Early morning arise to see the sunrise to the east and Midway to the west. We are still a few miles away and I got up early due to morning docking. I normally do but do not get on the clock until 07:30 officially. I will work several hours of overtime today. Majority of the crew will be on liberty and scientists at their diving spots. It is perfect time to tend to maintenance activity that will not interfere with people since they are out on liberty or working. I will find time until Saturday to go to North Beach. If not this week, we will be back here for two days again next week. This is my third trip in two years and the second this year!
Midway is a beautiful place and it is tranquil. I just got back from the graded deck and with the lights shining on the dock for the crewmember gathering, it attracts fish and the water here is so clear you can almost see bottom as it looks like one of those salt-water aquariums you see at doctor’s offices. The view is a 360-degree postcard. The change of color in tropical waters you see in many South Pacific postcards, you will see here.
I did the weekly dread of laundry first thing in the morning. It is not the fact that I have not done it here or at home but at times, you have to “wait in line.” The laundry flat was busy but a washer was open and I grabbed it. I finished laundry around 10:30 four hours after it began. I only had two loads, one all color and the other all white. I used the same washer and dryer for both loads. We have only three of each on the ship.
My workday ended at 16:30 with two hours overtime. I did complete preventive maintenance actions that were postponed due to being deployed. That printer I was telling you about where it gave us updated reports on Samoan Earthquake and Tsunami. Well, it started its old tricks of not feeding the paper. The message was a synopsis of the tsunami that struck Samoa. I wanted to read it but after a few lines, it was nothing but a big black blob of ink writing over each other numerous times. I took this affront personally. So I worked on it and the solution, well, if any other ETs are reading this, you find out for yourself.
It was hot today though the morning was nice and cool. As the morning gave way to afternoon the temperatures started to rise. I gave up my hat and from a small towel made a makeshift bandana. That was much cooler than the dark blue ball cap with the ship’s insignia on it. I will have to wash that reeky old hat but the new ball caps only have the name of the ship, gone is the icon.
Samoa has been occupying my mind during breaks and off time. It is starting to fade from the news but the sister in law informed us of another quake today. I am looking at the photos and it is still cannot believe it had happened. All the photos you see, I have been there and done activities with the family. Whether a Sunday outing to the beach, just driving over a few miles to pick up some stores from another village kiosk. It is hard to fathom that it does not exist for now. I miss Samoa and cannot wait for the day when we return there and as I said never to leave again.
I am seeing casualty reports come in from Samoa. I was discussing with my wife that most of the children who were killed were on their way to school. If you notice in the photos, the body bags are small. The kids ride commercial buses (no school bus there) and walk alongside the road. Many of the kids walk for miles to school or the bus stop. Some of the teens from the wife’s village walk for seven miles to catch the bus from Si’imu to Apia. We used to pick up the kids we knew and stuffed them in the SUV and took them home or to school that way.
In addition, the area that was struck by the tsunami is rural and agrarian. They still use horses on the plantations, many farm animals on the property and large numbers of wild pigs and dogs roaming. Animals are usually a good indicator of something brewing. It may not be high tech but it works.
There is a get together on the pier tonight but I have not gone out to socialize. It is not that I am anti-social. I am no longer good at conversing and terrified when put into a situation where I have to be social with a large group, especially when the intellectual level is so beyond what I can comprehend or contribute that we will quickly be bored of each other. Therefore, I will leave it at that. I hear tomorrow night, Midway is planning a big social for us.
I have to answer quite a few e-mails, take a shower, and maybe read a chapter or two from a book before hitting the rack.
I bid you goodnight from middle of North Pacific, Midway Atoll.
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