Day two at Midway, the work tempo compared to yesterday, casual. It consisted of daily rounds, preventive maintenance actions, inspections and unplanned maintenance of the V-SAT Satellite Internet system. I had to get off the ship to refresh myself. After completing the workday, I did something I have not done in years. I went and rode a bike around the island. The last time I rode a bike, Clinton was president and in his first term. Fish and Wildlife provided us with 15 bicycles to use. It is good exercise and beats walking around in this heat. I was looking for one with training wheels, no not really, and off I went to familiar paths around the former Naval Air Facility Midway. I stopped at several places to listen to silence of no cars, phones, television, radios, music, people, traffic, or sounds of the city. All you hear is the sound of the blowing wind, waving trees and flapping of bird wings.
I rode around the usual paths through Metropolis Midway and rode to the large hangar next to the active runway. I saw a maintenance scooter come down a path I have not noticed before. I took that path, which lead to the beach but had some interesting side paths. I took a side path littered with the obnoxious weed, Golden Crownbeards, while birds of different species flew away as you approached. The road littered with carcass of Layson Albatross that did not make it. What they perished from, who knows. The crunching of their bones below the bike tires as well as the bumping and flying feathers indicated nature’s method of determining who was the strongest. This obscure path lead me to the old north-south runway of which I headed north as the FAA was testing the landing lights of the active runway to the south. I was riding my bike on vintage World War II runway where Marine and Army Air Corps fighters and bombers took off to attack the approaching Japanese carrier fleet in 1942. For many when their planes lifted off this very island, it was to be their last day on this planet.
The runway ended at a beach, of course, since this is an island. Unfortunately, the photogenic beach was littered with plastic or other rubbish you find from civilization. As many of you have read in the press or heard on public radio, Midway and this part of the Pacific is a landfill of plastic washing ashore from the Pacific Rim. The local museum has probably the world’s largest collection of plastic lighters. Many of those lighters displayed or stored in bins came from bird carcass. NOAA Ship Oscar Elton Sette has been cleaning up these islands and its surrounding waters for many years.
I returned to the ship after riding around for an hour. It was good exercise and had fun while doing it. Doc and I made advanced plans to go to the library and find the World War II beach pillbox on the south side of the island. I wanted to see an old power plant building that was shelled by Japanese cruisers right after Pearl Harbor. Japanese planes strafed it during the attack on Midway six months later. We took old magazines from the ship to donate to the atoll library and then journeyed to find the beach pillbox. Along the way I asked Doc, who was driving, if he noticed the electric cart was running slower than usual. As we approached an old bunker, the cart started to die and it did. After seeing the old pillbox and taking pictures, Doc and I pushed it across the runway and at times looked like the Flintstones in pedaling the car. We made it to the old power plant, took more pictures, and read a marker that indicated several people had lost their lives during the Japanese shelling and that one of the officers awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously. A local maintenance person came by and gave us a push to his shop where we recharged the golf cart and returned to the ship.
Days like this do not occur often when you work here. It is encouraged to take some time and get off the ship to refresh the mind and body. You may work eight hours or longer while at sea but you are physically never away from your job. It is unusual to be able to do what I do and I love this job, but it does come with sacrifices. You probably know what I mean and that is separation from the family.
Today was one of those days where I did not care for the beautiful beaches or the fact that I am standing at a place very important in world history. I wondered what my wife was doing and knowing the weather in Seattle was getting colder as October arrived, I thought of how she was coping. After the ship and island barbecue get together, I returned to the ship to call the wife. On the way back, riding a bike of course, I noticed we had a full moon. Full moon and the warm weather hold a significant meaning deep in our hearts.
In 2002, I sailed on the Townsend Cromwell from Honolulu to American Samoa. A full moon gleamed brightly over the November Pacific seas. That is when I met my wife. In 2005, I returned to Samoa after not seeing my wife, girlfriend back then, for nearly two years. Sailing schedules and other issues kept me away from her. I was positive she had a boyfriend or had married. Despite the former, she waited for me at the airport. A few nights later, there was a full moon and we kissed under a tall banana tree while the moon shone brightly creating a silhouette of us. Full moon nights are dazzling over the oceans while over land to me is only beautiful on tropical islands. I include Nuku Hiva in the Marquises Island in French Polynesia along side Samoa. Was the moon over Midway beautiful? Yes, it is.
Tomorrow is departure day and I have to get up early to start the pre-deployment inspection process. We will return here next week for three nights stay. Swimming and snorkeling at North Beach will my recreational goal then. Meanwhile, I bid you goodnight from Midway.
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