Keep Going! We'll Get There Eventually!

In any yard period there are times you feel like you are at the point where nothing will be accomplished. The trip home is a long distance away and feels that it may never happen. The ship is disassembled and you wonder if something as minor as the new door will ever be attached or decks reinstalled where the plates were torn out. The dates that were planned where we were to move back onto the ship and as well dates when the ship is to be put back in the water and prepare to sail home becomes fluid. Fatigue sets in as well as the body trying to adjust to change of climate. I was to work last weekend but exhaustion and fell ill early on a Sunday morning. After attempting to recover it was time to make breakfast before going to work. Instead I took a day off for rest. So two days off in a row on a weekend! The first time this occurred since August of this year excluding vacation.

This past week consisted of twelve hour days. This was to make up for not working last weekend. Working out at the gym before heading back to the hotel was took a side step with Christmas shopping. This upcoming week may be the same but will have to wait and see. The ship hired a temporary from a job shop who was a valuable asset! I certainly wished we had people like him working full time. He was a young man with a family who has zeal and interest to do the work. I did my part to show him and teach him techniques to pad up his resume. I am hoping the contract will be renewed so he can work with me on other projects of importance until the ship departs for Hawaii. On another note though, there were things he could do that I could not! Or better put no longer could. Is it any wonder why most workers my age have been promoted to desk jobs? 

What does one do on the ship for entertainment? You’ve probably seen scenes from TV shows or movies where movies are played on DVD players and broadcasted throughout the ship. On our ship we do have television that are mainly news feeds for cable television networks. So we could see the same news op-eds three times a day for different time zones. BBC International and Fox News have live shows but op-eds can be repeated. We have Skye News and Skye Sports. At first many of the crew were excited that we were getting a sports channel. They do show football scores and highlights but not the kind of football of NCAA or NFL games. MSNBC and CNBC are nothing but feeds for cable outlets in different time zones. Then there is the !E channel of Hollywood gossip shared with a network from Australia. Unlike the time I was on the Kaimimoana, the ship had receiving capabilities to get Armed Forces Network. Unfortunately where the antenna sat there were quite a bit of blockage where we would go days without television reception. This was due to the North to South and West to East and vice versa routes the ship would take for its buoy missions.

The quality of television programs encourages me to buy books and take those along for entertainment. Or while I am at home or docked ashore fill up my iPad, iPod and iPhone full of Podcasts that I can listen to while at sea. Unfortunately the Internet speeds at sea are so slow that a simple podcasts could take hours to download.  The ships installed their first Internet capabilities eight years ago with Sette being one of the first. However, the bandwidth is extremely limited so we are using the Internet like it was if it was 1995! There are times you cannot get on-line due to its heavy use. In can be a tiring wait in this day and age of applet dominated web sites. Or better yet you receive a nasty gram in your e-mail that a required training course is nearing its due date and you must complete it or else! So you go to the website and try to start your course and along come applets. Or you have to install the latest Java. When updates were automated and dispatched from shore to eliminate the local security update server, Java was to be included. However with notices constantly appearing on local desktops, Java has to be updated locally via the Internet. With slow speed that can be time consuming. Upon completion of installation of Java or Adobe the applets takes forever to download the graphics and at times never finishes downloading at all! 

Working towards the holidays at which the wife will fly from Hawaii to join me. Then it’s off to the Central Coast of California to spend Christmas in Cambria and New Years at Big Sur.