Man Overboard!

Time on the ship ebbs and flows. Usually, it’s pretty dull and not much is going on, but there are two times when, no matter what you’re doing, you drop everything and run. One of those times is general quarters, when the ship is being attacked and they pass the word over the loudspeakers throughout the ship, “General Quarters, all hands man your battle stations.” Everyone knows where to go and gets there quickly.
The only other time where that happens is for a man overboard. Both general quarters and man overboard drills are scheduled regularly so that we can be nearly perfect at executing both of them. But normally, whenever there is a drill, we know about it in advance so people don’t panic.
Yesterday, I had laid down for a nap and just fallen asleep when I heard the word passed, “Man overboard! Man overboard! Port side!” I scrambled out of my rack (the navy term for bed) and threw my shoes on to go to combat. We want to make sure that all people are accounted for in a man overboard situation to find out who has fallen over. The place I go to and check in is the combat center. After checking in, I went up to the bridge to see what the problem was, when I was grabbed by the Officer of the Deck (the officer overall in charge of the ship) to go be the boat officer.
We have a RHIB (Rigid Hulled Inflatable Boat) on board that we can put over the side and drive around. It’s basically a speed boat that we can drop in the water. It’s highly maneuverable, and if the seas allow, the quickest pickup method for a man in the water. Since it is technically a vessel of its own, it needs and officer on board to control it. I ran down to the boat deck as they were bringing the RHIB to the side of the ship. Still not knowing what was going on, I climbed into the boat, only to hear over the loudspeaker, “All personnel accounted for. Man in the water has been identified as trash and garbage.” I laughed to myself, thinking that we were going to go and climb out of the boat and continue everyday duties, until I heard them yell, “Lower the RHIB!!”
They dropped us in the water and the Captain came on the radio telling us where to go to pick up the trash. Apparently, somebody had thrown trash over the side in plastic bags (we are allowed to throw paper overboard outside of 12 miles because it is biodegradable, but we are never allowed to throw plastic over). We drove out to the bags and dutifully picked them up before coming back to the ship, soaking wet from the ocean spray.
We’re pulling into Montevideo, Uruguay, as I type this. We’re only here for a couple of days before heading south. Our next port of call will be Punta Arenas, Chile—one of the southernmost cities in the world, right along the straits of Magellan. It’s in the low 50s out now, and pretty chilly, but it’s a refreshing change of pace. Punta Arenas has a forecast of snow next week… Weird that it is going to be so cold in May…