is that it's pretty likely old hands know a lot of people that they don't.
There are two incidents that come to mind over the years. Both times my shipmate and I were warned that we had to give the people we were going to meet a good impression and yada yadda yada , so on and so forth.
Anyway, as the person in question walked in after an hour long lecture on how important it was to out on a good impression I heard my shipmate say, "Quequeeg! How ya doing? Last I heard you were going to visit the folks in Vanuatu! Did they throw a missionary in the stewpot for you when you got there?"
The port captain looked in horror.
"Nah, we got McDonalds now," he replied. The port captain didn't know what to think, say or do until my shipmate made introductions.
"This is Piccolo and that's some port captain."
The port captain lamely said, "I guess you guys know each other." and left shaking his head. Needless to say, we got the contract.
The other time there was a supervisor and a port captain in the room when the person in question arrived. He was halfway down the stairs and I looked up and heard, "Piccolo! What brings you to the west coast?" Long time, no see!"
"Hey, Ceesco Keed! When they send you out here?" I asked.
"Two years ago. What's the relief crew like?"
"They're OK," I said.
The supervisor's face lit up relaxed but the port captain looked incensed because he had been upstaged.
The customer looked at the pair of them. "These guys are squared away. I'll tell Tom to ink the contract IF these two are running the show."
Then the bull$hit of what we had been doing since we saw each other last started. The port captain looked pouty because he was left out while the supervisor was tickled pink we had managed to get the contract.
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