Adventures in Paradise

MPA

You know how sometimes you walk into a new place and there are a few people who you click with instantly, even though you've never seen them before?  It applies here.  This is our Main Propulsion Assistant, the guy who is the primary assistant to the ship's Chief Engineer.  He's a former Senior Chief Petty Officer who was commissioned a few years ago and provides some guidance and maturity to my wardroom full of 20-something officers.

He loves to grill and can be seen manning the ship's grills during any Steel Beach picnic - in this case we were both taking a break to cool off during the event the Wardroom hosted a while back. He can be counted upon to provide some seriously old-school music to the crew during meal times or during cleaning stations, though that's not universally appreciated, he's got enough of a mix that everyone ends up happy.  He dances Folklorico and is a strong enough lead that even I can follow him on the dance floor. 

Care Package

We got nearly a thousand pounds of mail the other day and while I only got one piece of mail, the fact that it was a care package and not a bill or financial statement made my day.  It's from my former roommate (from a ship way back in the 2002-2003 timeframe,) or actually, from her 14 month old daughter.

 
Given that it came from a one year old, it's no surprise that while there was a pretty clutch purse and a book mommy thought I  might enjoy, it was heavy on candy, with marshmallow pumpkins, candy corn and chocolate covered almonds.  There might be some candy corn left.

BTW Mom, based on the postmark, it took 23 days to get to me.  We've got another couple or three thousand pounds of mail waiting for us in various locations that we're hoping to get in the next week or two.

Thanksgiving at Sea

This Thanksgiving I got my own Chef's Uniform, complete with Ship's Crest.  It turns out that even the "Small" size is a bit too large for me.  this one needs some tailoring to be presentable, which didn't stop me from working the serving line for most of the meal this evening.

This is my leading Cook, or Culinary Specialist.  He's a huge personality in his own right.  He supervises the preparation and serving of more than 900 meals daily, and some amazing special meals like today's feast.  The food is always good, and when you're stuck at sea for a month at a time with only the stuff you brought, (even if there is a lot of pre-prepared drek) good food is important. 

Sometimes we do get to make stuff from scratch though - I cut about half the bag of potatoes that filled this pot on Wednesday evening.  Suppo was a little concerned when she saw me with a knife in my hand, noting that usually they only let me have fruit or other soft items to use as a projectile.  (I didn't hurt anyone though, not even myself.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Serendipity

When we left San Diego, we knew our transit plan and we were
a little bummed because we weren’t going to get a stop in Hawaii –
we were headed north of the islands and getting gas from a couple of ships on
our way because of timing. Then two things happened. First, the oiler broke
and nobody was sure they’d be able to fix them in time to hit us as
scheduled. Maybe isn’t really a comfortable position when you’re
looking at running out of gas somewhere between Hawaii
and Guam. The second thing was a big old
storm up in the Alaska area that had an impact
on sea state all the way to the northern side of the Hawaiian
Islands. Not as significant as the winter storm systems up there
that cause massive waves on the northern shores, but enough to make the trip uncomfortable. 
In the end, all signs sent us into Pearl Harbor
for gas and our timing gave us an evening of liberty. 
 
I was particularly happy, because through Facebook I’ve
gotten back in touch with old college buddies who had drifted away over the
years. One of my best school friends is in the Army and happens to have just
transferred to Hawaii,
so I got to give her a tour of the ship and she took me out to her place in the
city and we wandered in search of dinner. After looking at and dismissing a couple
of restaurants, we wandered into an encampment of food trucks – steak,
Mexican and seafood. They were parked around a bunch of picnic tables under an
awning and had a couple of Coke machines placed around the slab floor since
none of the trucks sold drinks. It smelled great, so we bought a couple of “plate
lunches” of garlic shrimp (my favorite Hawaiian meal ever) and sodas and
sat down to catch up on 17 years. Do I need to say it was a wonderful
evening? Or that in Hawaii,
you should eat out of the trucks instead of the fancy places?
 
On our walk back to her place, we stopped at a store where I
could buy some postcards for the older niece and nephew and ran into a sight
that might well be unique to Hawaii:
SPAM flavored macadamia nuts. No, I didn’t buy them. I did take a
picture to prove I did indeed see what I thought I saw. Also here is a picture
of Diamond Head from sea – isn’t
it lovely? I really could move back to Hawaii.
 
 

Steel Beach

While we’re at sea, the days don’t vary. 
After about a week, the menu is the only way that any of us really distinguish
between days of the week. Wednesday is always slider day – which means
burgers and fries for lunch, no exceptions (even I won’t allow a change
to THAT routine and I don’t eat burgers.) Friday dinner is pizza
and hot wings (that last bit is a reasonably new addition, but they go well
together.) On the weekends, we have a Steel Beach
picnic – one group or another on the ship chooses food from a basic menu
that our Culinary Specialists provide, fire up the grills and serve the rest of
the crew. We open up the after decks, put on some music, open up the
portable basketball court and everyone gathers in civilian clothes and enjoys
the evening at sea. It’s one of my favorite things – and we
get some good pictures. The picture below is me with some of the First
Class Petty Officers on the ship, a great bunch of people!
 
Speaking of which, DECATUR
now has a Facebook page, so for those of you who are inclined, search for the
ship there and “like” it see a different perspective and enjoy the sometimes
purple prose of the young Chief who is in charge of updating the page. I’ve
also started a separate blog just for me to post about the ship. 
Essentially it’s going to be identical to the posts here, but since I don’t
necessarily want everyone coming a looking at this place, which is kind of a
personal spot, the posts there will be exclusively ship-related. Does
anyone know how to make a banner or something? I’ve left it very
plain because I don’t have the knowledge or resources to do much else
right now.
 
Here are the links:
 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/San-Diego-CA/USS-Decatur/153483414672248#!/pages/San-Diego-CA/USS-Decatur/153483414672248

http://artemesia.typepad.com/in_pursuit_of_peace/#tp