I walked along the path between stacks of cargo holds waiting to be put on the massive ships, the ship I would be supervising was called the Itex Arizona. I had just spent the past two days flying to Africa to board a boat so I could supervise and write a report to give to Itex. I was well known within the company for my hard assessments and being the only woman supervisor that worked international boats. Itex was based out of California, I had worked for almost five years before being promoted to go over seas. Recently there was reports of Somali pirates taking over boats and then taking hostages. I was confident however Itex's boats were armed with hoses that would make it impossible to get any skiff close enough to board us, and the glass had recently been replaced with bullet proof glass. The chances of Somali pirates attacking an American ship were slim, our navy had a hotline on every ship for emergency's and responded quickly to any possible attack. Recently however everybody had been on edge reporting any small boat in the water as pirates following them or spying on them, while there was good reason to be cautious most of the time these reports ended up being fishermen and took valuable time away from the navy and more time to get the cargo from one port to the next. I looked down at the clipboard in my hand a map of the port starring back at me. I walked down to the docks and found the Arizona a hustle of crew rushing from one task to another I looked to the captains nest and saw a man in a white uniform his white coat buttoned and his blonde hair shifting around with the wind. Captain Guten Hagen no doubt, he had a reputation for being a good captain great at his job but cruel to his crew limiting breaks, pushing them past the breaking point something I planned to put a stop to. I step up to the ramp and started walking up it when a crew member grabbed my arm smiling and asked me to follow him please.
"The captain has been expecting you Miss Ride." Nodding I followed the stalky crew member to the super structure. I was met at the bottom of the stair by the Captain himself his blue eyes and white teeth sparkling.
"Ah thank you Sam go help yourself to some coffee, Miss Ride i trust your trip was smooth." He said ushering me toward the captain's nest.
"Yes thank you" I said that was total lie the last plane ride had been in a small passenger plane that reeked of something rotten and cigarette smoke and the landed had left my butt sore and short tempered. I was ready to take my initial report of take off and then go rest in my cabin for a spell.
"Very well Miss Ride can I offer you anything" He asked opening the door to the nest.
"No thank you, when are we scheduled to take off from port." I asked smiling at the crew as they saluted us as we entered.
"Any moment were just running a few last minute checks and getting a head count." he said turning to look over the ship.
"Captian all crew accounted for." Came a voice over the radio.
"Very good where are we on the last minute check" He said over the radio
"All good captain is the representative on board" came a different voice over the radio
"Then were all set" He said turning to smile at me.
"As of this moment your ship is under review by Itex any suspicious activity, safety violation is to be reported to me, failure to comply could mean the loss of your employment with Itex." I said sternly.
"Understood Miss Ride how about I show you to your cabin" He said walking toward the door.
"Captain Guten Hagen perhaps we should leave port I do believe we are scheduled to leave in less than five minutes I would hate to have to report a failure to keep schedule."I said crossing my arms.
"Yes Miss Ride, alright lets get out of here nice and slow" The captain said over the radio and we were off. As we left port I stared out the massive windows at the ocean ahead of us.