Pay-Off Day

I have been pacing the bridge like a sentry on guard duty since 7am! I couldn't sleep last night, the first night onboard that I have been unable to sink into instant switch-off mode and the first night onboard that I found myself in the messroom at 2am! As I couldn't sleep I took myself downstairs to find some comfort food, a hunk of cheese or a biscuit or two, but to my surprise I found that half the ships compliment had all decided to congregate in the messroom at the same time!

Not wanting to join in the false bonhomie at that time of the morning I took myself back to my cabin and to bed (after a computer game or two) and I managed to get a couple of hours sleep before waking-up fully at 6am.

The skipper told me this morning that he has had a line of seismic crew coming to the bridge, many for the first time, asking if the crew boat can be seen yet! This possibility is quite impractical as the boat hired for this event was not leaving Vung Tau until 6am at the earliest! And although this fine vessel is purportedly able to achieve 20 knots in fine weather it is not due to arrive until eleven! With a quick stab at mathematics it might be said that the vessel will not appear over the horizon until 1030 am at the earliest, not to mention the fact that the current choppy seas and high winds will probably reduce the crew boats speed by a third at the very minimum!

One of the Seismic Crowd has taken over duty at the radar; another is standing faithfully with a pair of binoculars glued to his eyes! It seems a shame to tell the former that the radar is set to a five mile range and the latter that he is looking at least 180 degrees in the wrong direction!

This though is the name of the game! I am also victim to this sense of urgency; I couldn't sleep last night and have found myself wearing the deck of the bridge thin with my pacing to the skippers annoyance!

What else is there to do?

Well, that's it! I am going to pack away this laptop and sign out here! I feel that there is nothing left to say on the matter of departing a vessel at this late stage of the game! The crew boat will arrive, my relief will come onboard and I will step off the Pacific Sword to a new life beyond! This will happen within the next two hours but between then and now I am going to go back to the bridge to wear the deck thin and to sneak glances out of the corner of my eye to the horizon to see if that crew boat is nearly here!

I have done my job and now it is time to go home!