>>2025070Harbor tug in a very busy port in USA.
Pros:
SIU contract. Union medical is pretty damn good. Pension
7/7 schedule. Home every other week.
Can go home quickly if there’s a family emergency.
Pay is excellent officers, I make more than most offshore tug engineers.
Most of the fleet is pretty new and modern, company keeps building new boats every year.
Cons:
Bureaucratic nightmare shoreside management. No communication between departments. Getting parts or service takes forever.
Very few people in management have ever worked in the fleet, so they keep issuing new procedures without a mind for what life is actually like out here. “Oh just one little bit of paperwork” x 1000 means you’re constantly drowning in it.
We’re on call 24/7 to move ships, but also expected to work from 8-5 every day.
Get far less sleep than I did offshore.
Guys that have only ever worked harbor tugs are very slipshod about safety and general seamanship. Wouldn’t count on anyone to actually know what to do in an emergency.
All in all it’s a pretty good gig, though I do miss being underway at sea and the adventure of going to new and remote places (the fact that I feel this way is almost certainly rose colored nostalgia)
