Tales of the seas: Boarding -II

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At that moment, my eye caught sight of an inscription on her right side. It was like a tattoo crested on her breast plates.

MV ALPHA was her name. She is a ship. Don’t get distracted, bring your minds back to the matter at hand.

I made my way to the wheelhouse where I was inducted and told the Dos and Don’ts. I wasn’t even given time to rest, I had to resume duty. It was all hands on deck and onward together; just like the Naval training college I had attended.

The crew were nice and welcoming, I grew fond of the engineers. The marine engineering assistant or oilers were great teachers. I hadn’t even boarded with a mobile phone because mine was damaged and I didn’t have ample time to get a new one. I had also felt it wasn’t necessary, a mistake I would live to regret.

We left the jetty and made way to an offshore installation somewhere along the coast of Nigeria in West Africa. It was a short charter contract but we remained hopeful and excited.

The operations carried out included Export tanker static towing, fuel and water bunkering, Installation Man overboard (MOB) watch, and occasionally SBM (single bore mooring) watch.

We carried out our duties diligently and perfectly, this prompted the increment of our contract from two weeks to two months.

To be continued…