Adventures in Paradise

Goodbye Persian Gulf!

New Toys

Because I succumb easily to suggestion, when one of my guys, who knows I'm somewhat food-obsessed, sent me a link to this, I had to have it.  Actually, it was just the link to the kit - the other stuff I had to order individually. Photos to follow once I have some time to play...

Don't Get Lost

Some of the Valentines the kids sent were specifically addressed to "The Captian" (yes, spelled that way) and one young lady really wanted to get the card to me, it was addressed "Dear Lynne's daughter (Captain), Sailor" which my guys found absolutely hilarious. Sadly, it's in light pencil on dark red paper, so I couldn't get a single photo that worked well.

At least one of my Officers noticed that this was the best advice they'd gotten from a second-grader...

My Funny Valentine

I know it's a couple of weeks past, but hey, when you're deployed, you celebrate when the packages come, no matter what the date. Heck, some of us are still celebrating Christmas. But this package was kind of special. A second grade class at the same elementary school that packed up all the gift bags for DECATUR also made Valentines. They arrived just in time for our monthy birthday celebration, so I was able to give them out to a large section of the crew at once. (And while we were already in a celebratory, cake-and-ice-cream sort of mood!)

There were individual cards, my favorite featuring that most traditional of Valentine's mascot, the hippo! More amusingly, as you can sort of see in the background, there was one that had "X O" on the front...I know what it was supposed to mean, but I decided that I'd give that one to my XO anyway....it seemed like fate.

My guys loved the cards and spent a good portion of the evening picking them up and reading them, sharing them with each other and just giggling over second-grader's thought processes.  The most common theme was "I hope you don't end up in the Emergency Room" with many creative spellings of "Emergency" and "Sailor."

They also sent four posters that all the kids had drawn and written on - this is another one of my photographic experiments - it looks sort of like an old picture. Not sure I'll do it again, but I liked the look for this one.

Questions

There was a good question from the last post...

From Margaret: why would it not be easier to do the transfers of fuel and packages while the ships are still ?

Answer: The thing about water is that it is always moving, and thus the ships on it are never still. With the exception of the rare days with no wind and seas, we're always being moved by the wind, the waves and/or the current. Because the ships are so different in size and shape, we don't move at the same rate and if we stopped our engines, we'd be pushed in different directions at different rates, increasing the change of collision or breaking something. The navigational challenge that would come from trying to bring the ships together hull-to-hull, which is the only way to ensure that becalmed ships move together, would be immense and take twice the time that our mobile replenishments take. By having both ships moving together at a speed that reduces the impact of environmental influences, it becomes a much safer evolution. If the winds or seas were so high the we couldn't overcome thier affect, then we'd cancel the replenishment.

Sometimes the environmental influences are bigger than other days. For the replenishment we conducted this morning (my photos of that remain on the camera card due to other tasks through the day) the weather was much improved and we didn't see this kind of wave. It made for a nice, close approach and a spectacular break away, which are the best kind, of course.

As for the mail, it was mostly books from Amazon, a new pair of Vibram Five Fingers because the original ones I bought last year are not holding up well to the salt water that gets splashed on them (though oddly, the rubber on the bottom is completely unfazed by the non-skid coating onthe decks - it's the toe stitching that's coming apart) and yes, two skeins of sock yarn from The Loopy Ewe. I bought a purple and gray thinking I'd try my hand at the Sanquhar Socks in the lovely book Wendy sent me, but the purple isn't dark enough to do what I wanted - so those will be used for something else. It was kind of wishful thinking anyway, I still haven't even reached the halfway mark of the scarf I started months ago, and that's just feather and fan. The socks will have to wait for my return.

More UNREP Pictures

We weren't alone this time, a French ship also operating in the Gulf came by for a sip of gas. We went alongside sooner and stayed longer because we had a lot of parts and mail coming. It made for a nice view as they came alongside.

We finally got the bulk of our mail, especially all the stuff that had taken an extended vacation in Japan!

This is a picture I've been trying to take for the last few replenishments - long enough to see the motion of the ships but short enough that I don't overexpose everything. I'm pretty happy with it.

I'm even happier about this - lots of boxes! It's almost entirely stuff I've ordered myself (internet shopping isn't doing much to save me money...) but there was one care package full of nuts and other non-perishables, which have been a nice change.

Hats!

Thanks everyone!  We gave out the gift bags yesterday morning. While I was off the ship at a meeting on the Iraqi oil terminal when they were distributed, I’m told that everything was very well received. Well enough received that I’ve seen people wearing hats all over the ship since my return, and I’ve been asked if they can be worn daily instead of just of days when we have holiday routines, which is usually also crazy hat day. I said yes, of course.

Because you guys made so many hats, mom sent an additional box full of hats for me to decide which ship to give them. What I’ve done so far is to bring a large bag of them over to the oil terminal, which is manned by US and UK Sailors as well as Iraqi Marines. I brought enough over to cover the US and UK contingent, and they were thrilled because it’s getting COLD out here at night and the watch standers are excited to have wool hats. I hope you all don’t mind that they’re going to some of the Brits as well as our guys.

There are also three Coast Guard Cutters doing the same oil platform protection mission that I’m doing and we’ve sent bags of hats along with some of your lovely notes over to two of the three Cutters. We’ll get the third one in the next day or so. The young Coasties are also thrilled by the hats - in fact, we underestimated the number of hats required for one of the ships by about a dozen and they came back over the radio to request more.

So you’ve managed to cheer up not just my crew, but that of the Oil Terminal and two (soon to be three) Coast Guard Cutters. Most of the rest of the US ships are actually conducting port visits during the holiday, so I thought the people out here on point with me were the best to get the extra hats - I hope you’re okay that they’re not exactly what you expected when you made the hats. I promise they will be well loved! I am slowly building a photo album (on the right sidebar of the blog) and posting pictures as quickly as I can.  Some of the guys stand watch in places where I can't take pictures, so I'm getting what I can as quickly as I can, and I asked the Coasties and Oil Terminal guys to take pictures as well.

Again - THANK YOU ALL!

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.

How Cool it Is!

Can I just tell you guys that this week I got an invitation
to the change of command for the Supreme Allied Commander of Europe? That’s
like the greatest title on the face of the earth and one of my old bosses will
be taking over in October – and he invited me. Okay yeah, I can’t
go, but still. 
 
When was the last time I told you how much I love my job?