrogant and condescending? We've actually got two third mates and a second mate aboard our ships, so that the Chief Mate doesn't have to stand a watch. Unfortunately, they switched the watch schedules while I was gone, and now I'm on the 8x12. We've got kind of a crazy modified watch schedule going on, instead of the normal 4 on/4 off/eight on/eight off.
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| # ? Jul 31, 2012 14:35 |
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Our regular watch schedule is four on, eight off, four on. I'd like to try yours tho, just to see... Cause I tried six and six and gently caress that poo poo for anything longer than a couple weeks.
FrozenVent fucked around with this message at May 13, 2013 around 05:27 |
| # ? Jul 31, 2012 15:04 |
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FrozenVent posted:
fixed for you
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| # ? Jul 31, 2012 17:55 |
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FrozenVent posted:Our regular watch schedule is four on, eight off, four on. I'd like to try yours tho, just to see... Cause I tried six and six and gently caress that poo poo for anything longer than a couple weeks. We've got the following; Second Mate: Watch - 0530-0800, Overtime 0800-1200, Watch 1200-1730 Third Mate 12x4: Watch - 2330-0530, Overtime 0600-0800, Watch 0800-1000, Overtime 1000-1200 Third Mate 8x12: Watch 1000-1200, Overtime 1230-1630 (Or 1300-1700, doesn't matter.), Watch 1730-2330. It's kinda nice, but the 8x12 Mate definitely gets a little screwed. Overall, it's nice anyway, so long as you have a good captain. I don't. My captain is paranoid as all get out and spends most of his time belittling people  .
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| # ? Jul 31, 2012 19:32 |
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Fish Shalami posted:fixed for you I did a week of six and six plus a megaton of OT (Down to two mates on a self unloader  ), then worked a shitton of OT for the rest of my contract; made 17k in 5 weeks.What I'm trying to say is 6x6 is only tolerable if you're getting overtime after 8 hours. Stratafyre posted:We've got the following; What the gently caress kind of boat do you work on? Shuttle tanker? As for Captains, remember that a Captain is someone who did this job for ten-fifteen years and said "Yep, Imma do that for awhile longer!" so... They're almost all weird. FrozenVent fucked around with this message at May 13, 2013 around 05:28 |
| # ? Jul 31, 2012 20:00 |
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FrozenVent posted:What the gently caress kind of boat do you work on? Shuttle tanker? Actually, yes! But a lot of our non-shuttle sister ships use it too. FrozenVent posted:As for Captains, remember that a Captain is someone who did this job for ten-fifteen years and said "Yep, Imma do that for awhile longer!" so... They're almost all weird. We kind of had a crazy work tour last time, he seems better this time around. I'm kind of in the situation of having no desire to be around long enough to be a captain, but absolutely seeing myself as one anyway because... well, money is a helluva drug. 
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| # ? Jul 31, 2012 21:44 |
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Yea I did 6x6 for a week in the shipyard, I was getting 8 hours OT during the weekday and then 12 on the weekend, but I was constantly tired and had no motivation to do anything but sleep when I was off. Not worth it.
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| # ? Aug 1, 2012 14:28 |
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Fish Shalami posted:Got offered a 3 A/E position with Transocean or their drillships. Money is pretty good...for some reason I'm hesitant though. Anyone work for them? Classmates that went there seem to like it. The main drawback is the schedule and travel time. You should be a union member now so its not like you can't come back.
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| # ? Aug 2, 2012 02:51 |
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lightpole posted:Classmates that went there seem to like it. The main drawback is the schedule and travel time. You should be a union member now so its not like you can't come back. What's the schedule there that people don't like? We don't hear much from the oil patch at Taconite University.
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| # ? Aug 2, 2012 03:02 |
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shovelbum posted:What's the schedule there that people don't like? We don't hear much from the oil patch at Taconite University. Its a three or four week rotation or something. Some people don't like the short time off.
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| # ? Aug 2, 2012 08:53 |
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lightpole posted:Its a three or four week rotation or something. Some people don't like the short time off. Oh like four on four off with an absolute shitload of travel for those overseas drillships?
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| # ? Aug 2, 2012 21:03 |
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That's for the gulf jobs. I think overseas might get longer rotations but I don't really know. I have put minimal research into it as I don't plan on moving from here for a bit. Speaking of drillships, just saw some pictures of the Noble Discoverer I think, pretty close in in Dutch Harbor. I think she dragged the hook but didn't get any info.
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| # ? Aug 3, 2012 01:55 |
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Recruiter told me its 3 weeks on/off in the gulf. But there will be training during your off time. They pay travel and what not. You'll also be sharing a room and shower with another person on the rig who is on the opposite work schedule from you. For some reason that last one isn't too appealing to me.
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| # ? Aug 3, 2012 13:55 |
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is it now that I reveal that in the north-sea (norwegian sector) it's 2 weeks on and 4 weeks off for rigs
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| # ? Aug 3, 2012 14:06 |
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Fish Shalami posted:You also be sharing a room and shower with another person on the rig who is on the opposite work schedule from you. For some reason that last one isn't too appealing to me. Yeah, gently caress that noise. Sharing a room sucks, sharing a bathroom sucks only slightly less... Assuming it's an ensuite; gently caress deck bathrooms forever and ever. Training on your off time isn't bad if it's a) Not too much and b) Recognized training, not company feel good BS that you'll have to do again if you go work somewhere else. Also, of course, training must be paid Also ask about the frequency and M.O. of D&A testing. There's at least one company in Canada that tried to do pee tests and breathalyzers on people on their time off 
FrozenVent fucked around with this message at May 13, 2013 around 05:29 |
| # ? Aug 3, 2012 14:27 |
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Trench_Rat posted:sup seismic buddy currently on a norwegian flagged vessle (changing to FOC in August/September and replacing all the junior officers and AB's) on your ship is it the engineers or the seismic crew who has the responsibility for the seismic compressors? IT was a weird setup, since it was in Australian waters we had a mish-mash crew of Seabird people and marine crew (they toook on Aussie marine crew) we had Ukrainian engineers and they were divvied up to the compressors the seismic guys took care of the stuff on deck like the streamers and all that jazz, but the compressors had engineers assigned to them, as well as myself and the marine engineers on our nighttly duties got off that thing a week ago. bummed i didnt ask to be put baack on, cabin share allowance was good but yeah sharing a cabin and sharing a brasco bloody sucks 
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| # ? Aug 4, 2012 05:00 |
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Just rolled back into port after a few days at sea, checking in with the other GoonSailors. When I first graduated, I took a job as an AB and had to share a room with two other ABs, and then that room shared a bathroom with three more ABs. NEVER AGAIN.
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| # ? Aug 5, 2012 16:25 |
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Six guys to a bathroom on a boat 
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| # ? Aug 5, 2012 16:35 |
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FrozenVent posted:Six guys to a bathroom on a boat A fish processing boat 
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| # ? Aug 5, 2012 17:31 |
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One thing was really off putting was we were sharing a bathroom with a couple of phillippinos, and they have this horrible habit of 'clearing their throat' in the shower. it sounds bloody disgusting. like they're vomiting. I was dry-wretching listening to them coughing up phlegm sounding like they were spewing. I cracked the shits one night after a 12 hour pit stint and screamed at him to shut the gently caress up. the guy I was sharing my cabin with was an older bloke who suffered chronic explosive diarrhea. sadface
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| # ? Aug 6, 2012 01:48 |
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You will never, ever share a bathroom with a guy who doesn't perform unholy acts in there, it's just a fact of life. If you do get the guy who doesn't do any of that poo poo, he's that mythical creature who tries to flush socks down the vacuum toilet. Just like you'll never get a roommate who doesn't snore / forget poo poo in the room / leave dirty underwear everywhere, you'll get the guy who whacks off in the top bunk while you sleep, then talk and mumble in his sleep. The sea is a harsh mistress.
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| # ? Aug 6, 2012 02:36 |
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anyone have any experience working on superyachts? Do you need specific yachting qualifications?
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| # ? Aug 6, 2012 14:27 |
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My experience was the weirdest phone interview ever and the decision that I never wanted to even look at a yacht job ever again. http://www.jobs-at-sea.com has postings. They want STCW qualification (BSTR, w/e) and ideally experience. Scuba quals a plus. Most of them are in the <3000 GRT range anyhow. As for sails and poo poo like that, there are endorsement you can get, but I'm thinking that's related to experience.
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| # ? Aug 6, 2012 15:44 |
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We were headed out to sea this morning, when the captain's cell phone rang. It was the ship's agent. "You have a package for who? "<Stratafyre>?"  Luckily, it was just a test package to see if it would get there. I sent an identical one to the other port, so I consider that a successful experiment. Now I can send real packages.
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| # ? Aug 6, 2012 19:58 |
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Dude, if you're tramping, forget about packages or send them via the office. Don't expect a fast turn around, tho. If you're on the lakes, there's always the Detroit mail boat... Assuming the captain will slow down. (If you get an rear end in a top hat, he'll hate you for it.)
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| # ? Aug 6, 2012 20:02 |
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FrozenVent posted:Dude, if you're tramping, forget about packages or send them via the office. Don't expect a fast turn around, tho. I'm on a regular run to the same two ports, one in Florida and one in Texas. Mail is surprisingly reliable, from what I hear.
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| # ? Aug 6, 2012 20:08 |
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Regular run is awesome for mail. Until something breaks and they send the boat to dry dock the week after you've ordered $75 worth of electronics 
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| # ? Aug 6, 2012 20:17 |
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Done with my two worthless Bachelor's degrees next May. What's the quickest way to get licensed, trained, and on a boat doing hellwork and getting paid for it. Money isn't an issue to get through mandatory fees. Not to jump the gun, but I think I'd be okay with this kind of work for several years at least. I'm already a very solitary person (who gets along well with others, I just don't make it a priority to surround myself with people), I already work 14-hour manual-labor days (probs nothing compared to what I'd be doing on a ship, but it's not like I'm coming from a cubicle job), and I'm in excellent shape (if that matters?) Seriously, though. Quickest way from graduating to acquiring all my licenses to being trained to making $$$. Please. EDIT: Well looks like there is no "quick way". It still looks like something I want to do, though. Not for the wordly poo poo, but for the fact that I'm actually doing something tangible (plus I'd rather be on the ocean, boring-water-as-far-as-the-eye-can-see and all) I'm 26, though...I feel like if I should get started I should get started now... Ghost of Orbo fucked around with this message at Aug 9, 2012 around 07:16 |
| # ? Aug 9, 2012 05:51 |
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FrozenVent posted:You will never, ever share a bathroom with a guy who doesn't perform unholy acts in there, it's just a fact of life. If you do get the guy who doesn't do any of that poo poo, he's that mythical creature who tries to flush socks down the vacuum toilet. Worst thing I've ever seen was walking into the bar at the end of my graveyard 12x4 and seeing a steward giving a blowjob to another steward ...both were dudes 
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| # ? Aug 9, 2012 08:06 |
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Sludge Tank posted:Worst thing I've ever seen was walking into the bar at the end of my graveyard 12x4 and seeing a steward giving a blowjob to another steward A man? Performing fellatio on another man?! My word! What has this world come to?  (Protip: to the 21st century where homosexuality is A-okay.)
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| # ? Aug 9, 2012 08:17 |
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Sludge Tank posted:Worst thing I've ever seen was walking into the bar at the end of my graveyard 12x4 and seeing a steward giving a blowjob to another steward Beats having to listen to your roommate pound the poo poo out of a girl 3 feet below you. To be fair, I made him listen to the same thing.
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| # ? Aug 9, 2012 08:26 |
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Absurd Alhazred posted:A man? Performing fellatio on another man?! My word! What has this world come to? I doubt Sludge Tank is trying to express homophobia here, as much as he's going  at walking in on two probably very unattractive co-workers going at it. It's always a bit of a shock to walk in on your co-workers humping in a public space where food is served. Chances are one of those guys was schlepping his lunch into a plate a few hours later, too, I'm sure that factored into it.It's strange to say, but as much as merchant seamen are some of the most racists and prejudiced people I've seen, they're pretty accepting and tolerating once you've proven yourself. I've seen a Captain go positively giddy and childish when the union told us we had a women coming over as an M/A, but at the same time the guy had no problem with the one female Captain in the company. Of course, if you gently caress up, it's gonna be "The friend of the family hosed up", "Man, that frog's a loving idiot", "Goddamn snatch needs to go back to the kitchen", whatever. The guys are pretty loving racist, but then they're mostly 50-60 year old blue collar workers from rural area, with little exposure to the cosmopolitan world around us. Socially, a lot of the boats I've been on are still in the 70's. At the end of the day, I think the "Tribe" comes first. You're part of the tribe, it doesn't matter if you're gay, black, a woman, Muslim, whatever. You're an outsider for whatever reason (New guy, snitch, office staff) then you're a goddamn X. Don't worry, if said person is a cis-gendered-straight-white-male, they'll find something else (Shorty, Smelly, funny name, manicured hands). These are very insular communities, and I think at the end of the day it's mostly Us vs Them. Merit counts for a lot, along with being able to "fit in" with the rest of the gang (IE, know which table to sit at in the mess, that kind of poo poo). Anyway, I'm rambling and there's no doubt that a lot of the guys are horrible loving racists and homophobes, but I've seen "The guys who were giving each others hand jobs while watching lesbian porn" and "The guy who's room was covered in BDSM posters" be relatively well respected, because they were part of the gang. Heck I've been on a boat where two of the crewmembers were absolutely open about their homosexuality, and one of them was highly respected through the company for his technical abilities - Which, at the end of the day, are all that matters. TL:DR Discrimination on boats is a very weird thing, and I wish somebody would spend more time studying the psychology and sociology of merchant seamen because it's pretty  .Two Finger posted:To be fair, I made him listen to the same thing. That's kind of a dickish thing to do. Especially if you're on the top bunk. Did you guys at least close the curtains? Ghost of Orbo posted:Seriously, though. Quickest way from graduating to acquiring all my licenses to being trained to making $$$. Please. What country are you in, which coast? This makes a huge difference.
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| # ? Aug 9, 2012 11:59 |
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FrozenVent posted:
gently caress man, you let his slide and call me out on it? Yeah, I was on top bunk and of course I closed the curtains.
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| # ? Aug 9, 2012 12:14 |
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| # ? May 21, 2013 08:36 |
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Two Finger posted:gently caress man, you let his slide and call me out on it? Nah, it's a pretty dickish thing to do on both parts. Give the roomie five bucks and send him to the bar, or find another place to gently caress - It's a cruise ship FFS, go gently caress in the pool or one of the thousand fan rooms or... I don't know, neither me or my cruise ship roommate were getting enough for it to be an issue. Shared-cabin jerks are probably the most disgusting sexual act ever, anyway. loving's not too bad, at least the other guy's getting some... There's just something about having someone jerking it five feet from you, especially if they're grunting the whole way through. Funny story: We found a love nest in a ventilation room at one point. Matress, lava lamp, Valentine's Day decoration. We just went "OoooOoook" and backed away slowly, never even reported it. I still don't know what the gently caress that was about.
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| # ? Aug 9, 2012 12:27 |
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