Standard practice sailing federal is to wait for the 0001, the hour of overtime, and excess watchstanding hours over 8 hrs kicks in. Then wake the person off after you just made about $80 for an extra 15 min of work.
Asking the experts
- Thread starter CkzErz
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That's not standard practice on commercial ships I've sailed on.. Maybe you're talking about MSC.. Regardless, if I was the 'Mate' and somebody 'sand bagged' their watch to pad their OT sheet, I'd red line it. If it happened again, I would make it so uncomfortable for them that they'd want to be looking for another ship.. That's just theft, plain and simple.
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I can confirm that the boot that they give us are not top of the line by far. If your child makes it to the point where they are going out to sea, that's when you look into investing money into good boots like Red Wings or Danner. AS for watches, no smart watches. Everyone has said G-Shock and I agree. Anything that isn't too overly flashy, black is the the best way to go. If it has an alarm that is best imo because it helps to wake you up for muster after indoc. White sneakers is true, as the year goes on, the will grow more lax, the white is mainly for in PT gear, running shoes have more colors as well as lifting shoes. But I would go with a pair of white for right out of indoc, worst case you can send up another pair later in the year.
GOGO. So no, not commercial. And, as I said, it's standard practice. Morale of the story is wake up on time. It's never been red lined before, because you were working 1 min or > into the next hour. If you did red line it, it would be a beef, and you would lose. Then it would just be paid retroactively.
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Excellent guidance, thank you!!
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Your original post was maybe poorly worded.. Do you call your relief at least 30~40 minutes before the change of the watch giving them adequate time to be there for a proper turn over? If not, it's on you.. The 'morale of the story' should be making sure you and the oncoming 'watch below' have enough time to change over without incurring any unnecessary overtime cost.. If that ain't routinely happening, as the Captain or Mate, with responsibility for the overtime budget, I'm going to have more than a little 'heartburn' over it.. and it would be corrected quickly before any union patrolman ever got involved. That's how it works in the commercial fleet. Maybe the government fleet is a little looser when it comes to that kind of thing, being that they don't have to worry about making a profit. Anyway, how about we drop this and steer back toward the topic of the thread?
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My post wasn't poorly worded at all. Calling your relief 30-40 min before the change of watch is not standard practice in our fleet. The captain or mate have never said a word about it and probably couldn't care less about such an insignificant amount of money. The one time I saw the captain get upset about OT was a 0600 call out for the entire deck department for an operation that never happened.
Sneakers. Everyone suggests that you buy two pairs of white shoes, but you might be able to get by on just one pair until recognition. Definitely buy white shoes or you'll look different from everyone else in your class.
Boots. Don't bother, you can't wear any other boots than what you're issues until your 3/C year anyways.
Watch. I personally showed up with a Samsung smart watch and a cheap watch from Walmart. You can't wear any watch during INDOC so that's not very important, but right out of INDOC I still wore my smart watch without having access to my phone. Never got any grief. During tests and such I was not allowed to wear the smart watch though. Now, most of my classmates and I wear the Garmin Instinct smart watch. Very nice and durable smart watch for this kind of environment, but bring a cheap digital watch for times when you wouldn't want to put a $200 watch at risk. I don't recommend bringing a smart watch for use right out of INDOC, you'll look silly wearing one without a phone.
Eyeglasses. Most of my friends just used contacts, but glasses and "idiot straps" were also very common.
High school graduation gifts. Something meaningful maybe? I was gifted a small brass compass from WW2 a long time ago by a very close friend and I had taken that on every "adventure" I'd been on, and so I brought it with me to KP. That's really the only thing I brought with me, because it was small enough to stick in the pocket of my duffle bag.
Thank you!
Depends on what company you are in and how strict the rules for Plebes are. You will learn more during and immediately after INDOC. Why do you want your personal iPad? Playing online games, hanging out on social media, face timing with friends, and watching entertaining videos are big contributors to academic problems. Just food for thought.
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@CkzErz A couple of things I haven’t seen mentioned that my son took along for indoc were a box of #10 envelopes, writing paper and a book of stamps. He also took a lint roller and a window fan [something that's not needed anymore now that the barracks have A/C]. The stationary and lint roller were recommended by a cadet I was sailing with at the time. Unless things have changed from 20 years ago, I believe plebes are highly encouraged to write and send letters home via ‘snail mail’ and if they don't already have stationary and stamps they might not have the time or an opportunity to purchase them. My son ended up giving some of his stamps and stationary away to classmates that either didn't have any or had run out. Then he ended up running out of them himself.
I also threw my old Buck rigging knife and a small flashlight in with his gear. Being a sailor, I just thought those were important to have in a proper 'sea bag'; so I included them. As I recall he got a knife as part of the standard plebe issued stuff; so he ended up giving me my knife back during Plebe/Parent weekend. As far as a watch, he just wore an old Casio he had from high school; which worked out fine for his entire plebe year. Other than those few things he just brought the items listed in the ‘log in’ booklet..
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Thank you!
Hehehe, yeah, I remember my Plebe knife. Blade with a Marlinspike. Hell, one thing that I took with me in my day was an old mechanical typewriter. Came in VERY handy getting those term papers done. Oh, and getting some extra coin typing classmate's term papers, too. Buck a page. . . .
Now you are really dating yourself...
We heard it’s coming next week on last night’s parents call.
But who know that those "keyboarding" skills would come in handy with the advent of the personal computer.
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Let me stand in support of my SAF colleague @cmakin .
Before I went off to college I took a typing (21st c.: “keyboarding”) course at the local community college. At that time, with mainframes and dummy terminals, a few years away from PCs, few college-bound people knew how to type using the QWERTY method. People going to “secretarial college” or office admin schools did. From my summer job earnings, I bought a lake blue Smith-Corona electric typewriter. At that time, college writing assignments could be submitted written or typed. Mine, of course, were cleanly typed, with lovely footers, headers, bibliography, etc., all per Strunk & White Manual of Style. Over the course of 4 years, I built a profitable little business. I would type your papers for $1/page, exactly as written. Correction of spelling and grammar errors, $2/page. Consultation on outline and other writing tips, negotiable flat fee depending on paper length. I would not write anyone’s paper. I knew exactly how much I could type over a weekend, and would book in advance, then take no more. I would not do allnighters for anyone. I always threw in a nice binder and good quality paper. Professors noticed, and I got work from them. Faculty rates started at $3.50/page. One of my other campus jobs was letting people into the dorm after hours on the weekend, after they showed their ID, as we weren’t quite at the electronic key pass stage. I did a lot of work then. This was my “fun money” in college, for beach weekends, mountain hiking trips, eating off-campus. Though my scholarship paid for all tuition, books, room and board, and summer research projects, this was my first taste of serious money I earned for myself for discretionary spending.
I still have that blue Smith-Corona, in a storage tote, still in its case. Maybe it will be “antique tech” one day. It looks like the photo attached.
I apologize for the trip down my own memory lane away from thread intent!
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