Hi Friends & Family!
Well, here we are, back underway from Panama City. This was certainly a crazy port visit. It started out as the best port visit EVER. After liberty went down on Sunday, I headed out to town with some friends & got a call on my cell phone from Dan, which was a pleasant surprise. The even MORE pleasant surprise was that he was in Panama City & had flown down for the weekend to see me! [Note from Dan: When I called Molly I told her "I'm in Panama!" She responded "What!? What!? You're in Panama!? I'm in Panama!!" To which I say, "I know, that's why I'm in Panama."]
Needless to say, after my SWO board and whatnot it was so AWESOME to see Dan & celebrate! We did some errands that I needed to do and then we hung out at the main hotel/casino in PC with a bunch of my friends from the ship. Dan made good friends with my friend Christian as his blackjack partner & the two of them dominated a table. Then we went out to a great steak & red wine dinner & then back to the casino. It was SO much fun and it was so awesome to catch up with Dan & tell him all of the stories that can be cumbersome
to type over long emails!
The next day we had plans to go to the CO’s Hail & Farewell, a big dinner with the whole Wardroom that we have whenever someone is about to depart this ship. The CO is about to do a Change of Command so we were planning to go to this restaurant for a big party to celebrate & I was excited b/c I was technically on duty but was going to get off of duty to go to the Hail & Farewell & Dan was going to be able to go too!
However, while I was standing the noon-4pm watch on the Quarterdeck, we received word that we might need to launch our helo in support of a humanitarian assist mission as a result of some flooding somewhere in Panama. For those of you that don’t know, launching a helo inport is a very dangerous evolution due to all of the material/obstructions on a ship/pier as opposed to being out to sea. To make a long story short, the CO cancelled all liberty and we issued a recall to get everyone out in town back on the ship. This involved sending out cab drivers to pick up people that they had dropped off around the city, sending some of the Chiefs out in town to the places that Sailors frequent, and sending out NCIS personnel to round up anyone who looked like a US Sailor to come back to the ship. It was rumored that we would be getting underway that night to transit the Canal northbound to support the rescue effort.
Well, long story short, it took about 24 hours to figure out what our tasking was (and of course it changed about 8 times in that 24 hour duration) and during that time, our liberty was secured because we could be getting underway at any time. So, there Dan was, in Panama City to see me, and I wasn’t allowed off the ship for 48 hours of his time there L It was a huge bummer but we did get one night in of great fun so that is 100% more than we would have gotten had he not come to visit, so once again- you’re awesome Dan J
We found out last night (Tuesday) that we would be leaving port at 11pm to get underway, not transit the Canal, but head around Panama south and then up North to a good spot from which to perform SAR (search & rescue) missions for the disaster relief. Just before we left, we picked up a bunch of water & medical supplies & our helo spent the day today doing recon missions, apparently the Army helocopters out of Honduras were unable to support and so during the day we are flying the recon missions to size up the damage. This is similar to the HA/DR (humanitarian aide, disaster relief) we did last deployment off the coast of Nicaragua, so hopefully it will prove to be helpful to the Panamanians.
After a 2 hour Sea & Anchor Detail beginning at 11pm, I had the 2am to 7am watch so needless to say I was VERY tired. The seas were REALLY bad the entire transit around and I got VERY VERY seasick. I spent a better part of the morning & afternoon in my rack (oh the joys of being qualified J)Luckily, things have calmed down, so keep your fingers crossed they stay that way.
Well, I guess that’s about all I have. I have included three pictures, one of a sunset in Panama City, another of the only picture I have of us from Dan’s visit, and the 3rd is a Mexican sail ship. This ship pulled into port next to us in Panama City. Apparently it had also pulled in a month or so ago when the ship was there & we got to see it pull out. It had all of it’s sailing billowing, with people up all of the masts singing a jolly roger-esque song that was like “Viva Mexico.” Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of the sail ship in all of it’s glory, but this made me laugh nonetheless.
Stay tuned for the next edition: Thanksgiving aboard the modern-day Mayflower.
Well, here we are, back underway from Panama City. This was certainly a crazy port visit. It started out as the best port visit EVER. After liberty went down on Sunday, I headed out to town with some friends & got a call on my cell phone from Dan, which was a pleasant surprise. The even MORE pleasant surprise was that he was in Panama City & had flown down for the weekend to see me! [Note from Dan: When I called Molly I told her "I'm in Panama!" She responded "What!? What!? You're in Panama!? I'm in Panama!!" To which I say, "I know, that's why I'm in Panama."]
Needless to say, after my SWO board and whatnot it was so AWESOME to see Dan & celebrate! We did some errands that I needed to do and then we hung out at the main hotel/casino in PC with a bunch of my friends from the ship. Dan made good friends with my friend Christian as his blackjack partner & the two of them dominated a table. Then we went out to a great steak & red wine dinner & then back to the casino. It was SO much fun and it was so awesome to catch up with Dan & tell him all of the stories that can be cumbersome
to type over long emails!The next day we had plans to go to the CO’s Hail & Farewell, a big dinner with the whole Wardroom that we have whenever someone is about to depart this ship. The CO is about to do a Change of Command so we were planning to go to this restaurant for a big party to celebrate & I was excited b/c I was technically on duty but was going to get off of duty to go to the Hail & Farewell & Dan was going to be able to go too!
However, while I was standing the noon-4pm watch on the Quarterdeck, we received word that we might need to launch our helo in support of a humanitarian assist mission as a result of some flooding somewhere in Panama. For those of you that don’t know, launching a helo inport is a very dangerous evolution due to all of the material/obstructions on a ship/pier as opposed to being out to sea. To make a long story short, the CO cancelled all liberty and we issued a recall to get everyone out in town back on the ship. This involved sending out cab drivers to pick up people that they had dropped off around the city, sending some of the Chiefs out in town to the places that Sailors frequent, and sending out NCIS personnel to round up anyone who looked like a US Sailor to come back to the ship. It was rumored that we would be getting underway that night to transit the Canal northbound to support the rescue effort.
Well, long story short, it took about 24 hours to figure out what our tasking was (and of course it changed about 8 times in that 24 hour duration) and during that time, our liberty was secured because we could be getting underway at any time. So, there Dan was, in Panama City to see me, and I wasn’t allowed off the ship for 48 hours of his time there L It was a huge bummer but we did get one night in of great fun so that is 100% more than we would have gotten had he not come to visit, so once again- you’re awesome Dan J
We found out last night (Tuesday) that we would be leaving port at 11pm to get underway, not transit the Canal, but head around Panama south and then up North to a good spot from which to perform SAR (search & rescue) missions for the disaster relief. Just before we left, we picked up a bunch of water & medical supplies & our helo spent the day today doing recon missions, apparently the Army helocopters out of Honduras were unable to support and so during the day we are flying the recon missions to size up the damage. This is similar to the HA/DR (humanitarian aide, disaster relief) we did last deployment off the coast of Nicaragua, so hopefully it will prove to be helpful to the Panamanians.
After a 2 hour Sea & Anchor Detail beginning at 11pm, I had the 2am to 7am watch so needless to say I was VERY tired. The seas were REALLY bad the entire transit around and I got VERY VERY seasick. I spent a better part of the morning & afternoon in my rack (oh the joys of being qualified J)Luckily, things have calmed down, so keep your fingers crossed they stay that way.
Well, I guess that’s about all I have. I have included three pictures, one of a sunset in Panama City, another of the only picture I have of us from Dan’s visit, and the 3rd is a Mexican sail ship. This ship pulled into port next to us in Panama City. Apparently it had also pulled in a month or so ago when the ship was there & we got to see it pull out. It had all of it’s sailing billowing, with people up all of the masts singing a jolly roger-esque song that was like “Viva Mexico.” Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of the sail ship in all of it’s glory, but this made me laugh nonetheless.Stay tuned for the next edition: Thanksgiving aboard the modern-day Mayflower.
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