'Cabin fever'?

[Shaun Gander]

When I lived aboard and not home every night I was perfectly content..

Now these days whilst I m never on board overnight but we do 'lay over' shifts where we sit on a mooring during the day for up to 5 hours I find myself pacing around and feeling trapped.

I don't know if it's because I don't have a cabin that is home to retreat to or just feel like I'm wasting time that could be used more constructively?

Anyone else doing day work have similar feelings?

SDG

[j.sabourn]

Shaun the only time I felt trapped was on a mooring I Couldn’t get on. Sounds daft, but clarifying had only been out here a short while and working out of Dampier and was coming off charter and all excess chemicals such as Bentonite and Barites and of course the ever constant cement were being pumped back ashore. There was a Cyclone warning out and the harbour master said he wanted all ships clear of the harbour. I was the last to get clear as got the ship off hire and had to get the surveyor to chuck off the lines for us before he went scuttling off to the Cyclone shelters . Someone told me there were Cyclone moorings ( buoys) just outside the inner harbour so I went looking for. Steaming across the harbour at Dampier which is quite a large mass of water was eerie not a breath of wind and complete silence. Arriving at the Cyclone buoys everyone was in use. Then I had the feeling you refer to of being trapped , was a 2 hour further passage to the open sea, and even if made is doubtful would have had enough fuel on board for more than 12 hours. Ones mind works overtime when in a corner , so went to one of the many small islands in the immediate area and laid my own mooring . Being a supply boat they usually have at least 28 shackles on each, compared to a normal ship which used to have about 8. So laid about 18 shackles of cable and steamed on the anchor as necessary which fortuanetley held. I would still have preferred to be on one of the Cyclone buoys however. When the crap hits the fan it’s everyone for himself and there is no one too interested in your problems. But reckonize your feelings which must be similar to a caged tiger. Similar to being on a ship in dry dock. That’s why maybe everyone made for the pub. Cheers JWS.

[Lewis McColl]

Cabin fever really struggle with it when flying long haul especially say the when some ones little darling thinks it fun to start kicking the back of your seat.