After my stint as a bus driver I was looking for I didn't know what. Did all sorts of jobs demolition, survey boat in Greenland, storeman in a local factory, none satisfied my needs. I then met the girl who became my wife, that curtailed wanderlust for a while. The marriage was a farce but I did get my daughter Fiona as a result so it was more than worth it. In 1979 I joined Dover Harbour Board as an AB on their tugs. I now had my love of boats satisfied again and was getting paid for doing it. I am still there and finishing on November 1st this year, sadly I can't wait to go. Snowed under by paperwork inept management and political correctness gone mad I just want out.
The tugs in 1979 were the "Dominant" and "Diligent" a couple of old girls built in 1955.
In 1984 with ferries getting bigger they could no longer handle the work so they were replaced by 2 new boats the "Deft" and "Dextrous".
They were a nice pair of boats and handled the work well. January 1995 and I was sent to college in South Shields to get my Mates ticket, I was then to and fro to between college and work for 2 years culminating in my skippers ticket and my first command was on these tugs. In 1999 the cruise terminal opened and we started geting calls from ever bigger cruise ships. Consequently more powerful tugs were needed so the "Doughty" and "Dauntless" replaced the other 2 and they are still in place today.
Also in 2000 we took over the running of the dredger "David Church" an essential part of the running of the port, but I personally hate the work, I find it mind numbingly boring.
That more or less brings me up to date. The marriage finally ended in 1989. Had a few girlfriends (only one at a time) up to 2002 when I met Hazel in an online chat room, and here we are now married. Now we just working towards our dream of a life on the cut.
jakepithf
Hiya
My cousin was looking at an old tug and the possibilities of living aboard. Hmmm, better off in a narrowboat, I think he is. But I can see the attraction, given the ooportunity I would consider a small coastal tanker (I can hear someone's howls of protests even now) just so I can pretend I'm the skipper, the chief and the bosun.
I've always wanted to be the one who goes mad with the chipping hammer while everyone else is studying the deckhead between 1.30 and 4 in the afternoon.
Wonderful things, dreams.
Back to reality, must go tighten the grease screw.
Like the history stuff, fascinating, keep it up.
Got your boat spec sorted yet?
Mo