One Week In......Again

One week in for the second time this trip. After all the upheaval of having to transfer I didn’t think I would settle in onboard but fortunately I was wrong I have settled in really quickly. Our immediate programme is pretty naff as the ship is alongside for a while. Nothing to look forward to but AMP, Lloyds and MCA surveys oh and finally an ISM audit. If that’s not bad enough I am stuck in Scotland miles from Debbie and the little ones. It is not all bad though, I have a reasonably comfortable cabin, we have transport to the local town and more importantly there is Strongbow onboard.

I really can’t complain though as although on my previous ship I was generally working 12 – 14 hrs everyday on here I am just going 8 – 5 which is much more civilised. In addition my work load is going to allow me to take 4 days local leave mid March so I will get home and see Debbie and the little ones. (A weekend off to change pooey nappies). Joking apart I am really looking forward to getting home for a few days as I know it will give Debbie a break and the ability for her to have a full night’s sleep. If I am really lucky I may even get a pint of the dreaded Rattler down the GD.

March is going to be pretty crap though, stuck alongside and to top it off guess what day we sail. Yep Easter Sunday which I think is wrong as it is Easter but it can’t be helped as we need to get somewhere. As I will be writing the programme for the ship though we will be making Thursday a Saturday and Friday a Brunch day so that should keep people happy. Then once we do get out to Sea I have a nice Thornton’s Easter egg with special Toffee to look forward to.

I know I have moaned quite a bit about the transfer and the programme but there is one glimmer of hope within it. April looks like fun as we will be doing a big exercise in home waters and then heading off across the pond so I will finally escape European waters. Well it had to happen eventually. I am actually really looking forward to a proper ocean passage for once and sunny weather. Once we get to where we are going I won’t be staying with the ship though as my time will be up so it will be a flight home and a nice summer leave. BBQ’s, gardening and hopefully a night on the moors, here I come...Why do we always end up wishing our lives away.

Feeling Happier

After the disruption of transferring and the hassle of a journey with heavy suitcases across Scotland with lots of changes (Bus, Ferry, Train, Taxi, Train with a change and finally car) I am now feeling happier. I have settled in onboard quicker than normal and there are a lot of familiar faces which always helps. In addition I have got a comfy sofa and chair in my cabin which makes life a lot more bearable.

The phone signal is good as well so I have fired up the Skype and seen Debbie and the little ones. Little Beth was really funny when we first got the Skype running, she smiled, said 'Ahh Teddy' and kissed the screen. Everything is 'Teddy' to her at the moment.

As we are alongside for a bit hopefully I will get to see Debbie and the little ones, one weekend. I really do miss them but at least we have all this modern technology so that we can keep in touch.

After having settled in onboard I have looked at the programme and I reckon I will be able to get quite a bit out of this trip. Also I should get a foreign port at the end which will be really good as I don't really relish being stuck on the coast all trip.

Anyway a quiet weekend of reading up on all the email trials and signals and cramming the programme into the grey matter. But it will be a nice change from having to get all the FOST stuff ready.

Unwanted

It has been a hectic two weeks since I last wrote my blog.  I had an extra week at home to look after little William and Debbie which was much appreciated.  It was so good to get him home from hospital and see him on the road to recovery. The last night I was home I did have a scare though as I had put his Moses basket on the sofa while I went to make a bottle and when I came back in he had wriggled so much that the basket was on the floor.  Thankfully he was fine, but it was scary.  Anyway we were lucky that night as he went for six hours before waking up so we had a reasonable sleep.  Since then Debbie tells me he goes for a reasonable amount of time most nights now so she is managing to get some sleep.

 

Anyway I was all ready to rejoin the ship on the south coast last Friday when I got a call from them telling me they would be up in Scotland.  After a mild panic about how I was going to get up to Scotland we managed to arrange for me to join on the Thursday via helicopter whilst the ship was still in areas. This was much easier than a hike all the way north.

 

On re-joining I found that all the programmes had changed and that we were now heading north for an exercise.  It was all very hectic trying to get up to speed on what we would be doing and trying to get all the information.  After all, the other ships had had weeks to prepare and we were getting a few days.  Anyway just as I was getting my feet under the table the CO called me to say he was worried about taking me North incase the little one was ill again, he had therefore decided that if we could not get an extra first officer onboard he wanted me swapped over.  As you can imagine this came as a bit of a shock and made feel very unwanted.  Even worse it looked as if, if I did get transferred I would be stuck up in Scotland and alongside for weeks.  Not what I wanted, for a start it would mean I probably wouldn’t see Debbie and the little ones for quite a while.  Also we were arranging to have little William Christened on here in April.  Being on the FOST tanker had at least meant that at weekends Debbie could have popped down for the afternoon when we were in port.  It’s not so easy getting from North Devon to Scotland though.

 

I did try and explain that the little man was a lot better and that there wasn’t any cause for concern. After all the ship wasn’t going to be away for that long.  The CO is easy to talk to and did acknowledge that he understood how I felt but the he felt he was between a rock and a hard place.  However after our chat he wouldn’t budge and was adamant about what he wanted. 

 

I fretted about this transfer all weekend as I really didn’t want to go and come Monday when we hadn’t heard anything I felt happier as I thought it had all blown over.  I was really looking forward to having a decent period at sea and getting to see the Northern Lights again.  Well you can imagine my disappointment yesterday morning when the CO called me in to say I would be transferred tomorrow.  I have now got to lug all my gear from one side of Scotland to the other to sit alongside for weeks.

 

I only hope that the phone signal is reasonable where I am going.  If it is I might stand a chance of getting the Webcam and Skype up and running and then at least I should be able to see Debbie and the little ones.

 

Horrible Week

It has been a horrible week, and I really hope I don't have to go through this again. Things are better now but I am still a little shaken I think. It all started last Thursday as we neared the end of the Thursday War. I was called out of the Ops Room to take a phone call in the radio room. As I went around there I thought it was the squadron calling to say that their cab was unserviceable and that the flying was binned. Imagine my shock as I answered the phone and it was Debbie on the other end saying that William had been taken into hospital. I really didn't know what to think so I went to see the old man, who later said I had looked as white as a sheet. Anyway a few phone calls later and after talking to a nurse at the hospital all seemed fine. They were just keeping him in overnight to keep an eye on him but thought he just had a bit of a cold.

Anyway the ship kindly let me take the weekend off to give Debbie support when she got the little man home. Hire car was booked and I got on the road thinking that by the time I got their all would be fine. Things just weren't going well for me though because as I reached Exeter I had a blow out, and the car went all wobbly. I suppose it wasn't as bad as the time that my wheel fell of the land rover, but that is another story. Anyway I finally got to the hospital to find my little man in an oxygen box with tubes coming out of his nose and an IV in his arm.

The doctor had been around that morning and sent him for an X-Ray because he had problems breathing and they found out that he had pneumonia and a collapsed lung. Poor little fella, he is only nine weeks old. He was that poorly that he was being fed through his nose. The nurses were really great though and looked after him wonderfully. The hospital only usually lets one parent stay overnight but Friday they turned a blind eye an let us both stay. After that we took it in turns, one of us staying with the little man and the other looking after Beth at home.

Things then got worse as when I went in Monday the little man was their by himself as Debbie had been sent down to A&E by the nurses. After an X-Ray it turned out she had inflamed lungs so she got put on a course of antibiotics, but her chest knocked her out a bit.

Well yesterday they finally let him out of hospital, he is still on antibiotics every eight hours which we are just about managing to give him with the help of a syringe in the mouth. They are making some follow up appointments for him to check his lungs as it takes a while for them to re inflate but hopefully soon he will be as right as rain.

I am just so lucky that I have been allowed to take time off work to support Debbie and help look after the little man.