
“The hardest thing to adapt to is the weather conditions. Everything is more difficult at sea: sleeping, eating, walking and much more. Life in general is different; it is not easy to adapt to these conditions on a long-term basis. Communication can also be a challenge, if you don’t work with nice people, this could be very difficult and isolating. You can meet up to 20-30 people each time the 28-day cycle restarts. You can’t run away from any problems you may have with the people around you. You have to deal with all of the good and bad times with people. I think I was very lucky in my career because I got to be with very nice and sociable people.”To meet new people each time a new work cycle begins can bring a lot of positives in life. For Gary Cashin, it was one of the parts of his job that he loved the most. Even today, he has kept in touch with the majority of those that he met throughout the years. His personality always allowed him to give the best of himself at work. For him it was satisfaction and pride to put as much effort into what he had to accomplish at the CCG. He felt that he could make a difference in his team by helping each other. Brother Cashin has participated on many teams during his years such as pollution prevention, search and rescue, operations on the icebreakers, scientific operations, and many others. He has seen all sorts of things. Gary told us about some misadventures that demonstrates that the work of the CCG is at times difficult and full of surprises. The first story that he told us was linked to his experience as a member of the crew aboard an icebreaker. In 2003, an assignment was communicated to him and his team aboard the CCGS Earl Grey to escort a large vessel, the MV Marie Gorthon, to shore. On their way towards an area of ice to break up, the crew encountered a pressure ridge that blocked the CCG vessel. Stuck at the point, they were lucky in their misfortune. The CCGS Earl Grey was being pushed by the ice towards a rocky island, which would have caused major damage. Finally, the captain ordered the entire crew to put on their emergency gear and to prepare for the worst. The rescue team had received communication from their boat and were on the way to begin emergency measures. At this point in his career, Gary’s current supervisor was on the CCGS Terry Fox which was on route to help with the incident.
“We had an engineer on board who had about 30 years as well as our captain who was there for a long time as well as the chief officer. They worked very hard to ensure that we got free and that we stayed away from the rocks. The next day, we were finally able to break free from the ice. We were blocked in that spot for more than 15 hours before we got back to shore.”


