Part - !!! (Plan B)

With all that has happened these last few days, you would think crew change would pretty much be a blur by now? Think again! I have never seen a more complicated set of plans drawn up for one single crew change :|. But what with the demonic weather conditions and the absolute necessity of our crew being off for Christmas, shore support (thankfully!) went into complete overdrive! Over the weekend we were informed that crew change would be a part ferry, part helo affair!

So at the crack of dawn on Monday we were ready with the small boats to accomplish some ten trips to transfer the bulk of the crews between the Trident and the Foveaux Express. The thick haze that hung all about us boded ill, but the sea was as calm as I'd seen in weeks. Then I actually saw the ferry. I wasn't expecting anything very big, but this was tiny!!! It didn't even look like it could fit in 40 odd people on board, and luggage :(. And then suddenly I recognised it!! This was the same boat I'd seen from the Trident, getting battered by the quite moderate seas on its way into Bluff, while we had been waiting to go in for our port call some 3 weeks earlier :-S.

Thankfully, the transfers all went well. (That is to say, everyone got to where they needed to be and no one, or their bags, got dipped in the water.) I was on the crew for the first few trips, and I can tell you, it wasn't fun turning away from the ferry every time, when I could have simply hopped across :-<. Eventually managed to get off on the last trip, and then it was straight for Bluff! By then it had gotten seriously rough and the rain had picked up from a light drizzle to a heavy downpour. Unfortunately, I'd packed my jacket in, not realising that we weren't getting our bags back till we got to port!! So I ended up spending the almost hour long trip freezing my ass off :|. It was a fun trip though, bumpy enough to throw a few people off their seats, but not enough to actually make anyone throw up :D. The familiar sight of Dog Island and its lighthouse brought relieved cheers from most, and in what seemed like absolutely no time, we were off at Bluff, and on a bus to Invercargill!It was only then that it occurred to me that we now had an extra two days with no car and possibly no accommodation in New Zealand!!! Frantic calls to the car rental ensured we had the car a day earlier (and rather inexplicably, a lot cheaper!) and the bosses ensured we had rooms in one of the rather nicer hotels in town. That sorted, the better part of the crew proceeded to relieve the pent up tension by collectively swarming every watering hole in sight.I don't clearly recall a whole lot except that we started at about 11 am and by the time I called it a night around midnight I'd realised two things, one, when in Kiwi-land go with Speight's Old Dark. And two, Invercargill has more pubs and bars that cafes and restaurants, and we'd probably been to almost everyone of the former :P.

(was) Feeling: pretty good
Listening to: Nirvana - The man who sold the world

Part - !!! (Anatomy of a Plan)

Drama, drama, drama :-<. First they split crew-change over two days, with a whole bunch of us (including me X-(() leaving on the second!! Then they let it slip with us (yes, coincidentally, a disproportionately large majority of the 'us' that were leaving on the second day :|) still breaking our collective back on back-deck round two :|. Spirits weren't running very high I can tell you, but tempers definitely were.... Well, nothing happened but then Buoyweather came to the rescue anyway. It turns out the weather's supposed to decide that things like helicopters will not be allowed to land on things like lowly seismic boats, and shall be swatted out of the sky, and so on and so forth, on Tuesday and Wednesday, i.e. the days of the planned crew-x! How kind of it/them.In the meantime, the weather's been nice enough to even allow us sunrises!! (As may be obvious from the above image, it wasn't quite as clearly visible as one might have hoped for, but there were significant portions of the sky that turned blue instead of a dingy grey. And there were even some other colours!!!) So, having wrapped up work a second time on the back-deck yesterday, when I landed up on shift at midnight today, a surprise awaited me. Crew change on Monday. Monday!!! Two full days before schedule!!!

Obviously I took it for a joke in very bad taste. Over the course of the next 7-8 hours, however, it became evident that was in fact, not the case!! (Okay, if you could possibly imagine the extent of the nastiness of the practical jokes, and the length and detail to which they are formulated on board a seismic boat, you wouldn't believe fairytale stories like this either, despite whatever proof being thrown in your face however straight the (non, in this case)-perpetrators' faces may be /:).) However, all is not cut and dried. There is the obvious possibility of the weather picking up too early, or of course, the fog coming in. In which case, there's boat transfers to a ferry on Tuesday, and I have to be out driving the standby boat for half the time at least :-S. I'm actually sometimes quite surprised that Murphy wasn't in fact in the seismic business.

But in any case, one must prepare for the earliest exit possible :|. For the last few sign-offs, we've had to actually pack our bags, and have them weighed for the chopper manifests! Now this is something I completely detest. I hate packing when I know I'll have to unpack again :|. Thus far, I'd even gotten away with it, pleading, whinging, lying (yes, I'm not proud of myself) left right and centre. But. There is always a time and a place when one must reconsider taking the chance of pissing off the Medic. (She's the one who weighs the bags, and also helps prepare the manifests, you do not want to risk landing up on the eighth chopper off the boat on a dicey crew-change day :-&.)

What the hell, I figured it might even be a good opportunity. I was very satisfied with the result actually. Stepped into my cabin, stepped back out with my bags all packed - just under seven minutes \:D/. With a ten minute deadline, that would still leave me a full three minutes to change and the dash up to the helideck! Comfortable :), and this was just my first attempt. Under more compelling circumstances, I'm sure I could shave off another couple of minutes at least!

It is a genuine miracle, I tell you, how nothing stupid happens on these last few days before tense crew-changes :-<.

Currently: on edge, already!!
Listening to: Marilyn Manson - Rock is dead

Devil's alternative

For quite a few days now we've been enveloped in dense fog for the better part of the day, and night. It's only when the wind dies down that the fog moves in. When the wind rises, it blows the fog away, but also drives up the swell into monstrously choppy seas :-<. With the scheduled crew-change exactly a week away, this has put a seriously large spanner in the works :-S. The fog often reduces visibility to less than 50m, eliminating the chance of helicopter landings, and choppy seas do pretty much the same :|.

Other than that, the fog's really cool! No really! I have never seen anything move so fast, and from all directions! One minute you are looking out to the horizon, the next, you see it fade, and the next thing you know, you cant see the front of the boat from the back!! But by far the coolest thing was the fog in the night! This one time it seemed particularly close, you could actually see wisps of it leak into the light :D.

Ah yes, the 10 days turned into eleven, and the promised break from the back-deck arrived. I was prepared for it to be short, but not this short. After barely one day away, we're now back at it. Only now, the freezing winds have given way to some extent to freezing rain. And the aforementioned fog.
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I'm sure this is a familiar experience, you call up someone, friends, family. It so happens that they are not alone, in fact, there's a whole bunch of people around, and you know all of them! There's a sort of a background to the conversation, and you catch snatches of familiar voices, names... I miss being part of that background :-<.

Feeling: far-away
Listening to: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Minor thing

Spar

Finally a little bit of time :). Ten straight days on the back-deck make for a miserable life to be honest. Add to that the prevailing weather conditions, and it is not surprising that I have felt genuinely depressed at times over these last few days. But, the end is in sight, and while we might be back out in the deep freeze before too long, the respite, however short, is more than welcome.I took the break to put up the rest of my Bluff pics on the photoblog. (After like ages I know! But I was dying here in the mean time.. so :|.) Going through the photographs put me in a good mood, as is usual :). But try as I may, even I have to admit that nothing beats the real thing. Even when you may have been there, done that. 'Cos the memory fades, and the joy is but a fast attenuating impulse that everything around is trying so hard to snuff out as quickly as possible :-<.

Feeling: deflated
Listening to: Joshua Radin - These photographs

Settling, like sand, to the bottom of the ocean.

This shall not be a rant.--

Amongst the better times I've had in the recent past was watching this Brit production called Cashback. It's a completely mad and out of this world trip :). But if you look closer, I guess you could see through the fantasy... It did take me quite a while, however, to figure that Ben was indeed none other than Oliver Wood from the older Potter movies! (Umm, that would be the Gryffindor quidditch captain. Never mind, just my constant fear of forgetting faces, that manifests itself in an obsessive attempt to place any face that seems even vaguely familiar :-<.)

Ah, something I've somehow never gotten around to actually writing about (I think), Little Miss Sunshine. I watched it a few months back, and did not like it. There, I've said it :|. There is one character who I did find extremely compelling though! No, not Abigail Breslin, but her on-screen brother. Especially the bit when he does start speaking, and of course the why, and the what :). I was quite startled by the degree of maturity bestowed upon the character in the immediately subsequent string of events though. The rash actions of a moment of indiscretion almost always lead to mostly unfortunate situations that could be avoided merely by being just a little rational at the right time. But that is so terribly difficult to achieve in reality :-<. Hmm, so except for that, I was totally unimpressed.
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It's a scary thought, but I'm beginning to feel institutionalised :(. It's gotto do with that most prized thing of my day to day life, sleep. I am thoroughly puzzled by the fact that over the last few weeks, I've been waking up regularly at the exact same time to get to work. Every single day! No snoozing the alarm, no giving in and sinking back into the murky depths of that deepest slumber which seems to grab at you just when you most need to get away.... I spent four years in college battling resiliently with the evil of having to wake up on time (whatever time :P). But now my resolution seems to be faltering :-<.
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So, a bit of real news I guess. It's been cold and windy and dark and bleak and foggy and even colder, and even windier and raining and tiring and rough (but not nearly rough enough by far :|) and cold and wet and windy and grey, mostly... And then today it suddenly started looking like we could be anywhere about 40 degrees north of here! (Only looking mind you.) For just a very tiny bit. Not impressed, I can tell you, not impressed at all.
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Fatigue and frustration can be formidable adversaries. Numbness is a supremely effective answer to both >:).

Currently: learning how to look without seeing
Listening to: Radiohead - Weird fishes/Arpeggi