Just hit 10,000 hours behind the controls, never thought I'd get there this fast

I've been running a 12-inch cutter suction dredge on the Mississippi River for about 4 years now, and last week my logbook showed I passed the 10,000 hour mark. It surprised me because I remember thinking 1,000 hours seemed like a lifetime back when I started. Has anyone else tracked their total operating time and hit a number that felt bigger than you expected?

2 comments

2 Comments

cole_robinson17d ago

Is it really that impressive though? I mean, you were sitting down the whole time, not exactly climbing Everest. My uncle ran a towboat on the Ohio for like 30 years and never counted a single hour, he just showed up and left.

the_riley17d ago

Whoa hold on. Your uncle just "showed up and left" for 30 years on a towboat? That's like saying a surgeon just showed up and cut people open, no big deal. The Ohio River is no joke, man. That thing has currents that can flip a boat if you sneeze wrong. I'm genuinely stunned. So he never got stuck in a lock delay for 14 hours? Never had to track fuel or log maintenance? That sounds less like a job and more like a ghost haunting a boat. I think your uncle might be a time traveler or just really, really good at pretending to work.