I have been on this ship for three years come January. Funny feeling is that I still feel like I am on the outside looking in. One of the problems I see is that I am in and out of here every sixty days during the season. I never had an “ironman” tour on the Hi’ialakai as I did on the Ka’imimoana. Two reasons for that is I now have a stable rotating partner and the second is we finally have enough people in the organization to be able to rotate every sixty days. In addition, I was not married during my time on the “KA” and that ship was always plowing the waters of South Pacific. I volunteered to extend my time there as I felt close to V whenever we were at 8S, 170W because that buoy was exactly 376 nautical miles northwest of Apia. At nights, if we camped on station, I would go into the ET shop, listen to AM broadcasts from Samoa Broadcasting Corporation in Apia, and get homesick or wonder if V was listening to the same broadcast. If she had a boyfriend at that time, well, she could probably care less.
The first year we were to go to Western Samoa, the port call canceled due to lack of funds. It was 2003 and the war in Iraq had just started so you can guess where the money went. Next year the “KA” made a stop in Pago Pago, American Samoa but it was the “wrong” Samoa, as I would say. Rules regarding Western Samoans coming to American Samoa had changed and V and I did not get together as we had hope to. The “KA” finally made a port call in 2005. I flew to Apia ten days early to meet the ship but the primary goal was to get back together with V after a near two-year absence. When I arrived in Apia at 12:30 in the morning, she was waiting for me at the airport. I was not sure if she had a boyfriend during my absence, asked her sister about it but another story for another time. I sent V a letter a few weeks earlier telling her where to meet me if she was seeing someone. I went back in 2006 again to meet the ship and flew down early. V was at the airport to welcome me back and we rented a falee in Lalomalu (destroyed by the tsunami) and “commuted” between there and the “KA” when she arrived. Both times, I departed from Apia and said goodbye to V from the port. In 2008, I sailed the “KA” from Portland to Apia via Hawaii. After arriving in Apia, I worked for several days before taking leave. On my last day, I wanted to leave the ship when they made the “all guest from ashore, go ashore” announcement. Too many times, I have been on the end where V left the ship after that announcement and this time I wanted to be with her on the pier instead. We were married eight months earlier in the summer of 2007 and my son and I spent Christmas and New Year’s with her and the family six weeks prior.
Both of my permanent assignments started out as an “outsider.” When I relieved W on the Ka’imimoana, I had a total of two days training to get to know my new ship. He was very popular and well liked by the crew. I was a relative unknown at the time and did not have a permanent ship until then. After several long cruises without a rotating partner, the crew adjusted to me and finally gained acceptance. The transfer to the Hi’ialakai was not easy at all. I had replaced J and he was very popular with the crew. I had sailed this ship once before taking her back to Portland, Oregon to dry-dock in 2004. Therefore, in some ways I was not a total stranger to the crew. Most of the plankowners knew me from that cruise as well as others whom I met from the Cromwell or Sette during the 2002 cross decking. But to replace W on the “KA” in 2003 and “J” on the “HI” in 2007 felt like I was the “player to be named later” in a bad baseball trade of a popular player and booed by the hometown fans every time I came up to the plate. They were likeable people and tough act to follow. When I sailed on the “KA” on a temporary basis last year, I felt more like a guest than I did a former ET on that ship. WC had done a fantastic job of taking ownership and if I were to go back now, even on a temporary assignment, I would be a “guest” as that ship is definitely his.
Nevertheless, I am here and I like this assignment. There are times I yearn to be in charge again and I feel that opportunity may arise when we move to Newport. I am not getting any younger and unfortunately, advancement prospect for me are nil. I can get the best score on evals but it has no value except in status or semi-recognition. A bonus system was introduced but I feel much of the awards handed out or merits that bonuses are based on is doing my expected duty and not “far and beyond or anything significant.”
I will still take the bonus and distribute it amongst the kids, especially around the holidays, and afterwards V and I will get ourselves something or set it aside for a trip back to Samoa.
Aside from pay, I am doing much of this for pride in professionalism. I also like sailing the seas. I will admit many nights while underway or on station, after talking to the wife or kids, I would rather be “pulling into my driveway, instead of gray and away” using old Navy terms to describe my feelings. However, I do not know of any job that pays me to be at places such as Midway, Nuku Hiva, or Saipan. The airline flight from Seattle to Honolulu and back is equal to a commuter bus and I can call Hawaii home as well. Throw Samoa in there too alongside Seattle. Snorkeling around the sunken German battleship Prinz Eugen who sailed with the Bismarck as she rests in Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands or shark chasing and jumping the rope at Palmyra Atoll can be listed as well. Those are the recreational side of this job. You have to do it to give your mind a break. When I report here for my rotation, I do not take a day off so it is sixty straight days of work. One of these days, my body and mind will tire out and I will walk away from this. I could tell my health is starting to change with age and had a few scares lately.
This evening as we sailed away from Kure to our next destination, the seas were calm and the weather was perfect. The sun was out and it felt tropical as compared to the wind that cooled down temperatures the past few days. I went up to one of the small boats to evaluate my project for tomorrow. Evenings such as this is another reason I like what I do.
I did not take any photos today. What is there to take picture of? I am posting old photos of Samoa from trips past and of Lalomanu and Savaii, before the tragic tsunami of two weeks ago. Hard to fathom that these places are gone. Memories of it in our heads and these photos but I know they will be back as Samoans are tough and very proud people and have endured much in their colorful history.
Five o’clock comes very fast. That is the time I have to start to complete the small boat project and will be working outside most of the day. I bid you goodnight from somewhere in the Pacific, east of Kure, on our way to Layson Islands.
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