Join the Navy and see the world! well, you'll definetly see it from a distance. this trip, we saw The Bahamas, Fort Lauderdale, Mayport Florida, New York City, and Bermuda...
the north east rim of the caribbean. we went by all of them during our last underway... we even saw some of them... but, we only stopped and went into Mayport. We first headed south to Fort Lauderdale. We spent 5 hours doing circles off the coast for some testing, and then headed north to mayport. mayport is a great little naval base to be stationed at or to visit during the winter... but, it helps to have a car there to go anywhere or its a 20 dollar cab ride to atlantic beach.
ive been to atlantic beach before, and several other places in florida... and it seems like each little beach place tries to act like its in the heart of the caribbean... conch fritters, even tho
ugh there is no conch, and reggae and calypso music and bright colours and hawaian shirts give it the feel of anywhere USA faux-caribbean beach town. you definitely know you're in the temperate zone though, because everyday 30 minutes before sunset you have a thunderstorm... and then, you have a nice sunset.
after our weekend in mayport, we headed south again to the Bahamas. people pay lots of money to cruise through the bahamas... and although, i spent all of my watches in combat, i managed to go up
and take a look on a few occassions and watch some of
the sunsets and just revel in the beautiful water. We spent 2 days off Andros Island doing circles and some more testing... going 18 knots and making sharp turns we cut quite a wake and displayed contrast in the water between the normal deep dark clear blue and the lighter turqoise blue of the distur
bed water. throughout it all, there was Andros Island, just off in the distance... people on the beach enjoying themselves... just the other side of the reef, you could see the change in water colour. i had thoughts to swim for it and enjoy a new life as a beach bum in the bahamas... but i was lazy. as we dieseled away from the bahamas, i looked at the chart, and somewhere near Andros Island is a place called Booby Island, guarded by the perilous Booby rocks. I pointed it out on the chart to the officer relieving me in combat, and went to sleep.
and after our time down south, we spent a week off of virginia doing exercises and training... then, came Hurricane Isablle, ready to destroy the entire fleet. and Ortie Sortie 2011 was on. Ortie being the nickname of one of the junior officers (who's birthday it was that week
end). first things first, we had to onload an LCU (landing craft utility), theyre not particularly safe in harbor during a storm, and with a max speed of 13 knots, they cant really go anywhere. so, they're safest inside our well deck, heavily griped down, and secured with wooden shoring. after that the fleet rendezvoused 300 miles off the coast and headed east. one early morning when i was on watch, we were only 40 miles from bermuda. the rumour was one of the ships "broke" and went into bermuda to effect repairs... i wondered where we could fit... i knew we'd never make it through the channel to st george, but, maybe we could have anchored off hamilton. the whole of bermuda is protected by coral reef, so it's a rather
treacherous approach. aft
er the storm passed hampton roads, all the amphibious ships were detached and sent to stand off the coast of new york in case they needed assistance. they didn't and eventually, we headed home, after taking some sweet photos. WASP, SAN ANTONIO, and NEW YORK... all at sea and doing cool navy stuff like flight ops, and divtacs.
Soon, we'll head back to NYC. my last underway on NYK will be to NYC.
the north east rim of the caribbean. we went by all of them during our last underway... we even saw some of them... but, we only stopped and went into Mayport. We first headed south to Fort Lauderdale. We spent 5 hours doing circles off the coast for some testing, and then headed north to mayport. mayport is a great little naval base to be stationed at or to visit during the winter... but, it helps to have a car there to go anywhere or its a 20 dollar cab ride to atlantic beach.
ive been to atlantic beach before, and several other places in florida... and it seems like each little beach place tries to act like its in the heart of the caribbean... conch fritters, even tho
ugh there is no conch, and reggae and calypso music and bright colours and hawaian shirts give it the feel of anywhere USA faux-caribbean beach town. you definitely know you're in the temperate zone though, because everyday 30 minutes before sunset you have a thunderstorm... and then, you have a nice sunset.
after our weekend in mayport, we headed south again to the Bahamas. people pay lots of money to cruise through the bahamas... and although, i spent all of my watches in combat, i managed to go up
and take a look on a few occassions and watch some of
the sunsets and just revel in the beautiful water. We spent 2 days off Andros Island doing circles and some more testing... going 18 knots and making sharp turns we cut quite a wake and displayed contrast in the water between the normal deep dark clear blue and the lighter turqoise blue of the distur
bed water. throughout it all, there was Andros Island, just off in the distance... people on the beach enjoying themselves... just the other side of the reef, you could see the change in water colour. i had thoughts to swim for it and enjoy a new life as a beach bum in the bahamas... but i was lazy. as we dieseled away from the bahamas, i looked at the chart, and somewhere near Andros Island is a place called Booby Island, guarded by the perilous Booby rocks. I pointed it out on the chart to the officer relieving me in combat, and went to sleep.
and after our time down south, we spent a week off of virginia doing exercises and training... then, came Hurricane Isablle, ready to destroy the entire fleet. and Ortie Sortie 2011 was on. Ortie being the nickname of one of the junior officers (who's birthday it was that week
end). first things first, we had to onload an LCU (landing craft utility), theyre not particularly safe in harbor during a storm, and with a max speed of 13 knots, they cant really go anywhere. so, they're safest inside our well deck, heavily griped down, and secured with wooden shoring. after that the fleet rendezvoused 300 miles off the coast and headed east. one early morning when i was on watch, we were only 40 miles from bermuda. the rumour was one of the ships "broke" and went into bermuda to effect repairs... i wondered where we could fit... i knew we'd never make it through the channel to st george, but, maybe we could have anchored off hamilton. the whole of bermuda is protected by coral reef, so it's a rather
treacherous approach. aft
er the storm passed hampton roads, all the amphibious ships were detached and sent to stand off the coast of new york in case they needed assistance. they didn't and eventually, we headed home, after taking some sweet photos. WASP, SAN ANTONIO, and NEW YORK... all at sea and doing cool navy stuff like flight ops, and divtacs.
Soon, we'll head back to NYC. my last underway on NYK will be to NYC.
