More Gas

There has been lots of stuff going on in the last couple of
days, so I’m later than usual with my e-mail post. It’s almost 9pm
my time and there’s no line outside my door, so I’m taking the
opportunity before the line re-forms after watch turnover in a few minutes.
 
All is well and I’m still having a blast. For the
last couple of days we’ve had seas of 6-8 feet right on the beam (side of
the ship) which has made for lots of rocking and rolling. The weather isn’t
bad; we’re just getting the leftover swells from that weather system up
in the Arctic. As you can see in the pictures
I’m attaching, aside from the big swells, the weather is beautiful. 
Still, my bed is placed athwartships (perpendicular to the length of the ship)
which means that with beam seas, when I’m in bed I roll from standing on
my head to standing on my feet. It’s a little difficult to sleep some
nights. The treadmills I use are placed athwartships, too, which means that
with a 0 percent incline I still get a hill run when I work out. I hoping that
means I’m burning more calories. Right now I’m gorging myself on
what fresh fruits and veggies we got in Hawaii
because in a day or two the lettuce will be brown and slimy and the fruit will
be gone or mealy/mushy. 
 
We did get some fuel today in another replenishment, much
like the one I posted about right outside of San Diego. This time we also did a hook-up
of the Connected Replenishment (CONREP) station. RAS is Refueling at Sea (gas)
and the two combined are Underway Replenishment (UNREP) although we use the
last two almost interchangeably. The pictures are some of my favorites –
but since I have no idea what order the pictures get published I am just going
to number them and you can play a game to match them. Shouldn’t be too
hard, I promise.
 

Linehandlers! This is tough
work; they have to haul a heavy metal rope between the two ships, despite
limited space and the ship’s rolling. 

 

Phone and Distance Line. This
is one means of communications between the ships, the line the flags are
attached to is actually a sound powered phone line that we use if we don’t
want to be on the marine band radio. The flags are our low tech way of
telling how far apart we are. Each flag is 20 feet apart and color coded
so anyone who knows the code can see at a glance. We do have range
finding binoculars and the really old fashioned stadimeter, but this is a
constant indicator, so it’s the one we prefer.

 

Stations. You can see both the
fueling rig and the stores rig in the picture. For stores we can get
almost anything from repair parts to food and soda. Only mail isn’t
allowed to travel this route, because of the potential for it to get
dunked.

 

Comments

[Cathy]

Thanks so much for posting these updates, Shanti! I love following along...

Do you take command when you reach the Gulf? Will there be a ceremony?

[Birgt]

Wow Shanti I just found your blog and most def will keep following along... my brother in law was navy submariner he is now retired and my sis was navy too for 12 years until her 3rd child was born with medical problems she used to work on p-3 orions... anyhow interesting reading thanks for sharing.... hugs Birgit