My time on the Apache is over, and hopefully my training time is another two weeks closer to being complete.
What was supposed to be a week-long towing event with for the Navy SEALS wound up being just a really
really really long one 24hr event due to high winds in the area we were going.
We (Jessie and Nick, the two other augment (training) mates) showed up at the Apache last Friday morning. From there, there really wasn’t much of anything to do, we had the whole weekend off. In fact, almost had the whole ship to ourselves. Most of the crew, from all the officers to most of the non-licensed crew live around the area and go home at 5pm and on weekends. It is pretty much just the watchstanders that stay aboard after quitting time. So I watched a lot of movies over the weekend and just kicked my feet up relaxing.
On Monday we did pre-two inspections. This consisted of making sure all the equipment we were going to be using on the Apache as well as everything on the Del Monte (the vessel we were towing) was in proper order and safe to use. Lots of boring but necessary paperwork.
The tow officially started at Tuesday at 4am. We shifted down a couple docks to the Del Monte, backed up to her, and hooked our synthetic Nylon 16 inch diameter towing hawser (like a big rope) up to Del Monte’s chain bridle. After getting the all clear around 6am we scooted on out of the harbor at Little Creek and out to the anchorage.
The trip out went smooth and took about 5 hours or so. We move along at about 6-8kts while towing the Del Monte about 650 ft behind us. With a normal tow (like the one coming up in Hawaii) we would normally tow about 2000 feet behind, but it was a short trip in traffic so we kept it up short.
After we got to the anchorage, we disconnected the tow and Del Monte dropped her anchor. From there we took Apache about a mile away and started doing drills…lots and lots of drills. We had to do them all as it is a requirement for our towing endorsement.
The first drill was man overboard (MOB) Where someone on the stern would throw two 20 gallon jugs tied together overboard and we (training mates) took turns conning the ship to maneuver beside the jugs to pick them back up with a grapple hook. We each did it 3 times. And let me tell you, I ACED it. I got the Apache right along side them at a dead stop every time. I’m becoming quite the ace at maneuvering twin screws. This isn’t really a big surprise, I mean; it is me we are talking about.
After that we practiced anchor drills, where we took turns conning from the bridge and dropping the anchor at the bow. Not a difficult exercise, pretty straight forward. The hardest part about this is letting go the anchor off the brake. When that anchor and chain gets moving, it really gets going. Every 90 feet of chain is called a shot, which is marked by one red painted link with the shot number painted in white links on either side. I.e. One shot is one red with one white link on either side, two shots is one red with 2 white links on either side. We were putting 2-3 shots out and catching those white links (which were pretty faded and rusted out) could be tough. But we did it like champs and moved on.
The next drill was an oil spill drill. We emptied about 200 gallons of black oil over the side of the ship and tried to clean it up. I’m joking, I’m joking! We just went over the equipment and how to use it and what not.
During this time the Navy SEALS were attacking and drilling on Del Monte. I can’t say any details, but it was very cool to watch them when we had the chance. They attacked by land and sea with incredible skill, precision, and equipment.
By the time all this was over it as about 5pm. We anchored for good and went to dinner. We were able to grab a couple hours of sleep and then it was time to get back to work preparing to tow Del Monte back in. We backed up to her around 9 pm and started to make tow. After the connection was made, Del Monte pulled up her hook and we waited for the all clear to proceed from the Navy. We started in about 11pm and disconnected outside the breakwater around 3am.
By that time we were all feeling the time and were pretty tired so we hauled ass to the dock, tied up as fast as we could and you’ve never seen a crew get to the rack quicker. I think I wound up in bed around 5am. A good day of hard work! It felt pretty good to do some hard work after months of really not doing much in other training.
So that was my time on the Apache. The rest of the time was spent pretty much sitting around again. I’m now sitting in the Norfolk airport waiting on my delayed flight to take me San Diego where I will get on the salvage tug Salvor. It is the same type of ship as the Grapple which I’ve done previous training on. We sit around for a week and then are towing a ship to Hawaii, making landfall the on Dec 7th. I’ll try do an update before then and post pictures from the Apache tow.
Til then, take care! Hakuna matata!
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