Moving Notice - New Address

Please be aware that I’ve gone and registered yet another domain. I’ve put so much time into posting here so often that I decided I wanted to create another site that had my mark upon it. Please make changes to your bookmarks for my blog as this site will not be updated any further.

 

http://www.crownontherocks.com

 

That’s my new home for my shiny new WordPress blog. It’ll be awhile as I move in, and change the decorations, but it’s my new place on the internets. Stop by, check it out and tell a friend.

Time Flys...

I’m back at that point in deployment when the days are starting to melt together into one stream of time. Unfortunately, we will be in port again within a week and that stream will be interrupted again by the normal chaos of in port work. Sometimes it is much easier to just stay out to sea and do whatever it is we need to do, than go into port and break up the monotony of the deployment. This deployment has been frustrating because it has been so utterly boring. I suppose boring can be good, since it often allows you to get more accomplished, but it does nothing to aid the passage of time.

 

 

Perhaps I misspoke...

It seems that we are still connected to the great ethers of the internet. I was surprised to see that I could still open a web browser and receive off-ship email this morning, but apparently it is true. Oh well, now I don’t have to go into screaming fits of withdrawal, like some crack addict on the streets, lacking a fix. I don’t typically go into withdrawal over missing the internet, it’s more of a giant waste of time, since I tend to get on and other things that require my attention fall to the side. This is especially true as of late, as we have had a decent connection for the most part.

 

Perhaps I will remain lucky and have the ability to plug into the rest of the world whenever I have the desire to do so. It definitely makes things easier when I need to communicate with home or require the uses of Google’s fantastic search engine. Oh how I cannot wait until I have my connection to the internet in my home again, when I can enjoy the robustness of 6MB/s speed. Yeah, it’s not the fastest available, but it does what I need of it. And by the way, that time is getting closer – it’s now just 82 days away until I get to experience San Diego in all it’s glory… the crowds, the traffic, but most importantly my wife and daughter.

Mail Day

Today was the UNREP of the century. For those of you not in the ‘know’, an UNREP is an Underway Replenishment. Makes sense now, doesn’t it? No? Ok, let me explain. The supply ship is moving along in the ocean. The receiving ship comes alongside and moves along the same course as the supply ship. Then one or the other ships sends lines over so that the receiving ship can pull the fuel lines over to hook up and start receiving fuel. This is the most common form of refueling while underway for the navy. In addition, an extra line may be sent over and tensioned to transfer loads from the supply ship to the receiving ship. These loads may contain anything; repair parts, food items, mail and even personnel can be transferred in this manner. This extra line makes this evolution a CONREP or Connected Replenishment. Last but not least, a helicopter may be used to shuttle loads from one flight deck to another flight deck. Using a helicopter in this manner makes the evolution a VERTREP, or Vertical Replenishment. Anyway, now that everyone is up to speed on the terminology used we can discuss the events of the day.

 

Today I experienced the largest replenishment evolution in all of my 13+ years in the navy. We started around 2pm this afternoon and finished up around 5pm this evening. All in total, we received ~60 pallets of stores, including mail. In addition, we received what seemed like 10+ pallets of Girl Scout cookies, from what I can only imagine were sent via their Operation: Thin Mint. I have never seen so many boxes of Girl Scout cookies in my life in one location. It was like we were at the distributor for the cookies. Unfortunately, there was no mail for me again this time. I really don’t think I’ll ever see the Moleskine notebooks my wife ordered for me as well as the pictures my daughter drew for me for Father’s Day. The best I can hope for now is that the box keeps missing me and eventually it will make it to me once I’m back in San Diego. The worst I could imagine is that some asshole decided they needed my package more than I did. If that’s the case I hope they enjoy my daughter’s drawings and I wish that their pens bleed ink all over those notebooks. There, I’m done being bitter over my missing package.