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Friday, June 29, 2007

Coming soon to a blog near you

Sorry, I've been sick all week and I've been resting a lot. I'll be posting over the weekend. Topics will include but won't be limited to:

-Review of the Sig Sauer range
-Review of RAS training
-Review of Live Free or Die Hard*
-Overview of what's next in NETPO

So don't despair, my three readers, more of my insane rantings are coming up!

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Avast ye scurvy dogs!

So, not much to talk about right now, BUT... yesterday we went and had some fun on the waves, driving zodiacs (rubber boats with a solid deck and an outboard engine) around. In the morning we just got the hang of it... or got back into it, for those who had already driven small boats around. We also practiced coming up to the jetty, which is harder than it looks. It wasn't too bad, but we were in a no-wake zone so we had to go r-e-a-l-l-y s-l-o-w. In the afternoon, we took a little spin around the harbour, though we couldn't get close to the heavies. We saw an old Royal Navy ammunition depot--and by old I mean, age-of-sail old--that is now in disrepair, and then went in big fat circles, zigging and zagging merrily and pushing our little 25HP engines for all they're worth.

A 10-man zodiac does not go fast.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and to go with all that fun, my cold (which had been messing up my throat for almost a week) is all but cleared up. I still cough a bit and my voice isn't quite back to normal, but at least I don't sound like the Godfather. ("I'll make him an offer he can't refuse...")

Tomorrow we get to get up extra-early and go off to the Sig Sauer range and fire pistols that, hopefully, will work better than the Browning Hi-Power pistols we have at RMC--some of them actually were made during WW2, and pretty much all of them by the time the Korean conflict ended.

Thursday and Friday will be devoted to RAS training on the actual RAS trainer--replicas of the top deck of the Halifax-class frigates--for heavy jackstay and refueling training. Should be fun... at least it beats sitting around.

Can't wait for next week, though, when we head off to DC school.

Other than that, life is quiet. We get a three-day weekend this week, because of Canada Day. Lovely.

Stay frosty, everybody. I know I am, in this drafty room.

Monday, June 18, 2007

LIBRE enfin !

Libre ! Je suis libre !

Plus de 15 minutes pour retourner un appel !

Plus de de kilométrage et de gaz gaspillé pour des clients qui ne savent pas s'qui veulent !

Plus de remplissage de paperasse inutile pour des gens qui veulent tout avoir, mais rien payer !

Plus de Directeur qui se croit patron quand je suis pourtant travailleur autonome !

Plus de coup de téléphone à des heures impossibles !

Plus de frais mensuels à payer AVANT MÊME d'avoir fait une cr*** de cenne !

À moi les week-end à lire un bouquin et à me faire du bien avec mon chum !

À moi les soirées passées en famille quand y fait -40 dehors !

À moi, le privilège de DÉCROCHER les jours fériés !

À moi la paye aux 2 semaines !

À moi les 3 semaines de VRAIES vacances par année !

À moi la capacité d'écouter mon chum et de ne rien oublier ;-)))

C'est FINI,

MOI J'VENDS PU !

;-)))

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Snapshot tube one and two (Quick update)

Hey everyone!

Well, I have even less to say today than I did last time I posted anything, so this will be short (or not) and sweet.

Training is going all right. I scored 100% on the PO 001 exam (basic Navy knowledge) and 96% on the PO 004 exam (safety). The averages were about 90% and 86%, respectively. We have a few more exams on theory and then we'll be off to do boatwork (the RHIBs, Zodiacs and other such small boats) and ropework (RAS, replenishment at sea, stuff, mostly) and then we'll be off to DC (damage control) school for a week or two... And then off to sea we will go. Two weeks on the YAGs and/or Orcas. From what we've been told, we should split our time between the old wooden-hulled YAGs (old minesweepers designed when Noah was a Midshipman) and the new, "state-of-the-art" Orcas (bigger, faster, and more comfortable training ships).

Still no word on where we'll spend out weekend in port, but I think our Lieutenant really wants to skip Nanaimo and head off to Vancouver. One thing I hope I'll see when we're on the ships is one of those famed US subs from... whatever naval base is up near the border. (Bangor, I think?) Apparently they transit through where we sometimes play. Speaking of submarines, we're slated to visit HMCS VICTORIA next week. Not quite a Los Angeles, but it still kicks ass. Well, CORNER BROOK does, anyway; VICTORIA is in drydock.

Anyway, I'm taking a liking to Victoria. For some reason, I don't feel the instant, almost physical dislike I do for Kingston since the first time I went there. I have to go around more, because I haven't really checked out the city much yet, but so far it looks like a good little city to be around.

Other than that, well, there's still nothing new going on.

Have a couple cold ones for me, will ya?

Sunday, June 10, 2007

A tie was still a tie, and a belt a belt...

(NOTE: I edited the post date of this post to reflect when it was written rather than when I managed to get online.)


Well, it's been a fairly quiet week. I'm picking up the whole Navy lingo thing—my room is a cabin, the bathroom is the head, back is aft—and I'm just loving where I am right now. Honestly, I haven't been this happy, this confident and this “where I belong” since I got at the killbot factory (BOTC—basic training) almost two years ago.

The week has been quiet, as I said. We've mostly been death-by-powerpointed all week with various Navy stuff. We learned the important flags (still working on that... I know the flags but I'm having trouble learning their meanings), some wardroom etiquette, some vessel recognition (although apparently a SeaWolf-class SSN is a Russian ship...), Navy slang, some history of the RCN/RN/MARCOM, MARCOM organization, various MARPAC things, and some briefings specific to NOTC Venture (Naval Officer Training Center). We've also visited the HMCS Regina, a Halifax-class frigate, though it was short and I've already been on a frigate—the HMCS Fredericton, last September.

Next week should be pretty much more of the same, lots of classroom boredom, but somehow even the death-by-powerpoint doesn't seem so bad. I manage not to fall asleep! I guess that's what happens when you do something you like.

Our division, Loch Achanalt, is pretty good. Mostly good people, though we have a few soup sandwiches. A lot of them aren't that much into the Navy, though, which bothers me. I don't expect everyone on the course to be as crazy about MARCOM as I am, but I'd at least expect them to have the descency to not say, one week into the first Navy course of their career, “I really don't want to be in the Navy.” It doesn't seem very smart to me to sign a paper that commits you to nine years of service into an element you don't like. I can get that someone would go through the course and realize it's not for them, but one week in? I don't know.

I already can't wait for our sea phase. We'll basically go through all the positions in a ship's company—from helmsman to lookout—and go around the islands nearby. I guess we won't have that much training to do the real stuff we'll learn to do next summer on MARS III, like navigation, but just being on a ship “at sea” will be pretty sweet.

Actually, I can't wait until I'm on an operational ship. Although I want to go into the elite service (subs) as soon as I can, being on any operational ship doing the job I'll be trained to do will be pretty sweet. The job is hard, but like the old slogan said, there's no life like it.

Speaking of submarines... I caught a glimpse of the Victoria when we went to the dockyards to visit Regina, and I have to say it was sad. Victoria's in drydock and she's covered in scaffolding and tarp and she doesn't look like a proud sub; she's all cut up and looking like a shadow of her former self. I can't wait until her and the other Victorias are up and running again, though. At least two of them should be up by the time I make Lieutenant and get to pick my D-level (director) specialisation—that's the earliest I can apply to sub school—and a third should go back into service by the time I finish all the shore training.

Anyway, I'm having a blast here. The Navy is really where I want to be and each day just makes me happier to be here. Victoria's (the town) beautiful, though I haven't had much of a chance to visit downtown. I want to visit Halifax, and I'll probably get a chance to, before I pick which coast I want, but so far it's looking pretty good for the West coast. Heck, just the fact that I keep hearing about being able to visit Pearl, San Diego, SF and all the other cool Pacific places is enough to make me want to come here when I graduate. I'm not much into getting thrown around in the North Atlantic, and as much as Europe sounds like fun... I like the sun more than I like Europe.

I'll try and update during the week, as we now have accounts to get on the network at NOTC, but I can't promise anything.

I'm off for now... although “now” is purely relative.

Monday, June 4, 2007

You’re in the Navy now, Charlie Brown.

(NOTE: I edited the post date of this post to reflect when it was written rather than when I managed to get online.)

Well, I’m finally in Victoria (actually I’m in Esquimalt…) at the lovely Naval Officer Training Center. The building where both divisions are is old and a bit run-down, and the water is questionable, but it’s adequate. We have two lounges, one of which has a big-screen TV, and the other has a regular big TV. I’ve somehow scored a single room, while pretty much everyone else is in quad rooms. The problem is that there are no jacks for the internet, and we can’t pick up the internet from other buildings.

The food is good. (Of course!) The portions are somewhat small, but if you take every item you’re entitled to, it makes a whole lot of food. For example, for dinner, we’re entitled to:

Soup
Main protein dish (not meat, protein dish)
Starch item
Cooked vegetable
Salad bar
Bread product (is that like how Cheez-Wiz is a cheese product?)
Dessert item
Two beverages (tiny)
Condiments (good thing I don’t have to pay for the ketchup on my fries!)

The main protein dish is small, as I said, but if you just throw in everything else, I’m not even sure you’d be able to get out with just one tray. Anyway, the galley is a good place to be. Too bad they don’t have alcohol—having a beer at lunch would kick some serious booty.

Other than that, we received our course-specific stuff today. A whole bunch of books—COLREGS, the Seaman’s Guide to the Rules of the Road, two manuals on etiquette and customs, the seamanship manual (a huge binder) and the NETP-O handbook—as well as flashcards to learn the flags. Oh, and we were issued laptops. We don’t have accounts set up yet so even if we had a way to get online from our rooms we’d be unable to, but eventually we’ll be able to go to a few places where there are internet jacks and we’ll just plug in and go at it.

The course itself looks pretty sweet. We have a lot of death-by-powerpoint-y stuff, but we have a week (or was it two?) of damage control (flooding and fires) and two weeks at sea. The damage control sounds like a lot of fun, especially the firefighting part. They have new simulators that run on propane and are controlled by an operator who can throw things at you. The two weeks at sea aren’t two weeks of always being at sea, however. We stop at the end of the day and go around, hence the name Booze Cruise. We don’t, from what I understand, come back to NOTC, though. For the weekend between the two weeks, our CTO (Course Training Officer) said we might go to Vancouver, though courses usually stop over in Nanaimo. What’s odd but cool is that there is some sort of qualification while we’re on the ships—from the sounds of it, it’s a “light” version of the quals for submariners… without the cool hardware at the end.

We also have several visits to warships and museums. Later this week we’ll visit the HMCS Regina, and I think I recall reading we’ll visit the HMCS Athabaskan. We’ll also visit the HMCS Victoria, which is being worked on and apparently doesn’t look like a submarine right now as it’s covered by scaffolding. Still, I can’t wait! We’ll also be going onboard the HMCS Calgary at some point to practice some evolutions and see how the real Fleet does things—the Calgary will still be tied up, but it’ll still beat the YAGs and Orcas we’ll be using for our sea phase.

Another thing we get at NOTC is being the OOD and 2/3OOD once in a while. It doesn’t seem to be that hard, but it’s probably one of those things that get annoying.

I think that’s it for today. We started at 0800 and finished at a bit after 1400. That day included 90 minutes for lunch and a few breaks. Let’s just say this course is starting off a lot nicer than the two previous summers. Besides, the schedule is, even on bad days, limited to 0700 or 0730 to 1550. Nights and weekends are ours, though I guess a bit of reading and studying will take place once in a while. It’ll leave me with more time to work out, which is good, considering I need to get a lot of that done.

Friday, June 1, 2007

Last blog in the Eastern Timezone

Well, at least I don't expect to make another post in the eastern timezone until I come back.

As I said in an earlier post, I'm heading over to Victoria (well, Esquimalt... it's all the same) on Sunday morning, and I'm actually leaving my house tomorrow; my plane is at 6am, I need to be there an hour early, and it takes about 4 hours to drive over... yeah, not leaving at 1am.

Anyway, I'm mostly packed already, I just need to buy a new backpack and put some stuff in it. I'm also going to figure out what DVDs I'll bring over there, and stuff like that. I'm used to being away from home, but usually I'm able to bring most of my DVDs, some video games, and a bunch of books. Oh well, guess I better get used to it; space on frigates and destroyers is already limited, but it's going to get worse if I get to go on submarines. Our submarines are tighter than... uh... I can't think of a somewhat politically correct analogy, so let's just say they're extremely cramped.

I'm excited about going to Vic, but I've never flown before (well, I flew once, but I was 10 or so, and it was a really short flight) and, yeah, not too excited about that part. It's not like I'm scared of terrorists or anything; I just have bad luck and I'm willing to bet they'll lose my luggage, which means most of my uniforms would be lost. Even if they don't, I don't like the idea of flying.

Oh well, I'm going to try and go to bed, now. See you guys on Pacific time!