Tuesday October 13 - Transit day turned out to be a beautiful day. For anyone wanting to flee the wintry cold of the north, they would be dreaming about this day. Even the ocean was cooperating by being on good behavior. I spent most of the day working outside on one of the dive boats. The antenna mount coupler had corroded and cracked. I was afraid that winds with good bumps would knock it off or it would just fall out of its surface mount. The weather was too good to be running around indoors performing updating/backups of computers. Of course that did happen as crews general use machines needed maintenance as well as backups and updating required. Then I get a call after dinner that the scientific computer is not reporting data. I do not have an explanation how it happened but the main acquisition computer had crashed. I had it up and running within 15 minutes. Tomorrow morning’s dailies will consist of note collecting from that server’s event viewer.
One week left before we pull into Honolulu for ten days and then going on educational outreach cruise for four days and ne weekend of work afterwards and a flight home. From what I hear, people I talk to back in Seattle would trade places with me. Every night phone conversations with the wife would start with “this weather sucks.” I am happy to hear the results of her ESL classes. However, it is interesting when she shares her college experience with me. She is meeting people from all corners of the globe.
The seas were smooth and in some cases like a shallow lake. I have not seen anything yet that can compare to the Horse Latitudes near the equator when it comes to no winds and the seas smooth as a plate of glass or look as if we were sailing on a lake. Most of you know where the term “Horse Latitudes” come from. It derived during the Age of Exploration when Spanish and Portuguese ships sailing near the equator tried to lighten the load by dumping horses overboard or, though I find this hard to believe, made attempts with harnesses to have the horses pull the ships. I would have to think the latter is an old tale as majority of them drowned before anything could happen. One thing I do miss is seeing the Southern Cross south of the equator. People claim you can see it from Hawaii but I have yet to. It is distinctive in Samoa and Nuku Hiva. I do like staring off into the sky at nights in warmer waters. For those who never lived in a place with total darkness, it is amazing at all the stars you can see from the ocean.
Oh well, another day tomorrow and closer we return to Hawaii. One more stop and then the transit home, homeport that is. I bid you good night on the transit from Kure to Laysan.
Wednesday October 14 – A hot morning as there were no winds blowing. During the outside route of my daily checks, I looked at the flags on the mast and none was waving. The waters more calm than yesterday and not too far in the distance was Laysan Island. Home to some of the birds you only find in the Hawaiian Island chain. One of those was sitting next to my windbird on the jackstaff. A Laysan Duck or Finch, I cannot tell but it was unexcitable. He ignored my testing of the sound powered phone bell on the bow. I would have taken a photo of the island and a bird sitting on a jackstaff, but by the time it was resized you could not tell the difference between this or any other photo I took that were supposed to be view of the islands from the weatherdeck.
When I looked at Laysan I thought we were back in Kure. These islands are coral reefs, however looking closely through binoculars it looks like a piece of the Great Basin desert of Utah and Nevada surrounded by water! The four or five coconut trees were distinct and below were barracks like structures where scientists stayed and worked during their rotation here. On one end of the island, a rock formation of some sort was sticking out of the beach. I had to take a double look, as this looked more like a fossilized whale frozen in the act of breeching. I am not sure if the island has blowholes as the water crashed on the shore at some places, it rose to unprecedented heights. I could see the waves crashing on the other side of the narrow point of the island. From readings, it appears this island has a lake. We have one more day here so I will see if I can find anything that looks like a lake as we circle the island. Unlike the other islands though, this one is obvious by its size, outside of Sand Island at Midway.
After looking at the island, it was back to work with incremental backups of computers I started last week. I have an UPS, which is raising a flag because it is overdue for an automated systems test and it will not allow a manual test. Then my AIS systems on the small boats go into non-working mode after time. I have to get up early before the boats leave, link a laptop, and run a diagnostics program. I have plenty to keep busy for our last day of ops.
I will be on the boat with an engineer who oversees the mechanical side. It looks like another 5 AM wake up call. I always wake up at 5AM when I am in Seattle. That so I can beat the traffic into the city but here, I have a fifty-foot commute from my stateroom to the shop. As for entertainment, I picked out a DVD from the library and to my regret a real chick flick. It is one notch better than nothing.
I bid you goodnight from Laysan Island, one more day of ops then transit back to Honolulu. It has been 35 straight days at sea, well, not really, as we had about seven days tight up to the pier on Midway. After tour on the KA, 35 straight days was the norm between port calls there. I will probably be reunited with the old girl in January to sail to Samoa. I just have to plan and talk about L flying down there and how long she can stay, or I am willing to allow her to stay. Compared to the weather in Seattle, when she tastes the tropical weather all over again, I may be a bachelor once more, returning to Seattle by myself! If that happened, I would hate life!
Again, goodnight to those in civilization.
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