A Plan Comes Together

April 26, 2012

My on again, off again, on again, off again, on again, off again relationship with my sign-off date is back on again. I heard today that a anew vacation replacement has been identified for me to allow me to take my vacation on 5/25. Her name is Jackie and she has been training on ships for the past three months after a long career with the company shore side. So this means she understands the company and the product even if she still may be learning the unusual life that we live on board.

This is certainly a relief, especially in the context of having Rosie join me onboard for the last eight days of my contract. I was starting to conclude that she would be joining me for these eight days but then I would be staying aboard as she walked down the gangway to head home. I know that would definitely not be her preference, nor mine. Now it appears that I will be able to leave on that date and we should be able to move forward according to plan. Since I’m already scheduled to return to work on 7/16 In Miami prior to heading back to the ship in Athens, this means I will have approximately seven weeks of vacation before I return to ships.

I’m pleased that my replacement has familiarity with the company as that means she will have a general sense of what we are trying to accomplish here. This is definitely a step above someone who would be joining the company brand new. At the same time, the way things are diagrammed at corporate as to how they are supposed to work and how they actually work in practice are two different things. My goal will be to sensitize her to the very personal and ‘outside the box’ approaches that I feel are critical to on ship service as a T&D Manager. No matter ‘what’ you choose to do on ship the key is ‘how’ you choose to do it. I believe your motivation needs to be an absolute ‘love affair’ with the crew. If your motivation is not to simply make them better at everything they do then I believe you will fall short of the goal.

We will have three days of overlap. In those 72 hours I will try to familiarize her with the unique environment that is Silhouette and ensure she has the details she needs to be successful. It will be tricky, no doubt, with Rosie on board, our anniversary in the midst of that, both Tim’s and Dwight’s birthdays in that range, and my mind wandering forward toward vacation. I will do my best to stay structured and focused and hope she will do the same.

However, I now believe with approximately four weeks to go that I have a reasonable shot of ending my first contract and being rewarded with my first vacation. The key for me will be to make this department as ‘clean’ as possible when I leave and provide Jackie the tools to be equally successful so that when I return to Silhouette she will be positioned to be the best in the fleet.

Let’s hope this schedule doesn’t change again!

And the adventure continues . . .