Basic tasks seemed to elude her, like correctly plotting the ship’s location during her watch.

From Into the Raging Sea by Rachel Slade. Page 57.

Twenty-two minutes after Charlie texted him about Joaquin, Davidson texted back: “yup . . . thx for the heads up.”

Charlie sat on that sofa all day, watching the weather.

Monitoring the storm was the second mate’s job.

Danielle should’ve been obsessing about it just like him.

Charlie knew she wasn’t. He was fond of his fellow Mainer, a perky, freckled redhead half his age. He’d taken her under his wing like a little sister a decade ago when she joined the company while a cadet at Maine Maritime Academy. Back then, she was all energy, but ten years of shipping was wearing her down. Danielle recently found out she’d been passed over for a promotion to the new LNG ships. That killed what was left of her enthusiasm for her shipping career, and now he thought she was clocking in, clocking out.

Basic tasks seemed to elude her, like correctly plotting the ship’s location during her watch. She didn’t actively seek extra work to keep things running smoothly on the decrepit ship. Why bother? TOTE had kicked her to the curb after she’d sacrificed so much of her life to this career. Danielle started taking over-the-counter meds to fall asleep during her breaks and slamming caffeine to stay awake during her watch. These days, she went unusually quiet when her closest friends in Maine asked her about her life at sea.

Charlie Baird was El Faro's off-duty, on-shore Second Mate and Danielle was his on-board counterpart. This is one of those instances where Slade reveals but discounts the on-board personnel's culpability. It is tragically ironic that the on-shore, and therefore safe, Second Mate was more concerned about the weather conditions than the on-board Second Mate.