Reporting from 15*50'N, 137*28'W
Well....we're about half-way to the launch site. The weather's been cloudy, and over the next day or two we'll be going through the Intertropical Convergence Zone, a.k.a "The Doldrums".
This means we'll hit some rain, sometimes quite heavy, but no particular "storms" to mention.
Had our safety training on boarding/unboarding the helicopter, and a few other things. One of the pilots giving the life vest part actually pulled the ring so we could see how fast they inflate, and how big they got. Seems if you pop one open, you'll have some trouble getting out through the window, which you push out to act as the emergency exit if things get so bad as to require a water "landing". The Bell 212 we have onboard is equipped with floats, BUT if you slide the doors open, they slice into the floats, a definite Bad Thing!
One really good thing they did when this ship was in drydock a couple of months ago was to polish and rebalance the propeller. For the first time at-sea, the vibration level is very low, and things don't rattle around in our office area, which is at the stern of the ship.
Not much else going on for now. We'll get insanely busy the closer we get to the launch site, so we're all enjoying the time to relax for now.
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What I've Been Up To....
Started this post on Monday, then came down with a head cold, which is now progressing South. Feeling better, but still a bit woozy...... To...
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Good points re the vest. :-) And yeah, fitting out through those little windows can be fun! Good thing they don't make y'all go through the dunker...
ReplyDeleteYeah....these days they'd probably consider it 'hazing'!
ReplyDeleteThey had to really tone down the King Neptune ceremony after a customer complained. It wasn't *nearly* as "traditional" as it was in the Navy, but still, somebody griped, and now they just hand out the certificates.
Gee....does that make me a real Shellback, or not....?
Considering this is my 17th mission, and on each mission we "cross" the Equator 6 times or more while we maneuver the ships around, I've got a LOT of "Equator Crossings"!