February Grind

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Hello again Reader,

I’ve been a bit under two weeks out of an approximate six on board. As I’ve warned you, things in the writing department have gotten slow. I reach my point of diminishing returns in just about an hour, after which the structuring of a basic sentence becomes a chore. Or I just flat out lose track of what’s happened and what’s happening next. Also, I draw blanks more often. I’ll be hammering away, in a zen flow state, until BAM! What next?

What next?

Man, if that ain’t the worst feeling. It requires retreat back into the mental ZIP files where the story resides in its cosmic jumbled state, waiting to be pieced together. It doesn’t help that I’ve got that dawg watch of 4-8, which, although I sleep from about 20:30 to 3:30, leaves me a little dreary and glum, pale with dark crescents below half-open eyes. I’m a ghoul that skitters down to the mess for snacks and lunch between breaks from writing or napping or reading. Disheveled, oily and flabby are my primary attributes presently, no matter how often I go to the gym and shower.

It doesn’t help that most of my watches, when not at port, are sat on the bridge as lookout (company policy)(Image from here). Though the OOW (Officer on watch), with me is nice, and I’m interested in all the things up there, sitting in the pitch black with navigation equipment monitors burning my retina as an accelerant for a headache; the darkness a deep and swallowing one. If I don’t keep in a constant state of motion in the beginning and instead make the mistake of sitting down, the chair works as a kind of gravity generator. I swear my eyelids triple in weight.

Then I make the mistake of drinking coffee with an empty stomach, then cringe as I cramp and retreat to the bathroom. (I am sensitive, ok). These routines, with some variation, have repeated for most of my contract.

Port watches are different. There I’ve actually something to do with me hands. Monitoring the ropes, the cargo operations, and vital points on the ship to check if everything is a-ok. Also, I get to spend time OUTSIDE. Even though three fourths of that time is in the night, and it tends to get a tad chilly up in the north.

Positives are that I get to see the sunrise! Man, that feeling is nice.

Anyway, here’s the next chapter of book three!

I hope you enjoy it.

See you next Saturday!

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