22MAY2018

Location: Gulf of Mexico south of New Orleans, LA en route to Tampa, FL;

Events: The entire 1^st watch was spent chipping, scooping and dumping sulfur overboard, the 3 of us got about half of it up and out. The 2 tankermen in the back watch got the main containment area cleared and the body of the tank hatch cleaned off. During my 2^nd watch we broke up and discarded the remaining sulfur on the deck, completing about 95% of the work. Lastly, I assisted the Chief in taking off the high up, bulkhead-mounted port potable water tank hatch so we could assess how much water was still in there.

Things learned about vessel/barge: The potable water tank hatches are mounted up high for obvious reasons, but it makes them difficult to access.

Classroom information application(s): Dumping 5-gallon buckets of sulfur dust and rock over the edge of the barge had Man Overboard procedures at the forefront of my mind.

Supplemental Information: Today was hard work, but it honestly wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, the worst part being the sulfur dust getting in my eyes and sinuses which burned pretty bad and isn’t easily dealt with. I was a bit surprised at how fast we got it all knocked out, I fully anticipated it taking the entire 3-day trip back to Tampa to complete. 

Rules of the Road Scenarios? None Observed.