The other half of the World

Ahh, mighty Atlantis. I feel like I'm cheating on my old lady the Pacific. I'm currently bobbing around in a little corner known as the Gulf of Mexico. It sure is nice to have access to the web at sea. Almost feels like I'm not really at sea, just sleeping at work for a few days. I am on the good ship "Miss Ginger." She is a 160 foot work boat loaded with survey equipment. The seas are about five feet and coming from the side. That's about all the equipment can take on a relatively small boat like this. I've never been seasick before, but we'll see what a week of the does to me. I am working in the lab where my job is to monitor the status signals coming up from the untethered, unmanned submarine that is about 3000 feet below us right now as it gathers data about the seafloor. I am actually doing that and writing this post simultaneously because the screens are right next to each other.
I think I am in love with this job. They tell me this is the smallest and least accommodating boat the company has, but it seems like a 5 star hotel to me! There are only four bunks in my cabin, and each one only has one person who sleeps in it! The cook is from Louisiana, so the food is excellent, and no one has mentioned anything about water conservation yet, so I guess I can take real showers, too! My shift is 12 hours per day, but that's not so bad because I can get up and leave for a minute and the other guy in here can watch my instruments and vice versa. The other crewmembers seem like an ok bunch. There are actually four different companies who have people on board: C and C, who are the survey guys (myself included), the boat crew who work for the same company that leases the boat to us, the galley crew who work for an offshore catering company, and the client representatives who work for our clients (duh). I continue to be amazed at the difference in average IQ between civilian and military environments.
Everyone knows that there are lots of offshore oil rigs in the Gulf, but it's just unreal how many there are out here. In the shallow areas where they have been drilling for decades, I could see about 100 of them off one side of the boat! They are beautiful to see shimmering in the distance at night. The Gulf coast is a strange place; almost surreal. There is no distinct coast. You just go south and there's less and less land and more and more water. Miles and miles of flat marshland laced with bayous and waterways and dotted with piers, helipads, shipyards, and other rig support facilities.
I'll be back sometime this weekend. Easy run.