Sci Fi Story

…. My 39th Birthday…

I got the call on Christmas night, “ Hey Pete, Its David Lamar Burton. I’ve got job for you. It leaves tomorrow morning at 0800 AM. You drive out to Fourchon, LA”

“Ok,” I reply as brevity is best, “I’m ready.”

“Are you OK? You sound a little hoarse.”

I’m fine, just a little cough. Its really nothing.” I assured him.

I went out to have my birthday drink, and then went to a 10 PM movie. When I got home, I checked my house for the equipment I needed to pack. Most of the gear I need is already packed and set to go. I do take some things out of the bags for cleaning though. I grabbed my hard hat, steel toes, my extreme knee brace, and DVD/CD’s placing them on the ottoman. The bed was calling and I slept wonderfully…doesn’t really happen much for me, so these 5 hours were blessed.

I awoke to the alarm at 0600. The house needed to be tidied before I left. I have learned to never keep garbage of any sort in my house, and clean all my dishes before I leave. This was done, and I showered. I went out to the truck and cleaned it so that I wouldn’t lose anything.

I was done t the house, so I drove to the office. I was early, so I lined out the company truck and sat around waiting for my coworker to arrive. We gathered what we needed from the office, and hit the road for Fourchon, La. The three-hour drive was uneventful, and we arrived at 11:30. We loaded our bags and signed in on the boat. The captain came down to tell us to make ourselves comfortable. A squall was coming in and the boat would not be leaving for quite a while. We found individual rows of seats. These would be our beds for the ride out.

Around 14:30 the Captain gave us notice that it would be 3 hours minimum before we left. I was hungry, so I took an order for everyone, and made my way to the nearest convenience store via Company truck. I had a cold ham sandwich with a touch of mustard for my birthday lunch. Anyways, I brought back the lunch for the other people heading out to the rig, and it was back to waiting around for the squall to hit and pass.

Around 18:00 we departed the dock. I rode outside the cabin just past the jetties, and when we hit the first big waves (8-12 feet high) I decided to enter the cabin. We were beaten and battered for 3 hours, and soon the waves were increasing to higher and higher amplitudes. The Captain came down around 21:30 and asked if everyone was ok, he wanted to know if we wanted to turn back. He explained that it was this rough in only 10 fathoms of water, and where we were going it would be 40 fathoms with much larger waves.

I asked, “Will they be able to get us off when we get there?” There is no sense in riding all the way out there, only to have it be so rough that the rig can’t onload you.

The Captain nodded, “ We’ll get you off when we get there.”

“OK”, I replied, “Lets do it.” Everyone else was fighting down the waves of nausea caused by the bad ride, so I spoke for them. The Captain went back to the wheelhouse, and we continued on our way. It wasn’t long before we were striking 14-18 foot waves. Waves of this size will throw you from the deck, and then you slide and crash along whatever lies in your path until you can stop your momentum. The sensation of weightlessness is fleeting, and you try to hold yourself in place when in these conditions. I slowly drifted off to sleep.

When I awoke, the first mate was telling us that we had turned back after 4 ½ hours of going against the waves. The return trip took 2 hours, and on the way back I went outside behind the main cabin. The moon was visible and shone on the tempestuous waters. The Captain was dodging the bigger waves. We pulled into Fourchon at 01:30 on the 27th, and waited 8 more hours to try it all again.