I was only an engineer for about six months total, did a year at 30 days on, 30 off, but I actually loved it, just couldn't handle the group dynamic there. We were short haul, by the day or by the trip, so the crew changed constanly. Everybody that was on the boat spent most of their time badmouthing anyone who was off the boat, so everybody pretty much hated everybody but we all worked together at some point. Didn't take long to figure that was how I was talked about when I was ashore.
One thing about the older CATs, the 399's were a V16 and only turned 1200 as I recall so they did indeed grumble along. The pair burned 2,500 gallons of #2 in 24 hours, and she could carry 56,000 in her tanks.. funny how you remember little things like that
Oh, and the yang to the romantic ying setting I described was coming out of San Francisco harbor the week after Christmas into the teeth of a storm blowing down from the gulf of Alaska. Eight foot seas under the Golden Gate, twenty-footers at the sea buoy, turned South to make the run home to Long Beach and we got blasted. Night black as coal, seventy knot plus winds from the stern, 25-30 foot seas, Cap'n backed her down to bare steerage, mebbe two knots, the barge on the towline trying to pass us constantly, and she was slugged down with Bunker "C", low enough the waves were running the length of the barge and breaking on what superstructure was there. 150 foot gulf built boat the Champion, we were climbing the back side of the waves and when the bow dropped finally into the ditch, the eight foot wheels would come out of the water and vibrate wildly as the engines ran away, sliding down and the whole boat would shake violently when she hit and the wheels dug in to pull her out of it. Shipping green water up to the bridge screens. I was watching the Woodward governors go from full tilt boogie to slamming shut two or three times a minute, and the alarm panel was lighting up constantly as the fluid level alarms all went crazy. Not something I would volunteer to do again, but an amazing experience. Good thing those tugs are built like tanks, they do go down sometimes, but not without a fight usually.
My last tour on that boat, last trip before I flew home, we were anchored to buoys off Santa Barbara putting a load of crude in the barge, got her topped up and the Cap'n says "Light 'em". Got the Port main idling and went to fire the Starboard, all the vanes in the air starter blew out into the bilge. Naturally the two starters were different, and opposite rotation, no spare vanes. Captain says "Your gonna miss your flight, it's gonna take forever to make port on one main". I found a hunk of plexiglas sheet close enough in thickness in the stores, sawed out some vanes, filed them to fit, put the starter together, closed my eyes, said a short prayer and yanked the handle. She lit, and we went home. I left it running in case they got called out, so the last thing I remember as I walked away is the sound of that old CAT purring. Yeah, I miss it. Now I have other things though, so it's all good. Would have liked to sail on a real ship once too, tanker or freighter I think. Maybe in my next life.
Lanway
