Feliz Ano Nuevo
Well, I took some time off from writing because I've been very busy lately. So far it's been a very interesting patrol. Ups and downs and many obstacles to overcome, but I'm having a lot of fun along the way. The port calls aren't as exciting as the last trip, but now that I know my job a lot better, it's made the actual transit much easier. I will brag a little bit and say that my shop has been doing an excellent job and there have been no bumps along the road for us. I guess that's why I'm happy with the patrol so far.
This was definitely a unique Christmas for me, as this is the first time I've spent it out in the middle of the ocean. The crew put in a lot of effort to make it a good time for everyone. We had a huge Christmas dinner served to us by the officers on Christmas Eve night, and then a gift exchange in "Yankee Swap" style. The next morning everyone took it kind of easy and slept in, and almost no one showed up to the opening of presents around the tree because it was scheduled so early. Of course, since I can never wait until actual Christmas morning, I opened almost all my gifts my parents sent me while I was in the berthing area on Christmas Eve night. I usually work on Christmas anyway, but this one will definitely be one to remember.
New Years was a completely different story. My duty day just happened to fall on New Years Eve in Manzanillo, Mexico, so I missed out on most of the festivities. But that was one of the busiest duty days I've ever had. From 8 in the morning New Years Eve, to 1 in the morning New Years Day, I was standing on the Quarterdeck or running about the ship taking care of problems. And there were certainly an abundance of problems that day. But, I got to talk on the radio a bit again. Granted it was a little hand held radio, but I got to goof around and keep the folks on duty laughing while we worked through that long night. It's funny how much I missed just talking on the radio. I had done it for so long at COMMSTA that it became something enjoyable for me. But when I transferred here, I found out that people that work in Radio don't actually talk on the radios! Needless to say I was a bit surprised. Being a radio watchstander was long hours, bad diet, horrible sleep patterns, and the Search and Rescue cases were stressful. But, the Search and Rescue cases were also the best part of the job. You get a huge adrenaline rush. They can go on for hours, or even days at a time. But when you successfully helped save people, it's probably one of the most rewarding things I've experienced in my life.
Aside from standing duty, I also got to witness one of the best fireworks displays I've ever seen. The sky over the bay was lit up with every color of the rainbow, and there were thousands of people all over the streets. Our boat actually drew huge crowds the next couple of days. Hundreds of people lined up to take pictures, and waited in that blistering heat so they could get a chance to take a tour of the ship. I guess it was a pretty big deal for there, and we even made front page news.
On New Years I actually got to get out onto the town and see the sites. But everything was closed! We had our cab driver take us to the end of the line basically, where there was a tiny flea market, and we walked maybe a good 10 miles just looking for stuff that was open! So I didn't get to the my customary amount of the shopping while I was there. We basically just spent the next few days hopping between different bars and restaurants and walking about the city trying to see everything we could. Manzanillo may be a big vacation spot, but I can think of many better places to spend my vacation time and money. But I will say it was refreshing to visit a spot where I could speak quite a bit of the language instead of being completely muted by the language barrier.
Here are some pictures from the trip. I only took a few because I didn't see a whole lot of stuff worth photographing. Some of these I took from other people (i.e. Chief Smith):
