Adventures in Paradise

Weird Things

I e-mailed a few posts, but they didn't make it across the ocean(s), which is too bad. I did try at least.

Here's where I've been:

Not as helpful as some of my older shipboard posts, but when you're on an operational staff at sea, your world compresses to your cabin, your workspaces, and where you eat. I see the sun once in a while, and I even got a few hours off the ship last Friday.

I embarked the ship in the Port of Naples, which features Castel Nuovo on the shores. The "New Castle", so named to distinguish it from the older castles of the area, was built in 1282.

 

A Sunset Walk Through Cascais

I've been to the Lisbon area three times now, and have never had the time to do anything other than work. But this time we finished early intentionally and there was no way for me to get home that day, so I had the evening to see some things.

My first stop was a lovely little craft store recommended by Ana Sofia at S is for Sewing.

The Craft Company is definitely a must-see if you're in the area (it's about 30 minutes outside Lisbon, on the coast).  I wandered the streets because it was way too early to find dinner in Portugal. It was February, but just warm enough to take my shoes off and walk on the beach. 

Along the sea wall were a series of nautical themed sculptures, including this beautiful mermaid.

And a former king outside a fort that was much older than the early 20th century king. The fort has been turned into an art gallery, but it was closed by the time I arrived.

Portugal's thing is cork. They make everything out of cork.

Everything. I did not buy this yarn.

I did buy a few things at the shop...the yarn is made in Portugal from Portuguese wool. This is a pretty rare find in Europe...most of what I've found, even at the little shops, is the same stuff I'd find in the US. Once in a while I find something dyed locally, but even  Scotland was limited when it came to sheepy stuff, at least in Aberdeen, Stirling, and Glasgow. 

The stitch markers were a gift for the Nanny, who I hired in part because she knits. I figured a knitter who loves animals (she and her dog live with us during the week) has to be a good person. I was right, at least in this case.

Lisbon

Did I mention my current job entails a lot of travel? This week I'm in Lisbon, or rather just outside Lisbon. It's my third trip here and the first where (1) I am not sick and (2) where I have free time to explore. That comes tomorrow...we started at a civilized hour today but my past midnight arrival meant sleeping in so that I could be coherent during the workday.

The view from my hotel is nice...

Five More Minutes

I've got to say that this thing where I have a real job again after more than a year is really cutting into my social life. I have to drop the dog(s) off at daycare at 6:30 in order to get to the office in time for 7:30 meetings, and even leaving at 5 means that I don't get home until 5:30 at best. If I'm doing a track work out (once a week) or circus stuff (2-3) times a week, that means my days are jammed until about 10:30 or so. Saturdays are long runs (16 miles this Saturday...longest I've ever run) with Team in Training (still time to donate!) and the dog adoption event, so Saturdays are full from 6:45am through 3pm. Sundays are my only sleep-in days, and someone else thinks Saturday should be, too.

He moved into my spot when I hauled myself out of bed and went into the other room.

I am loving the marathon training, but I really need to get a better balance to my life. November...

Bits

With Tipper living here for the last four weeks, I sometimes worry that my Harvey isn't getting enough attention. Our morning routine is completely changed, because I have to take the dog out before 6 instead of playing with Harvey first. And as I've said before, he doesn't understand why the dog gets to go when he doesn't - and why the Tipper won't play with him, despite his best efforts to be friendly. But this afternoon, I got in some great kitty snuggle time...

And this is because putting it up on Facebook seems too self-aggrandizing, but I worked really hard on the paper that won this, so I'm sharing here...

Not sure how I won an award from a counter-intelligence group, but I suspect it's just a sponsoring organization. I wrote about collective defense and a regional group's influence on China regarding the South China Sea. That probably doesn't mean anything to most people, but it's a thorny problem. I didn't solve it.

Anyone Out There?

Hi. So I dropped off the map for a little while. It wasn't really intentional, I just got distracted by moving and various temporary duty locations and I got out of the habit, but I admit that I miss blogging. So I'm going to try to be here more often. I don't promise long posts, though.

First, because I'm essentially a graduate student at the National War College, where I'm getting a Master's Degree in National Security Strategy. It turns out that while there are days that I am only on campus for about two hours, I'm working harder than I ever have, including reading into the wee hours of the night. The old saying is "it's only a lot of reading if you do it," but I find I don't feel like I'm contributing anything to the classroom discussion or getting enough out of the experience if I don't do the reading. Of course, overachiever that I am, I also signed up to do an independent research project in lieu of an academic class. It's a small subject - the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) response to China's territorial claims in the South China Sea. Go ahead and Google that, I'll wait. Right. So you know what I'm doing right now - struggling to keep up with the daily, and sometimes hourly changes. At some point, done will have to be my goal...

Second, being a student isn't nearly as interesting as being the CO of a ship. There are some funny sayings, and I am in class with some amazing people: the former Defense Attache to Syria (the last one...he got kicked out and there isn't a replacement), a guy who was on the ground during the Rwandan genocide, Intelligence analysts who...do something or other, guys who have done half a dozen combat tours in multiple continents over the last 20 years. But still. Mostly I read a lot. And then we sit around a table in small groups and talk about it, the goal being to become long-term, large scale strategic thinkers. It's fun, but hard to express when we've already covered over 3,000 years of war in 7 weeks and moved on to non-mlitary instruments of strategy.

I am still knitting, though almost entirely socks right now. Maybe I'll start something more ambitious during the Christmas holidays when I don't have reading and writing to do. I'e made four socks in the last few months...one pair, and two single socks. The second of one pair is on the needles now. I'm working one project at a time. I'm not sewing, because that takes too much time and isn't portable unless I decide on another hand-work project. I'm also not cooking much because I made the mistake of renting a place that has a miniscule kitchen based on the idea that I'd prefer the natural light of this place to the kitchen of the other I looked at. I was wrong.

I'm flying. And biking. And running. And I signed up for a half-marathon (well, the lottery to get into the half-marathon) in March. And ice skating. So there will be something to write about. 

Last Day at Sea

It's really hard to wrap my mind around the fact that MAy 25th might have been my last day at sea. It's hard enough to know that it was my last day at sea on a Destroyer. I've been a Destroyer Sailor since 1996 and now there may or may not be another ship in my future. I won't find out for a few years, though I admit the odds are actually pretty good for me. Some of my peers see the end of the Command tour as a relief, and while I admit that my last few days were nerve-wracking, it was more because of the weather than anything else. The prior was probably the best week at sea I'd ever had - we shot just about every weapon on the ship, completed all our major warfare area qualifications and rocked them. It was amazing to see my already great Sailors walking around with their heads held high and gigantic grins on their faces. Heck, even the assessors we had onboard were visibly enjoying themselves. We had a great weekend, topped with a steel beach picnic and a flight deck movie on Sunday.

The weather turned on Tuesday, leading me to make the only decision in my entire career that I will regret for the rest of my life - I took the ship alongside an oiler when the weather, winds and seas made every instinct I had say "No." I ignored my gut, and I was wrong. Nobody got hurt, nothing was broken, but when I think about it too closely it still freaks me out. Once again, my guys were spectacular and they did everything the way they were supposed to do exactly when they were supposed to do it. Nobody could ask for more - but weather will always make me think twice now. Or maybe three times.  The next day we went back alongside after reaching the shelter of the bit of CA that turns sharply southeast and were successful. Then we headed back into the wind and seas.

Thursday was an incredibly rough day, producing the seas you see in the picture I posted earlier. We buried the bow regularly over the course of 24 hours on the trip to San Francisco, causing a small amount of damage. Not too expensive to fix, but impressive to those who hadn't been in big seas before. I was just happy that Friday was clear and the winds had died enough that we could go out and wash down the ship before we entered port. We were looking pretty bedraggled on the whole, both ship and crew, so some music and splashing around was good.

Also helping lift spirits was the release of the advancement results for some of our Sailors. I was really happy that I was able to do that on my final day at sea. I even advanced one young man who had already completed his leadership and other courses once before (long story, but the entire crew was pretty happy to see this moment.)

Then it was time to shift into our shite uniforms and spiff outrselves up to match the ship. We had an 1130 appointment under...

The Golden Gate Bridge. We went under about 30 second early, but I don't there there was anyone who noticed other than me and the Navigator. Our arrival was times to coincide with the dedication of a pavilion on the south side of the bridge. My Mom, my successor and a bunch of other people were there. We steamed along the city waterfront slowly before turning further south into the bay. From the bridge through our mooring we were accompanied by one of the SFFD's fire boats, Pheonix.

I think they were supposed to meet us before we went under the Golden Gate, but that's a little tiny boat and those seas, even having calmed from the day before, were way too much for her to handle. We enjoyed the fuss though. So there you have it...my last day at sea, from rough seas to shelter under the Bay Bridge.

 

Wild Ride

So, it's been nearly five days since I turned command over to my (former) Executive Officer and friend, Joel. My last two weeks were a wild ride, all the way to the final days...

I'll post the whole series, but this one was the most dramatic. I'm still putting together the rest of my thoughts and pictures, so stand by.

Little Bang

More pre-deployment preparation...but also some Midshipman training. We shoot close to 1000 rounds on this particular weapon over the course of the week - I got in the last 100.

Yup, I'm short. It actually works better when I'm standing on those particular ammo boxes when they're stacked two high. Then I'm a dead-eye. Even got a good shooting comment from the inspectors who were onboard watching our firing runs this week!

Big Bang

On my way out the door....eight days and counting in the wrong direction...but I'm still getting to go out with a bang!

There was a big bang as we got to execute DECATUR's first missile firing in five years, which culminated in a very visible, if difficult to photograph intercept as our missile met up with the inbound target.