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Jan. 15th, 2006 12:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tspencer227Saturday, January 14, 2006. Day 11 underway, somewhere in the Pacific west of Hawaii, heading west.
It’s getting warmer outside, quickly. The days are getting noticeably longer, and we’re all starting to settle in for the long haul. Now that we’re a few time zones away from San Diego, it’s really sinking in that we’re going to be gone for a while. We’ve been moving fast for a while now- after all, we have a lot of ocean to cross to get halfway around the world. I’ve started my transfer paperwork, and it’s hard to believe that in 55 days I’ll be leaving this ship that I’ve spent almost the last 4 ½ years of my life building, testing, operating, and repairing. Obviously, all my friends are very envious, but I’m trying not to rub it in their faces too much.
As happy as I am to be finally getting off the ship, I know that I’m going to miss some things…there’s nothing like watching the sun rise or set over the water, when the rest of the sky is still dark and there’s nothing else around as far as the eye can see. In the same respect, I’ve never seen brighter stars than in the middle of the night when the ship is running dark on a moonlit night at sea.
All talk on the ship has turned to Brisbane, our first port call coming up in a couple of weeks. We’ve all heard stories about Australia from those who have been there, and my friend Natalie, who’s mom is from Sydney, confirmed many of the tales and rumors that have been going around, based on stories her mom had told her. It looks like I’ll be hanging with Zeke and Eric, and although I made Eric promise he won’t repeat his performance of our first night in Santa Barbara, I’m sure we’ll have a good time. Plus, since they’re both friends of Amy’s they’ll be able to make sure I don’t get myself too drunk and get tempted to do something that I’d regret. I do plan on doing some
Speaking about Amy again, her birthday was Thursday- 23 years old. Even though I couldn’t be there, I sent her a card, a very long email, and a couple of text messages. Ah, the miracles that are possible with the internet. I tried to make a call out from the ship that afternoon, but apparently right as I was getting a dial tone, we lost our satellite connection. Go figure. It sucks that I’m having to be out to sea for her birthday and Valentine’s Day, but I’ll just have to make up for that when I get back on land. It’s hard to believe that Monday will mark 4 months that we’ve been dating- on the one hand, it seems like it’s been a lot longer, and on the other the time has flown by. The girls is amazing, and I’m still wondering how I got so lucky as to find her, and to have her tell me that she’d wait for me until I get back without me even having to ask…
I’m really looking forward to getting back to San Diego- working a normal job where I’ll get to go home every night, no more unplanned underways, getting called into work in the middle of the night because of something going wrong with the plants, no more duty days ruining a long weekend or a holiday. There are a million and one things I want to do that I’ll finally be able to try out, and too many places I want to travel to that I’ll finally be able to visit- after all, I have almost 2 months of leave on the books that I’m going to have to burn by this October.
OK, enough rambling for now- the game’s back on, so I’ll update later.
It’s getting warmer outside, quickly. The days are getting noticeably longer, and we’re all starting to settle in for the long haul. Now that we’re a few time zones away from San Diego, it’s really sinking in that we’re going to be gone for a while. We’ve been moving fast for a while now- after all, we have a lot of ocean to cross to get halfway around the world. I’ve started my transfer paperwork, and it’s hard to believe that in 55 days I’ll be leaving this ship that I’ve spent almost the last 4 ½ years of my life building, testing, operating, and repairing. Obviously, all my friends are very envious, but I’m trying not to rub it in their faces too much.
As happy as I am to be finally getting off the ship, I know that I’m going to miss some things…there’s nothing like watching the sun rise or set over the water, when the rest of the sky is still dark and there’s nothing else around as far as the eye can see. In the same respect, I’ve never seen brighter stars than in the middle of the night when the ship is running dark on a moonlit night at sea.
All talk on the ship has turned to Brisbane, our first port call coming up in a couple of weeks. We’ve all heard stories about Australia from those who have been there, and my friend Natalie, who’s mom is from Sydney, confirmed many of the tales and rumors that have been going around, based on stories her mom had told her. It looks like I’ll be hanging with Zeke and Eric, and although I made Eric promise he won’t repeat his performance of our first night in Santa Barbara, I’m sure we’ll have a good time. Plus, since they’re both friends of Amy’s they’ll be able to make sure I don’t get myself too drunk and get tempted to do something that I’d regret. I do plan on doing some
Speaking about Amy again, her birthday was Thursday- 23 years old. Even though I couldn’t be there, I sent her a card, a very long email, and a couple of text messages. Ah, the miracles that are possible with the internet. I tried to make a call out from the ship that afternoon, but apparently right as I was getting a dial tone, we lost our satellite connection. Go figure. It sucks that I’m having to be out to sea for her birthday and Valentine’s Day, but I’ll just have to make up for that when I get back on land. It’s hard to believe that Monday will mark 4 months that we’ve been dating- on the one hand, it seems like it’s been a lot longer, and on the other the time has flown by. The girls is amazing, and I’m still wondering how I got so lucky as to find her, and to have her tell me that she’d wait for me until I get back without me even having to ask…
I’m really looking forward to getting back to San Diego- working a normal job where I’ll get to go home every night, no more unplanned underways, getting called into work in the middle of the night because of something going wrong with the plants, no more duty days ruining a long weekend or a holiday. There are a million and one things I want to do that I’ll finally be able to try out, and too many places I want to travel to that I’ll finally be able to visit- after all, I have almost 2 months of leave on the books that I’m going to have to burn by this October.
OK, enough rambling for now- the game’s back on, so I’ll update later.
