We Have Arrived

At the launch site, that is.

I woke up this morning to the familiar "Vertical Rumble" of the ship being held in place with the Dynamic Positioning System. Our stern is into the wind and waves right now, which means every so often a big roller will come along, and pick up the stern, causing us to slap back down with a big WHAM! after it passes.

The two ships will be moving around for the next couple of days as we transfer people and gear back and forth using the link bridge and the helicopter, and then settle down into the final launch position about 24~36 hours prior to launch, depending on a lot of things I'm not privy to.

Hopefully we'll get this bird off the pad on time, and then head back home on December 4th.

So probably light posting until then.

Peter Gabriel "In Your Eyes"

From the "Secret World Live" concert.

This concert always blows me away.....a masterpiece in staging, lighting, and performing.








love I get so lost, sometimes
days pass and this emptiness fills my heart
when I want to run away
I drive off in my car
but whichever way I go
I come back to the place you are

all my instincts, they return
and the grand facade, so soon will burn
without a noise, without my pride
I reach out from the inside

in your eyes
the light the heat
in your eyes
I am complete
in your eyes
I see the doorway to a thousand churches
in your eyes
the resolution of all the fruitless searches
in your eyes
I see the light and the heat
in your eyes
oh, I want to be that complete
I want to touch the light
the heat I see in your eyes

love, I don't like to see so much pain
so much wasted and this moment keeps slipping away
I get so tired of working so hard for our survival
I look to the time with you to keep me awake and alive

and all my instincts, they return
and the grand facade, so soon will burn
without a noise, without my pride
I reach out from the inside

in your eyes
the light the heat
in your eyes
I am complete
in your eyes
I see the doorway to a thousand churches
in your eyes
the resolution of all the fruitless searches
in your eyes
I see the light and the heat
in your eyes
oh, I want to be that complete
I want to touch the light,
the heat I see in your eyes
in your eyes in your eyes
in your eyes in your eyes
in your eyes in your eyes

ARRRRGH!!!! NO MILK!!!!

They had some kind of failure in one of the refrigerated conatiners that they store some of the food in, and ALL the milk was determined to be unfit for human consumption.

SO.....all we have are boxes of "Shelf Stable" milk, and ONLY for breakfast.

I think I'm gonna cry.......

Here Be Dolphins

The photo guys were out zooming around today taking 'beauty shots' of the two ships in formation, and they noticed a group (pod?) of dolphins.

They were swimming between the two ships, and heading the same way we are.

They took dozens of pix, but I thought this one looked the most interesting.

Enjoy!

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Light Posting Due To Busyness

Well.....at least they served us a very nice Thanksgiving dinner.

The turkey was moist, the potatoes were smooth, the gravy was great, and the stuffing was excellent.

I'm told one of the Admin Assistants back in Home Port sent the Chief Catering Officer onboard several recipes, along with strict orders to NOT deviate from them!

While most of the time the food is pretty good here, there are times when the Norwegian cooking staff will make some "modifications" to standard American food with some pretty bizarre results.

A raw egg on a hamburger?

Pickles on Pizza???

Corn on Pizza????

WTF??

And our customer has been playing games with the scheduling of their test events that my group supports.

They won't begin their RF testing until MIDNIGHT the day before launch, finishing up at 0200!

And we have to be back on-console at 0600 to start the countdown for a launch at 1245.

They don't seem to realize or understand that if they slip even an hour, or God forbid TWO hours, we'll most likely have to scrub the launch for that day, as we have pretty strict requirements for crew rest.

Given their track record (the day we worked 18 hours), I'm not holding out much hope for this launch to go off on time.

Hope you're all having a great weekend. I had to work today, but Sunday will be a day of rest and contemplation.

Rockin' And Rollin' and Happy Thanksgiving!

We pushed right on time at 1000, and then sat outside the breakwater for about FOUR HOURS while they calibrated some of the nave gear to play nice with the Dynamic Positioning System.

They were having some "issues" (GAWD I hate that term!) with the system, but got everything figured out, and we're on our way.

We went past Catalina Island around 1800, and we're hitting the long duration swells from the storm system that hammer the North West a few days ago.

The weather guy says 4 meter seas will be coming our way tonight, so that means tie everything down before we hit the hay.

These are slow rollers, so it's not like we're getting slammed going through a big storm, but even on this ship (~660 feet long, 107 foot beam) we get bounced around quite a bit.

Time to watch a movie, and go to bed early.....things I always do the first day out, along with eating a LIGHT lunch, and a LIGHT dinner.

Hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

All Packed And ready To Go

Spent last night packing up my stuff and loading the Jeep. I'll drop it off Wednesday morning, and they'll lift it on to the ship for me.

All our gear is stowed and ready for transit.

The helicopters arrived last night, and the pilots and mechanic are getting settled in after a few IT issues I helped them out with.

One of the pilots just returned from another tour as a civilian contractor in Afghanistan, and it sounds like he'll have some more good stories to tell.

And my dear wife has been baking up a storm since Sunday afternoon. I got home last night and was greeted by the lovely aroma of......CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!

Yep, she's making me up a care package to take with me, but I doubt it will survive more than a few days. Seems like anytime somebody opens up a package of home made stuff, people come out of the woodwork in the office, and it just evaporates.

Last launch one of the guys brought three pans of home made fudge his wife put togther for him to take.

I think it lasted 4 days!

Probably blow out of here early to get the last of my running around errands done.

We're scheduled to push from the pier about 0930, which means we'll clear Queen's Gate about 1015 or so.

Then a life boat drill, lunch, and a quick nap in my cabin. I don't get seasick like some people do, but I've found if I have a light lunch, and take a nap, I'm good to go at 100% the next day. I didn't do that last time, and it took me a day or two to get my sea legs!

$60 Meade Spotting Scope At Costco

DO NOT BUY ONE!

I went to Costco today to stock up on some stuff for my upcoming trip, and as I wandered the aisles, I saw these on the shelf.

Hmm....20~60x 60MM, angled eyepiece, in a "Pelican" type case WITH a collapsible 15" to 44" tripod.

I figured the tripod would be junk (it is), but I was unprepared for just how BAD this little scope is.

To begin with, it has such short eye relief that I can NOT use it, at all, even on the 20 power setting, with my glasses on.

At the 60 power setting, even with my glasses off, I had to have my eye completely buried in the eye cup to use it.

The image isn't very bright considering the 60mm objective lens size, so I don't know what they "Fully Coated" the optics with....maybe water?

Yes, I should have known better, considering my $400+ Vortex didn't meet my particular needs, but I thought I give one a try considering Costco's no-nonsense return policy.

My rating?

ZERO out of five possible stars.

Looks like I'll just have to bite the bullet, and get that $600 Nikon I've had my eye on.....pun intended!
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The One True Religion: The Church of Aircraft

Title shamelessly stolen from Depleted Cranium.

This is absolutely hilarious, so go read it.

Ready To Go Again

Just finished up stowing and securing our equipment on the launch platform for transit.

They're leaving Saturday morning, and we'll be leaving on Wednesday morning.

Saturday I'll go to Costco and stock up on my personal goodies, and Monday I'll start dragging my laptop, camera, and DVD collection in and stow them in my work space.

Really sucks to be away from home on Thanksgiving, but then I keep reminding myself I'm lucky to have a relatively high paying job AT ALL, and I only have this launch, and one more, before I can retire.

If they'd like me to come back *as a contractor* to support future launches, I'll consider it, but it would take $750 per day to get me to go to sea again.

I use that dollar amount because I know that's what they're already paying some of the other contractors, and they're aren't too many people around who can do this type of work. Plus, since I live locally, they won't have to pay air fair to get me here, or provide hotel accommodations and a per diem for me while waiting to leave.

OUCH!.......EIGHTEEN Hours Today

Went in at 0600......got off at 2400.

Pardon me while I go collapse..............
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