Nekton Rorqual 7/25/09 - 8/1/09

[scubapal]

Cappy Jon- I was very close to all the crew members, and not once had any one ever mentioned smoking pot on the vessel. We had already had 4 crew members fired for drinking on the boat, i dont know anyone who would have risked it. i wouldnt say i was blissfully unaware of anything, i was extremely close to the entire crew. occasionally there were conversations of "experimental high school days" which would be a great oppurtunity for a crewmember to tell another they were smoking pot onboard. I think everyone is going to be shocked when all the results come back clean. i havent heard one crew member even hint nervousness about it. i guess we'll see whenever the results come in.

 

[vladimir]

Great first post.

Does anyone sign their names, anymore?

Master's mate Fletcher Christian, I think.

 

[RJP]

I think everyone is going to be shocked when all the results come back clean. i havent heard one crew member even hint nervousness about it. i guess we'll see whenever the results come in.

But didn't two crew members leave the boat BEFORE the drug test was administered? Something about "family emergencies"?

A little coincidental that a drug test is coming on Monday morning (which apparently was known to the entire crew) and suddenly two different crew members EACH have family emergencies that require them to leave the boat on Sunday night?

 

[cappyjon431]

1, Some crew members are still owed money for certain times UP TO 8 months ago. As far as someone not getting paid for 8 months straight, no that never happened. The longest amount of time I've gone without money was about 3 months beginning during last years shipyard. and for 7 of those weeks there were no tips coming in either.

2. Crew members smoking pot on the boat is nothing new. Iv'e known of guests and crew members to do it before in the past. None of whom were on the said week. So as far as any of the crew members doing it around the time the paraphernalia was found, No I do not think that anyone was smoking. Although one cannot know everything(like the reason why our drug tests are a week late) Only the test will tell.

3. As far as acting on a hunch I don't know what you mean. If it concerns the Drug Test than no. It's USCG Regulations, the Captain was just doing his job.

As far as you agreeing with him that "flying off the handle" is acceptable, it's not.

1. He doesn't know how long it was there, could have been there for months.
2. He doesn't know if it even belonged to a crew member.
3. Not confronting the crew about it in the first place was his biggest mistake.

Most people who come to work for nekton are 18-25 year olds who have had very little training in the USCG laws and regulations. Many people don't know what would actually happen if the USCG had found the paraphernalia themselves. So instead of just ignoring the fact that he had found it he should have confronted the crew about the situation and educated them on exactly what could happen to the Captain/Crew of the vessel. Something as simple as just knowing the consequences of their actions is enough of a deterrent for most people.

Hope this helps.

Thank you for clarifying some of my questions.

It sounds like paychecks were bing delivered irregularly. I had found it hard to believe that no one had gotten paid in eight months, and i find it distressing that you had gone three months without a paycheck. Shipyard alway sucked (I did eight of 'em), hard work, minimal pay, no tips, crappy food & accomodations, etc. So it sounds like some people might have been owed money for a time they worked up to eight months ago, but no ones's pay was held for eight months. It doesn't sound like anyone was "trapped" into working on the boat because they did not have enough money to fly home, it sounds like people made the decision to stay.

You are right, only the drug tests will tell (assuming nobody had a "flushing agent" like Golden Seal (?) to hide the results. I guess the report that i heard (crew smoking on the sun deck) won't be confirmed or denied.

I know you say the captain had no idea how long the bong had been in the laundry room. Having spent way too much time in the laundry room (folding damn dive deck towels), I find it hard to believe that no one noticed it there. I am sorry, while I can admit there is a possibility that a guest could have stashed it the bong there, I just ain't buying it. The laundry room is off limits to guests (in eight years on the Pilot the only time guests stored anthing in the laundry room is when they asked to store additional luggage) and it makes way more sense for a guest to store something like that in their luggage in their cabin. I guess it is possible, but...not very realistic. It is unfortunate, because if it only belonged to one crew member they should have kept it in their own cabin so their fellow crew members were not implicated (and i am not condonig the drug use, only wondering why it was left in an area that all crew members have access to--guilt by association is unfortunate, but it exists nonetheless).

The crew might not have been aware of the serious ramifications from the USCG if illegal drugs are consumed onboard, but they all had to know that it was an offense that leads to automatic termination. From a common sense perspective, even 18-25 year olds should understand that crew and guest safety should be the highest priority. What if there was a shipboard emergency? What if all hands were necessary for an evacuation and somone (or multiple crew members) was high? They could be a big liability in an emergency. Don't sell 18-25 year olds short, they are smart enough to understand this concept, it is intuitive.

 

[DiveMaven]

From a common sense perspective, even 18-25 year olds should understand that crew and guest safety should be the highest priority. What if there was a shipboard emergency? What if all hands were necessary for an evacuation and somone (or multiple crew members) was high? They could be a big liability in an emergency. Don't sell 18-25 year olds short, they are smart enough to understand this concept, it is intuitive.

On the other hand, we had a crew member on our NW Bahamas trip a couple of years ago who continuously left the dive deck unsupervised (both during day and night dives) and was found more than once in her cabin. We were absolutely outraged when we came up from a night dive mid-week to find the dive deck deserted only to hear from a few other guests that whenever that DM was on duty, you could count on her not being there. We made sure that Capt. Ephey knew about it (and encouraged others to tell him), and she left the boat when we returned to Florida.

So I wouldn't say that ALL 18-25 year olds believe that safety is the highest priority (you didn't say all, I added that).

However, I definitely commend Capt. Ephey and the crew when we had a dive accident and had to have a USCG helicopter pick up off the sun deck. They were first rate.

 

[Desert_Diver]

...The crew might not have been aware of the serious ramifications from the USCG if illegal drugs are consumed onboard...

Cappyjon?

My sea experience is solely as a liveaboard paying guest. Exactly what are you referring to as the "ramifications from USCG if illegal drugs are consumed onboard"? I assume that your are talking about legal sanctions that the Coast Guard can take, but I don't know what those are? Can you elaborate?

Art

 

[RJP]

Cappyjon?

My sea experience is solely as a liveaboard paying guest. Exactly what are you referring to as the "ramifications from USCG if illegal drugs are consumed onboard"? I assume that your are talking about legal sanctions that the Coast Guard can take, but I don't know what those are? Can you elaborate?

Art

With a zero-tolerance policy I believe the boat can be impounded.

 

[cappyjon431]

On the other hand, we had a crew member on our NW Bahamas trip a couple of years ago who continuously left the dive deck unsupervised (both during day and night dives) and was found more than once in her cabin. We were absolutely outraged when we came up from a night dive mid-week to find the dive deck deserted only to hear from a few other guests that whenever that DM was on duty, you could count on her not being there. We made sure that Capt. Ephey knew about it (and encouraged others to tell him), and she left the boat when we returned to Florida.

So I wouldn't say that ALL 18-25 year olds believe that safety is the highest priority (you didn't say all, I added that).

However, I definitely commend Capt. Ephey and the crew when we had a dive accident and had to have a USCG helicopter pick up off the sun deck. They were first rate.

You are absolutely correct. There are some people in the dive industry who have no business being there''I think we can even take it a step further and not limit this claim to 18-25 year olds. It is unfortunate that you had a crew member on board who was not looking out for your (and other guests' safety). I would have been enraged too. At least eithar she realized she was not cut out for working on a liveaboard AND/OR Ephey and the office did the right thing and got rid of the extra ballast.

As for Captain Ephey, I have never known a captain who was so skilled at handling shipboard emergencies. While they were few and far between when I was on the boat, the times where it did occur, I always admired his professionalism and his calm under pressure. I started on Nekton one week after Ephey, and he taught me everything I know about being a professional captain.

 

[cappyjon431]

With a zero-tolerance policy I believe the boat can be impounded.

You are correct, also the captain can can be arrested and he can lose his captain's license (even if he had nothing to do with the infraction). I could tell you some horror stories of captains running crew boats in the Gulf who faced very strict sanctions because crew members had illegal substances onboard, unbeknownst to the captain, but that is for another forum.

 

[scubapal]

first of all the two that left sunday night were a couple. they left together because of a family emergency in the females family. they knew about the drug test on saturday if they were really worried about it they could have gotten off then.

as far as i know, flushing agents are tested for in lab. drug tests.

you are mistaken about the paychecks. the people who have gotten theres consistently are the ones who have gone back and forth from pilot to rorqual. because the crew members from the pilot are in ft lauderdale every weekend they get theres on time. i've never been on the pilot and there for did not see a paycheck from October-May. in May they started sending random checks for minimal amount of money. we have bills to pay regaurdless of what you think. so once bills are payed off we dont have any money to quit. even getting kicked off the boat that week we had to have a friends (and crew member) family buy our tickets back to the states. without them we would have been stranded in St Croix. It was truly God's gift that they were willing to help.

just as unauthorized access to the laundry room in prohibited so is illegal substance abuse on board. but if a guest were to be smoking pot and breaking one of those rules whose to say they would have objections to going into the laundry room which to me seems to be the lesser of the two? of course with that said there was still no evidence that the bong had even been used at all. there was no sign of the bong ever having pot smoked out of it. which if i'm not mistaken it is not considered "paraphenalia" unless there is some indication of drugs being used. which there wasnt.