Hey all,
Well, we just left Ventspils, Latvia after a short 2 day port visit. We actually pulled in on the 15th, but shortly after mooring and getting all the pier services hooked up, the weather deteriorated quickly. We were getting 40 mph steady wind (enough to turn an umbrella inside out and rip your arm off in the process!) w/ gusts up to 60 mph. Since the winds were blowing us off the pier, it put an undue strain on our mooring lines. As we waited for tugs to come and help us reconfigure our mooring lines, we actually parted a couple of them. After that, the CO made the determination to send the ship back to sea to weather the storm and bad winds overnight. So we had an emergent u/w on top of a day pulling in, which made it a really long day. I will say this, when the ship goes into crisis mode, the Sailors perform flawlessly. For all the training we do to maintain readiness, when a real situation happens, they all rise to the occasion and execute their jobs w/ professionalism and great attention to detail…but it does make for long days ;)
We pulled back in the next day and had to do the whole process of mooring the ship, configuring shore services (water, sewage, etc)…added to the busy routine were ship tours and a VIP luncheon for the US Ambassador to Latvia and several other high ranking Latvian Congressmen. I had duty that day, so there was little rest for the weary ;) Over the 16th and 17th, my engineers had several emergent repairs to make to our plant to ready us for sea again, so I spent most of those two days supervising big repair jobs. Yesterday was also full of ship tours for the Latvian public. By the time liberty went down yesterday, I was so exhausted, I decided not to head out in town, opting instead for a night of relaxation (watched a couple movies on my PC), studying (for my EOOW qual), and an early bed time. Yesterday was a much needed rest day, where I got to hit the RESET button, and get some good sleep in w/o interruption (Azzy’s going through the same thing w/ Connor too, she deserves more than I do ;)
Sorry no pics from Latvia, I’ll see if others post their pics from here later. We’re collecting all the pics from Cruise on our LAN, maybe there will be some good ones to send from here.
Until then, hope all are well!
- J.R.
Well, we just left Ventspils, Latvia after a short 2 day port visit. We actually pulled in on the 15th, but shortly after mooring and getting all the pier services hooked up, the weather deteriorated quickly. We were getting 40 mph steady wind (enough to turn an umbrella inside out and rip your arm off in the process!) w/ gusts up to 60 mph. Since the winds were blowing us off the pier, it put an undue strain on our mooring lines. As we waited for tugs to come and help us reconfigure our mooring lines, we actually parted a couple of them. After that, the CO made the determination to send the ship back to sea to weather the storm and bad winds overnight. So we had an emergent u/w on top of a day pulling in, which made it a really long day. I will say this, when the ship goes into crisis mode, the Sailors perform flawlessly. For all the training we do to maintain readiness, when a real situation happens, they all rise to the occasion and execute their jobs w/ professionalism and great attention to detail…but it does make for long days ;)
We pulled back in the next day and had to do the whole process of mooring the ship, configuring shore services (water, sewage, etc)…added to the busy routine were ship tours and a VIP luncheon for the US Ambassador to Latvia and several other high ranking Latvian Congressmen. I had duty that day, so there was little rest for the weary ;) Over the 16th and 17th, my engineers had several emergent repairs to make to our plant to ready us for sea again, so I spent most of those two days supervising big repair jobs. Yesterday was also full of ship tours for the Latvian public. By the time liberty went down yesterday, I was so exhausted, I decided not to head out in town, opting instead for a night of relaxation (watched a couple movies on my PC), studying (for my EOOW qual), and an early bed time. Yesterday was a much needed rest day, where I got to hit the RESET button, and get some good sleep in w/o interruption (Azzy’s going through the same thing w/ Connor too, she deserves more than I do ;)
Sorry no pics from Latvia, I’ll see if others post their pics from here later. We’re collecting all the pics from Cruise on our LAN, maybe there will be some good ones to send from here.
Until then, hope all are well!
- J.R.
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