Time in Curacao...

Folks,

Hi! So sorry it has taken so long to get something posted, as I’m sure you can imagine, I have been SUPER busy. I’m not sure when the last time I updated everyone, but for right now, we left Curacao this morning for another long stretch of CNT (counter narcotic terrorism) Ops before we pull into Trinidad. Since my day to day existence is pretty bland, I will instead talk about Curacao for awhile.

Unfortunately, I only got 1 day off in Curacao, but since it was on my birthday, I can’t really complain too much. We started our morning with a snorkeling trip; it was pretty awesome- we drove to the west side of the island (the whole island is 38 miles by 7 miles) for some snorkeling in this beautiful beach/bay area. Along the way, we had a tour guide who filled us in on some info about Curacao. A Dutch island, it is part of the Netherland’s Antilles in the West Caribbean. We learned that while the major language there is Dutch, Curacao is really a melting pot for all kinds of people and the language they speak is called Papiamento and is a mix of Dutch, English, Spanish, and African. The weather there was wonderful, and not humid. It is also where the blue Curacao liqueur is made, and while the distillery was closed on Sunday, I was still able to buy a bottle to bring back to the States.

After that, we went to go shop, only to find out that all stores are closed on Sundays, which is a bummer because I was looking forward to getting my hands on some cigars (which they obviously didn’t sell in GTMO) and some of the blue Delft (I think that’s the spelling; it’s like pottery) that is made there, but alas, I was unable.

It was still nice to walk around the town; in true Caribbean style, all of the buildings were different bright colors, yet with a Dutch/European ambience, which was pretty cool. Then, at night, we went to this place called “Mambo Beach” which was basically a huge beach that boasted restaurants, bars, hotels, and shops behind the beach. It is a great place to go during the day, and at night it turns into a big fiesta of music, dancing, and drinks. A bunch of JOs walked far down Mambo Beach to where some of the quieter hotels were and had dinner along the marina area while watching one of the most beautiful sunsets I’d ever seen. Then, we moved back to the main area for what was essentially one huge beach party. They had these like big oversized Adirondack style chairs with HUGE pillows (I really wanted to swipe one for my stateroom at the time, but I didn’t that would fly when I tried to carry it up the quarterdeck) and these four-poster “beds” which were wooden frames with plastic “mattresses” and they were big enough for 10 of us to sit on cross legged and enjoy some “Amstel Bright,” which is a Caribbean version of Amstel, and similar to a Corona as they serve it with a lime.

While drinks were a bit expensive, it was my birthday so I didn’t really care. We also met up with a bunch of the pilots from the airdet and hung out with them. Overall, Curacao was a huge success and I am only bummed that I didn’t get to spend more time there. A neighbor and “sister” island to Aruba, I have heard from people who went to both that Curacao is a much better, less touristy and more cultured island, so if you are looking into a Caribbean vacay, I suggest Curacao. Also, the diving there is superb and while I didn’t get to experience it, some of my friends who did said it was excellent.

Now I’m back on the ship where I have finally made it to standing watch on the bridge, where I am the conning officer driving the ship (basically that means that I give the commands to guide the ship, when in actuality, it is the officer of the deck that tells me what course to come to, I rephrase it in a standard command to the helmsmen, who actually turns the rudder, so I guess I don’t actually drive the ship per say…) My schedule is normally a 6 hour watch, a meal, 6 hours of work in my division, 6 hours of watch on the bridge, a few hours of studying/quals/gym workout if I’m lucky (and not seasick!) and then 4 hours or so of sleeping. Unfortunately every few days one finds themselves on the midnight to 6am watch after a full day of drills and work (we rotate in 3 sections) and then you end up putting in a full 8 hour work day til about 5pm, just to get back on watch from 6pm til midnight. The times when you get off at midnight after being awake and working for 42 hours straight is amazing and I spend most of that night time watch thinking about how excited I am to go to bed. Today I had the best watch ever from noon-6pm watch which means I get 12 hours off, the good thing about that is by the time you are off watch and eat, it is like 7pm, there are no meetings, no training, nobody around to really bother you, so you get a solid 4 hours to work on your quals, study, work on stuff in the division before getting in a solid 6 hours of sleep. I am going to spend most of the evening studying for my damage control test and planning for the electrical safety training that my division will be conducting next week.

As always, I miss everyone very much and thank you all so much for all of the wonderful birthday wishes, I really appreciate them! Please email me if you want, but I don’t get much time to myself for computing so I apologize if my replies are delayed. Til then, we’ll be busy trying to catch some drug runners and cocaine and just waiting for a good bust to improve morale and make us feel like we’re actually doing something! Stay tuned!