Rough

Have you ever had a morning like this? You sleep through the alarm, have to rush out the door without your coffee and traffic is stop-and-go. You discover – after you’re at the office – that you’re wearing one blue sock and one black sock and you forgot to shave.

Some hitches start out like that, too.

Supplies we’ve been waiting on for weeks did not show up before we left the dock, our first stop was at a platform we rarely visit on the far side of the field, and then we backloaded an already-crowded deck and made some field moves.

Most weeks, we head to the heart of the field and start clearing the deck, dropping off groceries and jet fuel, parts and other supplies. On a good day, we fall into a rhythm that lets us offload well over half our deck cargo before noon.

So, this week we were a little off-kilter to begin with.

Add to that a fresh breeze from the west – the “wrong” direction for the crane side of many of our platforms -- one less-than-skilled crane operator, construction boats everywhere, and we were slowed-down even more.

Our crackerjack engineer is home with the family (a well-deserved break), and we have a new hand on-board. Nice kid who so far is doing a good job; I hope he stays.

So, all that to say, it was a long first day.

We typically operate with a certain amount of uncertainty – often we don’t know where we’re going next until we’re leaving where we are now. Practically speaking, it doesn’t really matter so long as we make it back to the dock for crew change.

Bottom line is we’re out here to serve the customer and every hour pays the same, so it really doesn’t matter.