Dentists, Ambassadors, Parties and Casinos

We recently pulled out of Montevideo, Uruguay. We were there for about 45 hours, and 24 of those I was on duty, so I made up for it with my off time. My trip to Uruguay started out by getting a trip to the dentist. A couple of weeks ago, I bit down on something hard and my tooth started to hurt. I didn’t think much of it until a few days later when it was still hurting, so we scheduled a trip to the dentist. Turns out it essentially created a hole in my tooth, so he filled it the same way they do with cavities. I was worried about the quality of Uruguayan dentistry, but I can say for sure that this place was even more high tech than the states—they had cameras in my mouth and fancy tools I’d never seen… It was impressive. The long drive through the city to the dentist showed me what a great city it was. It was much more relaxed than Rio, with a much larger European influence. I’d love to go back some day.
Later on that evening, I came back to the ship and changed to go to a reception on our sister ship, USS Boone. (Boone is making the whole deployment with us—she’s a Mayport, FL based Frigate.) The reception was amazing—lots of beer and drink, ice sculptures, beef wellington, crab-stuffed shrimp, as well as about a dozen other equally-delicious foods. As I was standing at a table talking with some ensigns from other ships, a man came over to join us. Turns out, he was the American Ambassador to Uruguay. We talked a lot about foreign policy and economic policy as well, because he previously served in the state department in that capacity. Amazing guy.
After he left, another man showed up who was the regional director of affairs in South America—he explained to us the Russian and Chinese influence on Uruguay and how they were competing with local countries for sway within Uruguay and for their resources. It was really interesting stuff. I also talked with a Chinese general and some Chilean admirals. After getting our fill of dignitaries and drinks, we went to a casino to meet up with another contingent of sailors. We played some blackjack and won a good amount of money. Then I played some roulette and decided to put 50 on red and 50 on odd. Of course, it rolled a zero, so I lost all of that. I decided it was time to stop.
The city was a whirlwind trip—I had duty the next day and, despite one of the worst hangovers of my life, had watch at 7:30 in the morning followed by showing around members of the American embassy for 3 hours after that. It was interesting to see these people so far away from the states with their families, eager to interact with other Americans outside of their own little world.
We set sail today to head south to Chile, where there will be a little bit more time in port and a lot more events with foreign navies. One of our longer time periods out at sea (still under a week!) we will use the time to catch up on work and recouperate. I recently received 18 baseballs in the mail (thank you to the Wildas and Nana/Poppy!) so I’ll be sure to bundle up and go play some catch outside when I get some free time.

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…

So Long, Rio! Hello... Rio?

Long thought of as the pinnacle to our deployment, Rio de Janiero was a port that truly lived up to its billing. A multi-million person city, its crowded streets reminded me of New York City, but its culture reminded me of Southern California. With so many days (6) in the city, I’m finding it hard to pare down what to write about. I conned the ship into the port underneath a huge bridge that spanned the bay. On our left was the famous Jesus Christ statue with his arms open wide over the city, on the right was the naval station we pulled into.
In port, we worked with other navies during the day, and they held receptions at night. On our first night out on liberty, we ate dinner and bought bottles of champagne before roaming the streets in search of nothing in particular. We stumbled upon a hostel that had the same name as one we had visited in Salvador and decided to stop in. I met some Americans there, as well as some locals and a girl from Canada. It was 25 Reals for all you can drink (about 16 USD) so we camped there the rest of the night.
The best day was Saturday, where we went to the beach during the day. The beaches here are great. Beautiful sand, water, waves, and yes, women. (Side note, Brazilian women in Rio really did live up to the billing as the capital of supermodels. I honestly have never seen such a population so attractive in any of the places I’ve lived.) We went out into the 71-degree water and body surfed in the huge waves for a while before heading back to the ship in the afternoon. We went back to change into our summer whites uniform and go to the Argentinean ship for a reception. The only drink they served was a special red wine made only in Argentina. It was amazing how good it was. It was hard for me to use my limited Spanish to bridge the language barrier, but we got to talk with some other navies. For the Argentinean navy, this is the highlight of their year—the only time they ever leave Argentinean waters. It’s a stark contrast with America, who thinks of these exercises as relatively insignificant. The wine ran out quickly, though, so our Captain and Executive Officer (the “XO” is #2 in command on the ship) decided we needed to go downtown in Rio to party, since it was a Saturday night.
Rio is famous for its parties. Beginning around midnight and going until 5 a.m., the bar scene is pretty fun. Up until that night, though, we hadn’t had time to experience the city nightlife, as we had to catch buses back to the ship at 11 p.m. But this night, we had the opportunity to get a hotel and stay out overnight, so we took full advantage. We went to the bar strip downtown known as Lapa. If you’ve ever been to Beale street in Memphis, that’s Lapa in Brazil. It was a Mecca of bars and clubs and people, and it was a really neat experience to take in.
We’ve been underway for a couple of days since leaving Rio, and they’ve been tough. We’ve been busy with exercises between the different navies, as well as catching up on all the work that piled up in Rio. We have 9 civilians onboard to shoot off airborne drones off giant launchers we put on the ship, and we’ve been shooting them off and using them as target practice in firing exercises.
Early next week, we pull into Rio Grande, Brazil—our last port in Brazil and the end of our work with the South American navies who have coastlines on the Atlantic side. Pretty soon, we’ll transit back to the Pacific side and begin operations with the South American Pacific countries. It’s strange that 50 days into deployment, we already are nearly done with half of our exercises, and about to come through the straits of Magellan to head back to the States.

(Side note, we just fixed our TV system on board. Now we get 3 channels-- sports, news, and miscellaneous. I got to see the Sox get spanked by the Angels yesterday, but I didn't care... It was worth it just to see baseball!)

Salvador, Brazil

Our first real port call (multiple days, not just a few hours) is Salvador, Brazil. It’s a huge city. Salvador, like much of Brazil, has a large range of cultural influences. Salvador itself is broken up into different unofficial sectors. There are British, French, and Portuguese sectors, all with various influences from those countries. However, 80% of the population has African ancestry from slaves that were shipped here and sold. Unfortunately, much of the city is impoverished. Slums predominate the suburbs, and it’s amazing to see beautiful European architecture that’s been abandoned for years. You walk around and see one thriving building, followed by another that has huge holes in the walls, crumbling to the ground.
I didn’t know this, but Brazil itself is divided up into states, similar to America. Salvador is the capital of the state, “Bahia.” We went on a cool historical tour (hence my knowledge of the city) on Sunday, and got to walk around all the different city sectors. (I wish I had better pictures, but we can’t hook up personal cameras to the ship computers, because you could steal data or put viruses on the computers.) The tour guide talked about Carnival for half of the tour. The city revolves around it. They have a reputation for being very low-key and relaxed, and Carnival embodies that. The city shuts down for an entire week, and everybody takes to the streets to party. They showed us video of the event—it was very cool.
The city is over 80% Roman Catholic and the city itself has churches sprinkled all over the crowded city streets. One church, the most famous in the country, is atop a hill in a poor section of town. It’s thought to have mystical powers. People go and pray there for physical miracles—wounds healing, sicknesses overcome, etc. There is a room in there called the Miracle Room. When people pray there and their prayers come true, they put mementos in the room. The walls were covered with pictures and stories of people’s lives changing. Molds of peoples hands, feet, heads, etc. hang from the ceiling. If, for example, somebody needs surgery on their hand, the person will pray there and if the surgery is successful, then make a cast of the hand to hang on the ceiling. It was a very somber experience to see all of these human stories woven together in one central point.
In general, it was a fun port to visit and explore a bit. Lots of different people and cultures, as well as some good food and beer. As I write this, we should be getting underway to go to exercises with the Brazilian Navy, but there was an issue with the fuel barge, so we’re still waiting on fuel. Rumor has it that we won’t be leaving until tomorrow, which would mean another day of liberty, which is never a bad thing. Our real mission will really begin when we get underway. We have some Brazilian ship riders on our ship, and we sent some to the Brazilian ship. We’ll be doing some interesting war games out in the ocean before the highlight of our trip, Rio De Janiero, in less than a week.

Onward to Brazil

It’s been a while since I’ve written in here, but we have been busy since Martinique. Holiday routine again today. I had watch from 3-8 a.m., and decided to go back to bed after I got off. I was woken up an hour later to attend a meeting that nobody told me about, but I had to be there. It’s a big no-no to have meetings Sunday morning, but our new Captain doesn’t care much for crew morale, it seems. The meeting was about what we would do to conduct stationing drills tomorrow.
Ships sailing in station had their origins back in the age of sail, when big wooden ships had cannons on their sides and propelled themselves with wind power. Back then, ships would fight each other in close proximity, and tactics were largely based on how the ships were positioned. Ships would try to position themselves to have favorable winds, as well as exposing their cannons on their sides to shoot at the other ships. It required complex maneuvers to ensure success. The best admirals and captains in that time period could train their fleets and ships to execute formations by raising different flags on the Admiral’s ship (aptly called the “Flag Ship”—a term we still use today for ships where leadership is embarked). Back then, ships moving to station quickly was a life and death evolution, and something that navies practiced assiduously.
Nowadays, instead of raising flags, we pass code over radios, and we have to decode it to determine what the other ships want you to do. We still practice stationing to defend carriers in an attack situation—we position ourselves strategically around the carriers to protect them. It’s a fairly simple process once you understand it, especially how it will be tomorrow—with only 3 ships (instead of 15) and no carriers launching airplanes around you.
As Junior Officers, we’re accustomed to stationing ships and determining how to maneuver the ship to go where we want to go—we do it on a daily basis and are intimately familiar with how the ship moves, the same way you get to know how your car handles and responds after driving it for some time. For this new Captain, he doesn’t seem to understand the ease with which we conduct these drills. He even created a watch bill with every junior officer on it. We’ll each drive the ship for 18 minutes to “get practice.” Hopefully we end up doing something when I am driving the ship for those 18 minutes.
We pull into Salvador, Brazil later this week. I’ll try to make an update on the port when we pull in. We lost two more softballs today stupidly trying to play catch in the rough seas, and we’re out of baseballs and softballs. We're down to playing catch with apples, so if you have any baseballs, please send them our way.
Also, please e-mail me ( wrayj@ffg43.navy.mil ). I feel so out of the loop out here-it's hard to stay in touch with reality, the news, friends and family, so I like to hear from you!

Martinique, France

Yesterday, we had our official “change of command” ceremony. When a Captain leaves a ship, he is relieved by the new one in a formal ceremony. Since we were at sea, we had our ceremony on the forecastle (pronounced folk-sill, it’s the front part of the ship). The captain who is leaving was an awesome guy. He really knew how to take care of his people, drive a ship and be a leader. He’ll be missed. We now have a new captain, who is changing things a lot. Of course, people dislike change, so there is a lot of pushback. Only time will tell how he will fare as a leader.
His first challenge as Captain was to pull into Martinique, France—a tiny island in the Caribbean. As we were pulling in, I was standing up on the bridge to see the island. It looks simply remarkable from the sea. Rolling green mountains rising up into the clouds, houses etched into the sides of the hills, all surrounded by clear, cerulean colored water… It was a sight to behold. There is an old French fort there that was built pretty long ago as we were steaming into port. It’s still an active naval base today, with ivy-covered brick edifices jutting out of the water to shield the fort itself.
We had liberty last night to go out and explore the island, which we were all excited to get after a few weeks underway and after seeing the island from the sea. Unfortunately, it was a depressing port visit. The place was pretty destitute, with almost every restaurant and bar closed for lent. Apparently, in France, lent is a very strictly observed religious time, where many businesses just close down. I don’t understand how they can do that, but they do. The highlight of the night was getting food at McDonalds, even after I swore I would find a nice French place to eat at. It’s just that nothing was really open.
As I write this, we’re pulling away from Martinique en route to Brazil. The transit down should be treacherous—7-12 foot seas off of our beam (the side of the ship). To give you an idea of how much that throws a little ship like this around, if you’re sitting in a chair, the chair will still slide across the room from the force of the ship rocking. It will be seas at about the limit that our ship can take across her beam. Any higher than that, and we’ll need to pull into port. For my new Seaman Recruit who flew into Martinique to report aboard, it should be an adventuresome first underway at sea for him. If his stomach can take it, I’d be truly impressed.

Flight Deck Softball

As we steam underway for longer periods of time, the monotony of the days makes people think outside the box. One of the ways that we do that is by playing catch out on the flight deck. For me, playing catch is something that keeps me sane; I need to relax from time to time. Unfortunately, it’s a risky business. One bad throw, and your ball is gone. We’ve lost 5 balls now—2 baseballs and 3 softballs. We’re down to 5 left, and it’s getting to the point where we can’t let just anyone play because apparently people don’t know how to throw a baseball. We’ve found some netting and will try and rig it up next time to help prevent the attrition of our baseballs, but sometimes the ship will rock and the ball will sail, or the wind will take it away. We’ll look for baseballs in foreign countries, but the prospects at finding them might not be so great.
If anyone is sending a care package, throwing a couple of old baseballs in there would be appreciated. I’m finding we can’t have too many of them.