Offshore Africa stories

He watched the good looking lady walk across at the zebra crossing. The airport taxi had picked him up at 8, for his journey out to the airport, for his connecting flight to London Heathrow, from where he was flying to Lagos. He was trying not to think of the next 6 weeks, he was mentally compartmentalising his thoughts.

Just get it together, man!

Yes, that is one fine looking, fit elegant, immaculately dressed, classical sexy, without being provocative woman, but get a grip man, you will not even be seeing that in the flesh for a protracted amount of time, never mind pursuing one. The blunt realisation that he would no longer remotely be having any kind of social interaction with such a woman, opened up that black hole in his centre.

This was going to be a tough trip..

The divorce was going through, his already difficult access, through his line of work, to his children had abruptly got a lot more difficult when she had moved out without any warning, with the kids, on his last trip… to a rented place, ironically owned and rented out by a friend of his… he didn’t even have the option of stiffing her on the rent.

Now he had the big perfect bungalow, in the nice area, with the huge garden the kids loved, with their swings and toys.

Empty of their laughter, empty of the barbecues, empty of friends and family, as it was all just too new, too raw, it was easier for people to just leave him, give him time. It was difficult for all involved…

But everyone needed paying, mortgages, car loans, credit cards, all the shit he had gone along with, for the sake of the family, for the sake of her. Aye, not really for his sake, aye, the cracks were visible for all to see, but as ever, he concentrated on getting jobs, getting paid, keeping the charabanc on the road… now it had really hit the ditch… and he felt so it of it, so hurt, but not exactly surprised.

Taking that job offshore Nigeria had not been an easy choice, under all these circumstances but during the economic slump jobs were hard to come by, and this one was a peculiar one, so he had been offered it. The pay was good, and let’s face it he needed the money, in all kinds of ways.

He was young, only in his 20’s to be offered a command, even if it was a converted barge in a less than salubrious location, it was the first step, it was a step up…. He wasn’t really ready, this was not on his own terms, it was Offshore Africa for Fucks Sake, was this really a good idea amongst all this shit.

He had a good track record with “The Agency” he had been thrown in the deep end on many past occasions, and had accounted himself well, as a dependable and bright offshore marine operative, ranging from complex “all singing all dancing” Dynamically Positioned computer interfaced deep sea diving support vessels, to Semi Submersible oil rigs, to Specialist offshore vessels, he could be relied upon to turn up at short notice, not ask stupid questions, travel to the job wherever it was in the world, and get on with making sure the marine side of whatever the facility was taken care of for the continued overall performance of the asset. Yes, that about summed it up.

God, how he hated all that contrite smug, all encompassing phraseology, that was the language of big corporations, and it “slimily” dripped down into all the service companies and personnel working it’s way far below the pay grades of the corporate bullshitters. But he had learned, and was still learning, but he had an innate ability to “Bullshit with the Best of Them”.