I think fatigue has got the best of me along with anxiety to get home. If I had a month left, all you wish for was time to go by faster while you do your tasks. Now with weeks down to a week and then after this weekend, only days left, excitement is all around the thought of getting home. The third mate made an announcement after recovery of the small boat that this cruise of the season is over, we begin the transit and a visit for the wogs to King Neptune’s realm. I’ll leave it at that.
Spirits lifted to a higher level since the third mate’s announcement as the tired crew look forward to the trip home. Since cranes will not be used for operations I can go ahead and take down the camera that malfunctioned several days ago. Unfortunately it was the same camera pod that decided to fly south at the beginning of the cruise and the only spare camera I had on board to replace the original has broke down as well at that same location. Before we make an investment for a new one, I want to make sure that it wasn’t something simple that could have fixed it.
We are heading north after saying goodbye to Kingman Reef. Talk about a desolate place! The weather this time was not friendly as compared to the trip here two years ago. I recall the seas being calm at the time but was cloudy with a little rain on the day we left. This year the weather was terrible the entire time we were here. There were some days I was glad not to be working outside.
Here is a photo taken today as I noticed I did not take one two years ago. You could see why.
Kingman Reef
I replaced the Kingman Reef map with one of that is Hawaii as that will be our sailing destinations for the remainder of the year. I know once I reach home and happy in reuniting with the wife and children, memories of this cruise will be special. It isn’t over yet so this is no time to get nostalgic until I open the door to my place in Edmonds or the wife and son greets me at the airport.
It isn’t going to be all nirvana on the professional front once I get to Seattle. The office politics is nauseating, especially with this move to Newport, Oregon. The politicos are in a state of delusion thinking it is the panacea to all our problems makes tolerating the environment at the Marine Center worse. If it isn’t one thing or another, management system in Uncle Sam never leaves you alone to do your job. Several years back ETs were under A-76 privatization study for three years, at the urging of a political sycophant who didn’t like the idea of losing a court case. Hey, don’t try to fire me because you lost, fire your lousy lawyers!
And now instead of leaving me to do my job in peace and my family alone to a lifestyle we are at ease, I have to listen to propaganda about how good it is for me and my family of color to move to a homogenous small town on the Oregon coast. It's pretty there but one of those "nice place to visit but...." My opinion has shifted somewhat since we visited Newport last August. “L” and I are not the meat and potatoes type of people and do not consider ourselves “mainstream.”
We dread the thought of driving to Portland for our grocery shopping or make a monthly or quarterly trips to Seattle to stock up on Polynesian goods and foods. We are living in isolation as is and moving to a small town of less than 10,000 people will isolate us even further. We enjoy the day to day life of Seattle, especially its diversity and ethnic neighborhoods. There is infrastructure to support our way of life and retailers that enable us to sustain the way we live. “L” can get medical diagnostics in her own language and my son can continue his post high school studies for ship engineering license in Seattle. As for Newport, can you spell “mandatory assimilation” and a bright future for my sons to particiapte in the all-American sport of cutthroat competition for mowing lawns? You could tell that people like me and “L” and others in similar circumstances were not represented at all in the selection committee.
I bid you goodnight from the North Pacific as we steam our way home to Hawaii.
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