sagacious.us
Priorities
This doesn't happen very often, or perhaps it does and my eyes just aren't open to see it.
I had a long summer with little work (I enjoy not working but I do need to pay the rent) and I had been thinking that I should set a savings goal, which if not met would keep me ashore to continue looking for work but if met would allow me to go to school in January. As it became apparent that I wasn't going to make that savings goal I started thinking about how I felt trapped in this line of work, how I'm actually going to school, in part, to free myself from this job. And so it became apparent that the right thing to do was to go to school no matter what.
About a week and a half after deciding to go to school regardless of my savings or work situation I picked up the ship that I'm on now. I have a four month contract but it looks like I'll have to do about 105 days then quit so that I'll be in town in time for school in January. So here I am on the ship, I'm getting enough work, I'll be able to go to school, meet my savings goal and now the ship:
Our big problems on here are that the chin-up bar is in a bad location, the third mate put the ping pong table together and there are a bunch of left over parts so that is a little concerning. This ship is great. Oh, there is one union beef: the chief mate was sanding the new teak rails on the bridge during watch and the sailors said that was their work and wanted over-time for it. Seriously, when I got on in Long Beach there was a carpenter here fitting out the bridge with teak railing, probably $3000 of wood, just to make the bridge wings look a little nicer (and smell nicer too)!
My job here is much easier than my last two stints on the Moku Pahu where everyday after dinner I would go to my cabin and spend about three hours working on chart corrections and passage planning; here, after dinner I go to my cabin and spend about three hours working on trigonometry and other studies in preparation for the coming semester. I have about 25 sections in the trig book that I want to do before I get off the ship and I've already done three and I've only been working on it while the ship is at sea!
It is like that wonderful feeling you get when you get a new girlfriend, only I don't have a girlfriend, I have a new ship! It feels a little funny, but I'll take it.
Leaving San Francisco was a little easier this time since I wasn't leaving a girlfriend behind. I never liked leaving her and it was especially tough since she really disliked the distance. This time I am not asking anyone to wait for me ashore so it actually makes it a bit easier on me out here.
I have good friends, my youth, my health, my brain, at the moment: a job, and my future. How often do you get to say things are just all going in the right direction?
