Without the second mortgage

Roughly 16,000 miles and 48 hours.  An SUV (PW's), 5 airplanes, two magnetic trains, one cable-drawn train, 1 car, 1 bus and 2 helicopters.  Short and simple commute to work.  I had only one tight connection, but both my bag and I made it.  The guy right behind me?  He made it, but not his bag:(

Arrived in Perth around noon and stayed till about 6am the next day before continuing on with a bus ride, airplane and chopper flights.  Walked to an outdoor pedestrian mall and had Chinese dumplings in the food court.  Walked back to the hotel and crashed the fuck out, hard.  Yesterday, it took two chopper flights to get onboard.  During the first flight, we were turned back due to heavy seas pitching and rolling the ship beyond the safe landing limits which happen to be 9 1/2 ft of heave and 3 degrees of roll.  Landing on a deck heaving nine feet up and nine feet down is a treat and is exactly what we ended up doing, yesterday.

Once onboard I managed to see everyone I missed saying hello to at the mall, hotel, on the flight and in the heliport.  As much as I hate leaving my family and friends, this ship and it's crew are becoming a second home and family to me.  I even have to new additions to the family-two girls who will be working for me, as long as I stay on this ship. I met them both briefly, onshore, then gave them a tour of the ship.  One lasted 20 minutes, the other an hour.  They have both been down and out, puking ever since-about 12 hours. I'm going to have the medic barge in on them this morning to check their hydration levels.  Sucks to be them.

Anyway, I'm here.  The ship is in good condition, the crew all fine and it's good to see them.  That said, work fucking blows. Thirty-four days to go...

PW: This time I didn't forget anything and it was a damn good thing I pulled out the extra bottle of mouthwash, shorts and fleece.  I still had to crotch my spare laptop battery, DVD's, rechargeable batteries and beard trimmer to make the luggage weight for the chopper.  Try flying in a chopper with all that shit in your pants!