Pre-Emptive Strike

It is only Thursday and I'm already psyching myself up for crew change on next Tuesday. However, if we all refer to the Rules of Tugboating, our eyes will immediately be drawn to Rule #4- Crew change WILL get screwed up. No exceptions.

As a prudent mariner we always keep our eyes on the weather forecast. It's usually wrong, but at least we knew it was going to be wrong.
Currently, Hurricane Sandy is spinning over the islands of the Bahamas. It is forecast to go up the U.S. East Coast before taking a turn to the west and head for Virginia/Delmarva/Greater New York/New Jersey/New England/Canadian Maritimes area. (Did we leave anybody out?)
As of now we are working in the Gulf of Mexico. So usually we would care less what the forecast for the North Atlantic would be. Except our reliefs live in the Northeast. So when Hurricane Sandy makes a bee-line for our home office there will be no joy come crew change day.

Granted, it's 5 days away and you should have plenty of time to prepare and get out of the area so you can actually make it to the boat on time so we can go home. If past performance is any indication of future results, it's not looking good.
In fact, the betting line in Las Vegas has the chance of crew change being screwed up at 100%.

So it's looking like our extended 3 week hitch will be extended even more. The kids aren't going to be happy. I was suppose to be Darth Vader for Halloween. Looks like my Halloween fill-in may have to take over for me again. As if working Thanksgiving and Christmas this year wasn't going to be bad enough.
I may need to work on my Darth Vader "Force Choke/Death Grip/thingy".

You don't know the power of the dark side!