Singapore, Japan Bound, and Overdue

We are now back underway at sea after our brief stop in Singapore. It seems like the entire past few months have been spent at sea. As semi-adventurous as that may sound, it’s basically me staring out a window for 8 hours day. Can’t believe I get paid what I get paid to look out a window. 

The traffic going into Singapore wasn't as bad as I thought it'ld be. Or maybe it was but I've just gotten used to constantly zigging and zagging through it that it doesn't phase me anymore. The fishing boats were pretty heavy as usual and there must have been several hundred ships we passed. 

We were supposed to be in Singapore for 3 days, but it got cut short to just around 48 hours due to some political issues going on in the region which our ship might have to support some ships that that might get involved. I wanted to go to the zoo and have a tiger sit on my lap and ride an elephant, but wound up not having the time to do it. Because of the watch schedule, I spent most of my time on watch. The afternoon I did have off I rode the train a couple cities over and walked around a downtown area. I wound up sitting outside a Starbucks flirting with some local girls for a bit before having to head back to the ship. 

It might just be because we came from the run down shantiest town in the Philippines, but Singapore was exceptionally clean. In fact, I'd say its the most Western-like country I've been in since I started in December (5 and counting). For a minute, I actually thought I was in good 'ol 'Merica. That lasted until on my run I looked left instead of right and just about got laid out by a bus. They just had to go and drive on the wrong side of the rode here. 

The air there was pretty fresh, and like I mentioned earlier the city is so clean. They don't even sell chewing gum in the country so people can't spit it out on the streets. I'm pretty sure if you're caught littering, they'll cane you pretty damn quick. The cops here are for reals.  

And the women here! Oh boy, I must have fallen in love at least 7 times and almost got married twice. Staying here any longer than we did would have been dangerous. People of all descents, Asian, Australlian, Irish, English, Indian, a few Americans...they got them all here with every kind of mix possible. I can see why Singapore is home to so many ex-patriots (proper terminology? probably not)

So I had the afternoon off which I just kinda mosied around checking things out and then I had another night off. Which you know what that means...KARAOKE! You bet, we found a joint and went at it. I kinda broke a Karaoke machine in the Philippines after rocking the house on Livin' On Prayer. This time the Karaoke machine survived for another battle with destiny. 

So we pulled out the next afternoon and are now bound for Okinawa, Japan. We had a destroyer pull up alongside us and fueled them up a few days ago. I think we are giving them more fuel in a few more days before Okinawa. We'll be in Okinawa all of 12 hours before setting sail for Sasebo, Japan, a few days transit to the North. 

I'm hoping against hope that I'll get relieved in Sasebo. We'll be there for a few days but after that pretty much not in port until Guam and Hawaii at the end of June and then Washington. I'm 17 days over-due as it is right now. I have this sinking feeling that I'll be on until Hawaii (I've been there way too much). As much as it stinks to be overdue, I try to keep it positive. I'm already picking up 2 extra paychecks I wasn't planning on, and the overdue pay is compounding nicely. Plus, I'm now only 160 days sailing on my license from upgrading to 2nd Mate!

So thats about all I got for now. Its just been lots of staring out the window into a big empty ocean. I'm looking forward to getting off of here and back into the real world....where it'll be time to cut loose and party up!

Til next time,

Philippines , Overdu, Singapore

Well we made it to the Philippines in once piece. It was nice to walk on solid land again after spending the last month at sea. We were there for a vessel repair period where we had a bunch of contract workers come on board and fix a bunch of broken equipemnt and generally freshen up the ship.

The Philippines is known for being pretty cheap, and I'd have to agree with that after spending the last two weeks there. Beers were a buck everywhere, a 5 star meal at a restaurant would run about 20 bucks, and you could get the fanciest suite at a hotel for just under 75 bucks.

The streets are full of vendors selling fake Rolexes, bootleg DVDs, and fake Ray Ban sunglasses. Though everything is cheap here, you pretty much get what you paid for, the quality of even knock of brands leaves something to be desired. Needless to say, I didn't do much shopping here. I'd have to say the Philippines is the poorest country I've been to so far. I'd go on long runs and all I'd see was little shacks where people would live. 

I really didn't do anything crazy or exciting here. I meant to go to a zoo, but wound up forgetting about it. I plan on going to the one in Singapore there. You can bottle feed a full grown tiger while it sits on your lap. I think that would be pretty neat.

After two weeks of the Philippines, I was ready to get moving on again. 

Speaking of Singapore, we are en route to there now, expecting to pull in in a few days. I am 6 days overdue for relief with no relief in sight. As much as I'm hoping to get off in Singapore, I'm not counting on it. We are only going to be there a couple of days. I'm thinking it will be more like Okinawa at the beginning of June, maybe even Sasebo after that.

 As much as it irks me to be overdue, getting the extra paychecks makes things somewhat better. I've been car hunting for the last few weeks, and change my mind about every 5 minutes. I've gone from used Audis to sporty Mercedes convertibles. I think I've decided to go with a 2012 Audi A4 (though it might be a 2013 by the time I get off of here) with all the bells and whistles. I want something new and exactly the way I want it. And then go on a long, exciting road trip with it.

Singapore is the world's busiest shipping port, so its going to be pretty hectic getting in there. From what I've heard I can expect to be surrounding by a few hundred ships moving at various speeds sometime only a few hundred yards away from me. I'm slightly dreading it, but I know it'll be a good experience. I'll be glad when we are tied up at the dock.



What I'm going to do with my time off pretty much occupies 95% of my thoughts throughout the day. Its hard not think about it when you are so close.....yet so far.

So it's still business as usual. We got a new Captain on board, this makes the 4th Captain I've sailed under in the 5 months I've been on board. He seems pretty good so far, I have no real complaints. I'll post another update when we leave Singapore!

15 Days 'til I'm Outta Here....maybe

It's been a while since my last post, so I'll recap as best I can without getting long winded.

We have had a pretty busy last few weeks. We left Guam and headed West and South to the Phillipines. It took about 3 or 4 days to get to the Eastern side of the islands.

We then cut through the Phillipines to the Eastern side to the South China Sea to meet up with a couple Navy ships to give them some supplies and fuel. After that was over, we went South back through the Phillipines to the South Eastern side. There we met up with an MSC contract ship that exclusively works with special forces and delivered fuel and ammo to them.

The wind in this area is practically non-existent, making for areas where the water is smoother than glass. We are semi-close to the equator (going between 6-8 degrees latitude) so its pretty warm out. It gets so bright outside that between the flat calm waters and the bright sky, you can see so far its hard to see where the water ends and the sky begins.

One thing about the Phillipines is that the fisherman here are absolutely fearless...to the point of suicidal. They will come and stop dead in front of us at less than a mile just to keep us from running over some unseen fishing gear. We try to dodge the fishing gear as much as possible, but we can only do so much.

After we unrepped with the special forces ship we cut back through the Phillipines yet again and came out to the South-Eastern side and steamed for a few hundred miles. We wouund up a few hundred miles to the East of Singapore. Every time we made a cut through the Phillipines, we had to go through some narrow straits and post some guys on the bridge with rifles for a pirate watch....however, nothing excited ever happened and I didn't get to fight any pirates. Damn!

When we got to our point a few hundred miles East of Singapore yesterday, we met up with another AKE (the exact same type of ship I'm on..the Wally Schirra). We pulled up next to them and sent wires across and started transferring our ammo to them...which is a pretty good amount.

When we are done doing this, we will head back North East to Subic Bay, Phillipines...where we are slated to pull into on May 10th.

So thats what I've been up to lately. Its been pretty busy, I've been working 18 hour days pretty consistently. It's gonna be nice to pull into port after 22 day stretch at sea...the whole crew could use some nice R&R.

There is still no relief identified for my May 10th relief date. I won't be surprised if I'm on here at least until we pull into Singapore on the 18th or 19th of May....maybe even around the first week in June when we pull back into Singapore.  Though I could find out May 9th that someone is out to relieve me. My timing wasn't the greatest, the summer relief season is about to begin. But I'm at the point where I'm tired and need some vacation time.

Can't Stop, Won't Stop Gettin' It Done

I feel like the posts are starting to become repetive in their content and nature. I'll try to spice it up, but I make no gurantees for the fans.

We have been very busy here on board the Matthew Perry, I'd say its the busiest time period we've had since I've been with the crew. Since the last post, we left Sasebo headed South-South West to an area near Okinawa and pulled up next to a couple of small helo/aircraft carriers carrying air support for the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). We gave them fuel, mail, food, toilet paper, engine parts, etc, etc. The Captain we have on board prefers to do ConReps via Vert Reps (meaning we connect the ships via wire and send supplies over the wire instead of using helicopters). We do this because it's quicker and more effecient than using helicopters and is also excellent training.

So we spent 2 days shuttling supplies to the Marines and a couple of Navy destroyers. After that we ran back into Sasebo for a couple of days to get more cargo and then headed back out, again on a South by Southwesterly course.

We met up with another destroyer the other day (I loose track of dates and days out here) and once again connected the wires and sent them fuel and palletized cargo. The only difference with this one versus the others we've been doing is what I did. I showed up a little groggy from my post-lunch nap expecting to take my usual place manning the throttles and supervising the helmsman. The Captain had other plans..he said "Mate, your driving today". After a few seconds of making sure my ears weren't playing tricks I  was like...ummm okay, hope this works.

So I took control of the ship and pulled up 100 feet off the side of this destroyer. From there I directed the cargo teams to hook up the wires and send across the fuel hoses. We ran along side them for a couple of hours...every minute of which I was saying a silent prayer that I don't pull the wrong move and sink both ships.  I think such a move would slightly blemish my career.

After the transfer was over, I initiated an emergency break away drill and we were on our way with out a hitch. The Capt. said I had a pretty good grasp on ship handling, so that wasn't too bad. It wasn't too much of a surprise, I know I'm pretty damn good at this job.

Other than the unreps, the transits were pretty typical. Lots of squid fishing boats and heavy shipping traffic. There were some areas where we'ld be chug a luggin along just fine and then the radar would just blow up with traffic...I think I saw smoke coming from it once or twice. At times the boats were so thick I thought we were seeing some uncharted land up ahead of us. But before I could pick a name out for these new found mystery islands to name after the great Mike,  the mass became little dots. I'd drop the radar scale down (basically ignoring the stuff 6-12 miles out and focus on conquering the 3-6 mile stuff) and pick a hole and go through. We never had any close calls but did have boats and a few ships coming within a 1/4 mile at times (we normally like maneuver so fishing boats stay at 1 mile and ships at 2 miles).

So we leave tomorrow after our 24 hour stay in Okinawa. We head to Guam. I'm excited for 4 traffic-less days of blue skies and a warm sun to navigate in. Though its just the calm before the storm. After that we head to the Philippines, where they not only have traffic like Japan, but I hear the fishing boats there are just straight lunatics at some of the stunts they pull. But I've got a slight curiosity and interest to want to getting to deal with it first hand.

So thats about all I got for now. When I'm not on watch, I'm usually working out, reading, or falling asleep on a movie I'll never finish. It's pretty routine life.

Til next time,

Running Supplies! Decision Time!

Since the last posting ,we have left Sasebo and come back.

We steamed South for two days to meet up with a couple of Navy ships carrying Marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit. A couple were like mini aircraft carriers that carried 2 squads of Marine fighter planes, and 2-3 squads of Marine helicopters. We pulled up about 200 yards off the side of the ship (USS Essex and Tortuga) and they launched a helicopter. The helicopter would fly over and over about 10 feet above our flight deck where a crew member would hook a cargo net containing a several pallets of supplies to the helicopter. Then the helicopter would fly back to the ship, drop off the pallets and fly back to repeat. It took about 2 hours a ship and was very cool to watch.

Another thing we did was training with the Marines and Marine Special Forces in the MEU. When the supply transfer was done, we became a hostile enemy ship. The Marines had Harriers flying low and buzzing over our decks, and helicopters carrying them were launched. The choppers came and hovered over our deck while Marines fast-roped down onto it and quickly assaulted and took control of the ship.  Meanwhile, there were helicopters hovering off of our port and starboard side with Marine snipers aiming at anything moving on deck. It was all training...no actual or simulation ammo was fired.

It was all right out of a Marine recruiting video, and truly awesome to watch. Its amazing how professional and lighting fast those guys move and take control. Almost made me go and sign up for the Marines and get in on the fun.......almost.

That lasted 3 days. The Marine did a practice run the first day taking us over and then launched a for real run on us the second day.

After we were done with the MEU, we headed up North to meet up with a couple of more Navy boats. Here we pulled up right in between 2 of them. They were each about 150 feet off of our Port and Starboard sides. I believed they were destroyers of some time. We shot lines across to their deck and sent across fuel hoses and topped them off with fuel. We ran like that connected for a few hours. When that was done, they peeled off and we all went our own ways. It was another fun exercise and a good lesson on close quarter maneuvering.

So now we are back in Sasebo. We will be here for a few days before taking off to another Port in Japan, then Guam, and then I'm not sure what happens after that.

 The day before we left last time, a company I had submitted my resume to called me and offered me a job. The company is called Harvey Gulf Marine. They run Offshore Supply Vessels (OSVs) in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska. I would be sent to work on one of their brand new OSV's in Alaska under a contract for Shell that goes until October. After that, I would be moved to an OSV in the Gulf of Mexico.  I have a conference call here in a couple of days with the office to go over more details of the offer.

I could go on and on about the running list of pros and cons I have going. I love this current job, its been a blast but it would be way to long and boring. It boils down to I can't see myself styaing here and making a career....there would be no way to have a real personal life. Plus the money would be slightly better with a way better work schedule of 28 days on, 14 days off. From hearing from friends that are working for Harvey and similar companies, the job would be as equally rewarding and as fun as it is here.

As the offer stand right now, I believe I will take the job. I would probably be getting off here around May 10th in the Philippines and starting in June. In my gut it feels like the right decision, and I'm not sure if an opportunity like this will come along again. It will enable me to pick up some certifications that will really make me a prime candidate for companies that operate larger ships on a more global scale in the same industry.

Stretching the Sea Legs

Many plans have been made, thrown away, and made again...and then changed many more times since my last posting.

We pulled into Guam to load some pretty top secret and expensive cargo quickly. We pulled into Guam in the afternoon and were throwing off the mooring lines at 8 am sharp the next morning and made a course for Yokosuka, Japan with hopes of actually making it there before the Navy changed their minds once more.

The first couple days of the trip were filled with the standard glorious South Pacific weather which I made the most of basking out on deck reading books in my off time. Then we hit the Phillipine Sea where the waters turned from pristine blue to the more depressing grey of the seas that surround Japan and the rest of this region.

We hit some pretty lively weather, with winds reaching 65 knots in force (75 knots is a weak Cat 1 hurricane winds for perspective). The seas kicked up to about 20 feet on the bow and the ship was rolling and pitching nicely accordingly. On one of my night watches we were getting it pretty good, with the engines making speed for 15 kts and we were lucky to be making 8. The bow would rise up above a wave and then launch into the trough of the next, causing a deluge of water to come shooting over the decks and up to bridge windows. The whole house would shake violently until the bow would dig out of the water and start making her way up the wave. The whole thing was really quite impressive.

We finally got inland to Japan where we were somewhat better sheltered and we pulled into Yokosuka with calm weather and the front that caused the ruckus well to our East. We started cargo operations quickly and were pulling up the anchor the following morning for Sasebo. This time, we could take our time getting to Sasebo, and we made for about 10 kts of average speed.

It seemed like every time I came onto watch, a signal went out to all surrounding vessels to come and mess with the Perry. I was constantly battling traffic every watch. At one point we cut through a fishing fleet that must have consisted of a few hundred boats; it looked like land was ahead of us at times on the radar. It was a pretty good experience to have,though with a price of a hefty headache after each watch.

We pulled into Sasebo the other day. I don't know too much about our future schedule. We will be getting a new Capt here in a few days and then we are going to be running with a battle group of several ships while they conduct target practice somewhere of Japan. We will fuel them and give them ammo while they conduct operations. I think thats supposed to last most of March with us ducking into Sasebo every now and then for overnights.

Sometime in April we will be back in Guam, and then sometime in May we might be dumping our ammo and taking up food stores and supplies and doing runs to the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.  But all that is wildly scheduled to change. For now I'm enjoying this brief rest in Sasebo.

Made plans? Fahghettabout it!

Well we made it to Guam safely. It was by far my favorite ocean passage yet while on board. I had minimal to no traffic almost as soon as we cleared Japan. It was so nice to not have to deal with those damn little fishing boats and shipping that makes that region one of the busiest in the world. One thing I didn’t quite see coming when thinking about doing this route is how stressful it can be underway.  Having to maneuver through and around constant traffic for 8 hours a day can be pretty stressful. Thank goodness its broken into 4 hour segments. Though I’ll admit, it’s excellent practice for navigation, radar plotting, and ship handling.

We were in Guam for 5 nights and 4 days. We offloaded a whole bunch of old ordancince that will make its way back to the states via another ship. I didn’t have too much to do with the cargo offload. I tried to get off the ship as much as possible when I wasn’t on watch and enjoy the tropical climate to its fullest. I went on nice long runs and took some amazing naps on the beaches. I found one trail on a run that was kind of overgrown, like nobody had gone through it in years. So I ran down it and it opened up to a beautiful cove with a completely vacant beach. This is where I wish I could report that there was a scantily clad island girl beckoning me into the almost bath-water warm waters…..but it was just me, some lizards, hermit crabs, and a couple of harmless snakes. 

I only went off-base a few times,  mostly at night. The base itself is in immaculate condition and very well maintained….not so true for the city outside the base. It was just kinda run down and crowded. Though there were some nice beaches. I went off base to do some shopping and get a good steak. If we were there longer I would try to go over to the east side where I here its nicer.  We were on the Southwestern side.

So after a mild sunburn and newfound island energy, its was time to pull out. The ship that is taking our old stuff away and giving us fresh stuff was coming in. We were going to go up the North end of the island and do some practice ops with the local Navy Helicopter squadron and some special forces in the region, then go up North to the island of Saipan and anchor. We would come back into Guam a week later and pick up the ammo. The whole crew was looking forward to it.

However I came up for watch last night and the Capt and 2nd Mate (navigator) were busy talking about the sudden change of plans. We are now going to Yokosuka, Japan. We were routed there by the Fleet commanders to go pick up a submarine periscope and bring it back to Guam. We are going to pull into Yokosuka, spend about 2 hours loading this periscope, and then turn around and head back to Guam.  Like you couldn’t put it on a cargo plane bound for Guam? You have to re-route the entire ship? Its like going the distance from San Fransico to NYC and back for this periscope which measure about 20 feet long and 1.5 feet diameter. Oh well…a job’s a job. Though I’m not looking forward to dealing with that damn Japan traffic again so soon. I was just starting to get used to Guam!

So this whole ordeal has put a 5 day delay in our overall schedule, which had been planned out until the end of April. So after we get back to Guam, anything can happen. We are all hoping we’ll get an extended stay…but not about to put money on it.

So that’s that. We are certainly keeping busy over here. Its much better than sitting around Chinhae, Korea doing nothing like we did in January….which seems like ages ago.