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.
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