Final Day

The day has finally arrived, when my relief joins and not a moment to soon.  I won’t be sorry to see the back of Rosie as it hasn’t been a great trip and will be good to get home.  I am a little nervous about going home as I know I won’t be allowed to relax as there is so much to do around the house and garden as well as looking after Debbie and the little one.  I am a little worried about finances as well.  I had hoped to try and save money this trip but everytime I had managed to save a little bit we had expenses come up at home.  I had a couple of bonuses during the trip but they seem to have all disappeared, even the money I had back from spectre went out of my account as soon as it went in.  I had hoped that the three of us would be able to have a couple of nights away when I got home but it is not going to happen.  It seems most of my Sunday’s are going to be taken up by going to car boot sales again this leave and I hate car boot sales.  If it gives us a bit more money then all the better.

 

Well I fly home tomorrow evening so hopefully I will be home for about 2130, it will be nice to be home but I don’t know how much sleep I will get because no doubt little one will be up in the middle of the night.  At least I will be home for her first birthday.  She will be too young to understand but I am sure she will have a nice day.  Then on Saturday Debbie has invited lots of people around to celebrate little ones first Birthday.  We are looking at a BBQ although with the way the weather is and the number of people I am not to sure.  If we do, do a BBQ we will keep things relatively simple I think. In some ways though I think for the number of people coming, it would be easier to do a buffet.

 

 

 

The Final Countdown

I am now into the final count down.  It is my final weekend onboard and my relief joins the day after tomorrow.  Over the past few days I have been accused of wishing my life away as I have been counting down the days.  To some extent this is true; whatever we do we always seem to be wishing our lives away as we are constantly looking to the future.  We look ahead and say tomorrow, next week, next month I will be doing such and such.  Is this a bad thing, well I think it is and it isn’t.  There is nothing wrong with looking ahead and looking forward to things.  However if you look ahead and plan things that never happen, then it is bad as life really does get wasted. We do live in a wasteful society though and there are so many distractions around us that help us waste our lives away.

 

I think everyone has hopes and dreams and a few have ambition.  Few however realise all their dreams within a lifetime and many dreams just turn out to be pipe dreams.  This coming leave I am determined to grab the bull by it’s horns and try to make progress to realising some of my dreams.  I know I will only achieve a small amount of what I would like to achieve due to time constraints but if I focus I hope to achieve something this leave as many of my previous leaves have been wasted.

 

Well home Tuesday and then little one’s first birthday on Wednesday.  I really can’t believe that she is almost a year old, where has the time gone.  I do sometimes worry about what sort of world she will grow up in.  What sort of future will she have?  Energy costs are soaring, food costs are going to follow suit.  At present there is a baby boom which means that competition for jobs when she is older will be even greater and then there are all the other worries such as climate change and terrorism.  Maybe it is best not to think to hard about these things as one will only get depressed.  However I don’t believe we can ignore them, we need to prepare for them.

 

Anyway three days left and counting, I will soon be home and can turn my back on what has been a depressing and tedious trip.  The last five and a half months have gone by far too slowly, but hopefully my leave won’t speed by.

 

 

Final Week

The last couple of days have been quite busy but at least they have made the time go quickly.  After sailing Monday we headed up the Minches past my Benbecula, where Aunty Rosemary lives and anchored of Stornoway.  On route we conducted a paper exercise to test out the emergency response organisation.  Although it was a paper exercise it was useful to write all the signals and see how the system works. 

 

We then moved into the MCA and SALMO exercise, this was a little frustrating as we all got into position nice and early.  However the Emergency Towing Vessel was two hours late.  Parts of the exercise were interesting, especially when they called out the MCA helo to pass a tow line.

 

During the exercise I took a couple of photos on my phone, and then uploaded them straight to the internet.  I am still amazed by the technology that is now available.  I wonder what the future will bring.

 

Well I am now into my final week onboard, well final six days as I go home on Tuesday.  I really can’t wait to get on leave as after 5 ½  months, three Captains (or 4 changes of command), three XO’s and two Ships, I am absolutely exhausted.  I would like to think that when I get home I will be able to have a break but I know it’s not going to happen as I have my work cut out.  It should be more relaxed though and I am really looking forward to seeing Debbie and the little one.  I know Debbie is looking forward to me getting home as she is struggling at the moment and is finding it harder to get around.  I just hope the little one starts to sleep better because at the moment it seems she is up during the night and I could really do with one or two undisturbed nights sleep as I can’t remember the last time I didn’t wake up two or three times during the night.

 

I hope to have the opportunity to get a night or so wild camping whilst on leave but the time is rapidly running out as the weather will be turning.  I have so much to do at home with trying to get on top of the garden.  I also have quite a bit of decorating to do, I will be able to do that in little bits and I am actually looking forward to do physical work rather than mental work for a bit.  Hopefully I will be able to start loosing weight again when I get home.

 

 

The Lonely Sea And The Sky

Almost into the final week onboard and I am now really looking forward to getting off and going home on leave.  I spoke to Debbie earlier and I think I have got things timed almost right as her hips are now really giving her a lot of gip and she is finding it hard to look after the little one.  We were expecting it as she had SPD with Elizabeth so we knew it was more than likely that she would have it again.  It has been quite difficult to try and juggle things as if I got off too early I would go back shortly after the birth which would have been hard for Debbie.  On the other hand if I stayed on here to long Debbie would have found it very hard to cope by herself as the SPD causes her great pain and makes it hard to walk.  This didn’t matter so much last time as she could move in with her folks, however it is much harder this time as she little Beth to look after.

 

I have had my report, well sort of anyway.  The XO didn’t even have the courtesy to give me a closing interview.  He basically threw the report at me at 1815 last night and said if I wanted to discuss it I could go and see him.  This is not the way a formal reporting procedure should be conducted.  On top of this he couldn’t even be bothered to put comments in all the boxes.  What really surprised me was that all he could muster to write in my overall performance was ‘Transferred to Mounts Bay for six week period’.  This does not reflect my performance in any way.  Once again though I feel it demonstrates that an 18 can reflect as much about the person writing it as the person being reported on.  It was markedly obvious as well, seeing other reports, that the XO had favourites after he give a junior third mate two box 1’s (based on the number of SoPs and ROSTEMs he compiled for the XO).  There is no doubt that the third mate in question performed well and deserved at least a box 2 but he certainly needs more experience on the bridge before he would be suitable for promotion to second off.  However moaning aside the CO wrote a number of complimentary remarks about my performance which demonstrated that he had actually taken some time over it.  The CO also agreed with my comment that due to the fragmented reporting period and the fact that the reporting period was actually only on 50 percent of my appointment it could not give a true reflection of my abilities.

 

Well at least it is another trip almost over and it has been a very depressing trip as there has been little to look forward to.  SARC and OST for the first part of the trip and then basically glued alongside for the remainder of the trip.  I long for another decent trip where I get more sea time than time in Port, I can’t see it happening for a few years though with all the in-year cost savings that the MoD is trying to make, there is just no money for the ship’s to go to sea with anymore, it is a great shame as I came to sea to go to sea and not sit along side.  The feeling of being out in mid ocean, miles from land is indescribable.  The sights I have seen and the starlit nights are magical and I do hark back to John Masefield’s ‘Sea Fever’.

 

‘I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,

And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.’

 

Two Weeks To go

I am now back on the ship that I started my trip on and I only have two weeks left before I go on leave.  I can not believe how much the dynamic of the ship has changed in the six weeks that I have been away.  I really can’t wait to pay off and escape the cloud of depression that is lingering over the ship.  I don’t think it helps that after six weeks away it feels like I am on a different ship and therefore I have a sort of joining blues mixed up with the feeling of a run down period.

 

I know things will be busy when I get home as Debbie will be off here feet as the SPD kicks in but I am determined to crack a few jobs at home.  The two main priorities being to redecorate the Jungle room and to lay more loft boards.  However I still have the aspiration to start making the wall between the garage and the house, incorporating a brick BBQ.  The bit I am really not looking forward to is digging the foundations as I think that will be really back breaking work. 

 

It is going to be good to get home eventually and hopefully I should get home for the little ones first birthday as that is the day I am expecting to pay off.  I have bought her some nice bath toys as she does enjoy her baths.

 

 

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