>>19074603We arrived of Guaranao. Black tanker fleet was in full swing. So fucking many tankers doing ship to ship transfers. Oil being offloaded illegally at an utterly insane rate. Transponders turned off, ship’s names literally painted out like that lord of war scene. There were so many the anchorages had overflown and the tankers were anchoring on cable ground which inevitably fucked up the ARCOS 1 system (enter us).
Like 20 members of the Bolivarian military plus the agent in tow came onboard. Drug searches, money searches. They didn’t want the usual bribes of cigarettes we give in foreign ports, they wanted shit like ketchup and mayo, biscuits, whole chicken. Shit you can buy in Venezuela but it costs about 1/3rd the monthly salary for a tin of beans because they pay US prices on a wage of $21 a month.
I’m the only Spanish speaker onboard. Sergeant major is going to be our attaché, keep a close eye on us whilst we’re doing work off the Venezuelan coast. Get chatting with him, friendly. He opens up politically, gets pretty fucking extreme talking to me about how he’ll fucking murder anyone that tries to rise up ever again for the Yanks. Latin American socialism will rise etc etc. But whatever, dude’s just being himself. They all hate America for the embargo and blame the yanks instead of maduro for the poverty. I just say hell yeah right on we sympathise. Eventually traded a few cigarettes and some ketchup for his cap with insignia, which was pretty dope. It’s hanging in my bedroom wall.
Anyway shit went south later on because our ROV wouldn’t come back up and the Venuzuelans suspected us of covert activity. Lots of threats and bullshit etc, eventually we literally just sailed with the ROV dangling. Fucking nuts lmao. I still have sergeant major bro on WhatsApp. He sends me the odd “You saved my family!” Message every now and then since to keep him sweet and to make the process go faster I just gave him whatever food he wanted.
