My time so far on the JAMES ROBERT has only been a week, but I have a few pictures of the boat and the interior. I also have a few pictures of the area were we work.

The crew boat JAMES ROBERT is a Swiftship built in 1970. She is all aluminum with a length of 63 feet and gross tonnage of 71 tons. She is USCG inspected to carry 12 passengers including the crew, and has a cargo space that is 28 feet X 14 feet. She is powered by two Detroit 12-71 diesel engines, each developing 475 HP, She is capable of 20 Knots, but that speed all depends on cargo, passengers, and the weather. She has on board a 20 KW generator, and has a 1200 gallon fuel capacity, and a 100 gallon water capacity.

The pictures start with the crew's quarters which are under the wheelhouse. The wheelhouse contains all of the electronic instruments needed to pilot the boat. Of course the steering station is in the wheelhouse. Behind the wheelhouse is the main cabin. The main cabin contains a port side passenger lounge for eight and a passenger lounge on the starboard side for six. Behind the two lounges is the galley, food pantries, and some tool and parts storage. The head and shower are on the port aft end of the main cabin.

The galley on the port side is "U" shaped. On one side of the "U" is the electric stove and beside it the deep freeze. At the bottom of the "U" is a pantry for storage of food, cleaning supplies and utensils. On top of the pantry is a large toaster oven, microwave, coffee maker and a toaster. On the other side of the "U" is another pantry for more food storage and dishes. On the starboard side are shelves for tool and parts storage. On top of the shelf unit is a pantry containing more food. Just behind that is the refrigerator/freezer. Just in front of the refrigerator/freezer is a hatch in the deck that goes to the below deck storage and equipment room.

During this hitch, Butch installed a sink in the galley. Until he installed the new sink, all dish washing took place in a very small sink in the shower room next to the head. With the installation of the new sink, the sink in the shower was removed. Now we could wash dishes in a proper sink in the galley. The removal of the sink in the shower room also created enough space to take a shower comfortably. The following group of pictures show the new sink installation, and installation of the water pipes and drain pipes necessary in the hold under the main cabin.

A few of the next group of pictures are of Butch, my deck hand, and myself, on the boat and at one of the platforms. Butch hooked a four foot shark and brought it on board. We took the hook out and back into the water it went. It swam away, so hopefully it made it through the experience. The other pictures are of tow boats seen on the river, a dredge operating right across the river from the Energy Logistics Inc. (ELI) dock. The ELI dock is where we dock the JAMES ROBERT, and where we load and off-load any cargo we haul. The cargo we haul are usually totes of chemicals. These chemicals are used at the production platforms. I have a picture of a tote on the cargo deck of the JAMES ROBERT. There are also a couple of pictures of the United States Army Corps of Engineers towboat MV Mississippi , which is the largest towboat in the USA! Of course, there are a couple of pictures of sunsets.

First item on this update are the meals we have been enjoying on the JAMES ROBERT. Butch is my deck hand for two hitches in a row. A hitch is a 14 day work period. Anyway Butch likes to fish, and he also enjoys cooking, so this has been a great combination. Actually, not so great for my waist line!! One of the platforms we service is out about 60 miles, and is in 120 feet of water. This equals good fishing at the platform.

One day we were at this particular platform, the Gulf was flat calm, and Butch caught a beautiful red snapper. We got it on deck, cut off the fillets, and put half of the fillets in the freezer, and the other half saved out for dinner. While driving back to Morgan City, I was piloting the boat, and Butch was in the galley. BTW, Butch also caught a couple of small amberjack. I found out later we also had some fresh shrimp in the freezer that Butch had defrosted. Our dinner that night consisted of fried butterfly shrimp, baked bacon wrapped shrimp, fried snapper nuggets, grilled amberjack, grilled sirloin pieces, french fries and salad!!

Another night we had grilled ribeye steaks that had marinated for two days, and baked potato and salad. Of course these are the high point meals, but most of the meals we prepare are very good, and of course well cooked!

The following pictures show the fishing, the fish, and the meals at our table.

Now we will go into some of the repairs that are necessary on a working crew boat. Normal maintenance is on going, and it is performed when ever necessary. Every 10 days we change the oil, oil filter, and fuel filters on the generator. The generator runs 7 X 24. Every 100 hours of run time on the main engines we change the oil, oil filters and fuel filters.

There are also scheduled and unscheduled repairs and upgrades. As it turned out we had a day when the JAMES ROBERT was not running, so the shop crew showed up to perform some repairs and upgrades. This crew consisted of Jeff, lead mechanic, and Port Captain (boss), Steve, another mechanic, and Chad the welder.

They had a fairly long list of items to work on, and two hands showed up from the glass company to replace several windows on the boat. Two windows were very important, as they were badly scratched, and made it difficult to see out of the starboard side of the wheelhouse. The list included replacing the wheelhouse pilot's seat, installing two new windshield wipers in the wheelhouse, and replacing the two battery boxes in the engine room. A big blower with a long hose was set up in the main cabin to blow the cool air into the engine room to help cool down the engine room while removing the old battery boxes and installing the new boxes. A couple of small miscellaneous items were also taken care of.

All of the items were accomplished, but replacing the pilot's seat was a lot more time consuming than anticipated. We thought, all we had to do was lift the seat off of the stand. No way. The seat was bolted to the stand, and the stand was bolted to the deck. In the end the seat was replaced.

The following pictures show the repairs and upgrades as they took place.

This next session is about an unscheduled repair, but we got very lucky with the scheduling. My first day on a new hitch, when we were headed out to platform SM257, the first time I brought the JAMES ROBERT to full RPM there was a terrible vibration. Both Gary and I noticed it right away. It was not bad enough to turn around, but it was very bothersome. We were able to narrow the vibration to the port engine. Our first thought was a bent wheel. As it turns out in the commercial boat industry, a propeller is a wheel, and a transmission is a clutch! Any way, Gary went down in the engine room twice to verify the vibration was not a shaft banging around.

On our way out to SM257, the wind was really kicking up out of the east. It was probably blowing 20 to 25 knots and the seas were probably running four to six feet. We were heading west, so not too bad. When we got out to SM257, we had to tie off and wait for the Helis hands. It was a very uncomfortable wait. By the time the Helis hands arrived, Gary and I had worked out how to take the tote off of the boat in the rough seas and get it back on the boat. It was challenging, but we got it done, in a safe manner. Now we turned around and headed back into Morgan City. It was rough and we were taking waves over the bow of the JAMES ROBERT.

We finally got back into the river, and were able to get cell coverage. The Helis hands had told us we would not be running for the next two days at least, because of the weather kicking up the seas. I called Jeff, our Port Captain, and explained the problem to him. He said he would get back to me the next day, because he was also working on a pressing issue. The next day Jeff called and said he had arranged for us to go to the Conrad Aluminum yard to be hauled out and repair the damage.

Gary and I got the JAMES ROBERT to the yard and into the haul out slip. We jumped off of the boat, after shutting down the generator, and the yard personnel took over. After 10 minutes, it was obvious to me these guys knew what they were doing. From the time they took us out of the water and had us back in the water was two hours! It was like watching a bunch of ants converge on a dead beetle.

I was a bit apprensive as they were picking the JAMES ROBERT out of the water. What if there was no obvious damage, what if?? Well not to worry, as soon as the JAMES ROBERT cleared the water the problem on the port side was obvious, one of the blades had broken off of the wheel! On the starboard wheel, two blades were bent. The yard crew got the boat blocked, then a hyrdaulic puller on the port wheel. They added some heat and bang the port wheel is off. They moved the hydraulic puller to the starboard wheel, some heat and bang the starboard wheel is off.

When the wheels were on the ground, they had their measurement devices on the shafts to check them out. The port shaft is good, the starboard shaft is bent, and needs replacement. Steve our mechanic had not arrived as yet, so they verified we were getting two wheels and a shaft delivered. We told them yes, no problem. A fork lift brings a ladder over to the boat and part of the yard crew goes up and into the engine room and starts disconnecting the shaft. They get it disconnected, and as they are pulling the bad starboard shaft, Steve shows up with the new parts on a trailer. Part of the crew now comes over and gets the new wheels and one of the shafts out of the trailer for installation. As part of the crew is installing the starboard shaft, two of the crew are installing the port wheel. They get the starboard shaft in, then check it to make sure it is not bent. It is OK, so on goes the second new wheel. When that is finished, they put us back into the water!

The following group of pictures are taken in the yard. One is of a huge towboat being worked on, and a few of the actual work performed on the JAMES ROBERT. Those picture are followed with a couple of some of the vessels lining the GIWW between the yard and our dock. There are a lot of boats being scrapped, and a lot of platforms being brought in from the Gulf for scrap. It is sad to see.