Another year gone by as well as another decade and how quickly it seems to go. I am readying for another season and leave Seattle on Monday for Hawaii. Rather than looking forward to what is coming up I want to look at the past year and reminiscent.
This blog was born in 2009. It was started to avoid mass mailing of writings that made my e-mails like spam. I will continue with it, and should be quite active from January until May of 2010. I will write on and off while I am ashore from May until July. Then from July until September, the blog will be kept up on an almost daily basis. Not too many events happen while I am ashore aside from mundane office work. However, this year’s controversy over the relocation plans to Newport put some zest into what would be a rather boring shore rotation.
The season started in the deep snows of Bellingham, as I could not make it to the ship as often as I wanted to due to inclement weather. I sailed on the Hi’ialakai taking her back to Hawaii in February where we had a change of command. I stayed in the Aloha State a month before coming back to Seattle. The actual sailing season for me started in May with a trip to Saipan to bring the HI back to Hawaii. The flight was atrociously long starting from Seattle with a stopover in Honolulu and then to Agana, Guam to catch a puddle jumper from there to Saipan. I left Seattle on a Friday night and arrived in Saipan on Saturday night. I worked on Sunday and took some time off to visit the infamous suicide cliffs of Saipan. Please see in the archive, November 9 2009 End of the Season and Saipan Retrospect for notes from that visit.
I visited Midway twice in 2009 and the second time we stayed there for seven days. It was an enjoyable visit and a memorable one as Doc and I found and took photos from the bunker on the beach. This cruises I experienced this past year is one of the primary reasons I enjoy working and sailing on the Hi’ialakai. I look forward to staying on board and making more cruises in the coming year. I will meet her again in Pago Pago in February.
On a personal note, I said goodbye to Ivan. He was a loveable little pug that had health problems since birth. He went through so much and even after the divorce, still remembered me and was overjoyed to see me whenever I went to get my son for the weekend. A friend of mine I have known since my teen years wrote to me to tell me of his mother’s passing. A sign that we were getting older and the torch is passed but we will not be holding it too long.
“L” and I took a trip to the San Francisco Bay Area in August to visit my parents as well as her first visit to San Francisco. Her and my son flew to Hawaii the month before to spend a week vacation in Honolulu. We stayed at the Hale Koa hotel on Waikiki and for the first time I actually played tourist. The year ended with application to immigration to bring “L”’s son to the United States.
It seems every year is measured by sailing rotation schedule since I joined NOAA. When I finished my season in November, I knew that Thanksgiving was around the corner, then the holidays and another year is over. Who knows what 2010 will bring. There will be joys and sorrow as with any component of life.
I will start writing new articles starting January 4. The New Year 2010 is the Year of the Tiger and wishing all of you a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Years.
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