Something fishy

So, after a week of excitement in the Northwest Atlantic in support of NAFO fisheries observers, we're in St. John's, Newfoundland for a few days of... another kind of excitement, before we go back into fogbanks and ice fields.

This week was quiet compared to, say, workups, but it was actually interesting.

We were one of three ships around RMS TITANIC's last resting place overnight, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking. We arrived at night, patrolled a box around two cruise ships, MS BALMORAL and AZAMARA JOURNEY, which held their own ceremonies. At the time the ship went down, we sounded the ship's whistle, observed a minute of silence, and toasted the memory of the victims.

The next morning, which was a beautiful, warm, sunny day, all members of the ship's company who weren't on watch participated in a wreath-laying ceremony, and were invited to dip their hand in icy water in order to better imagine what it would have been like to jump in the water on that cold night.

It was a wonderful ceremony led by our chaplain, Lt Tim Parker, RCN, who invited us to book our tickets and sail away on God's ship, "and even though Leonardo DiCaprio might be on the bow, you'll also find the one who is truly the King of the World." ...or something to that effect.

On a more personal note, I had an opportunity this week to participate in my first-ever boarding. As an observer accompanying the Fisheries and Oceans inspectors, acting under NAFO regulations, I boarded a foreign fishing trawler.

A ship. Not the one I boarded.

It was an interesting experience. The captain and bridge crew were quite welcoming, and as I'd never been on a fishing boat (and despite my vast experience watching Discovery's Deadliest Catch) it was good to be able to see how one actually operates. Their captain invited me to sit in his chair on the bridge, which was a little awkward--one wouldn't even think of sitting on our Captain's chair--but fun. We walked through the processing plant, which thankfully wasn't in operation, and the holds, where tons (literally) of boxed fish was already frozen and awaiting delivery. I also saw a foot-long shrimp. I'm told those taste like lobster but I'm quite happy not finding out for myself.

For those wondering, the upper decks don't smell bad, but the processing plant is so fishy my ballcap still smells like cod. And my mustang jacket doesn't smell particularly good either.

While we were on the trawler, the seas built quite a bit and the RIB ride back was, shall we say, eventful. I let the two DFO officers go up the ladder first, and when it came to climbing myself it was quite challenging as there was only one person holding the ladder in place (generally there are two--one on each side of the ladder) and the waves had gone up to at least a meter and a half, if not two meters. It's hard enough trying to walk around the RIB in those seas, trying to jump up from the pontoon onto the jumping ladder almost seems impossible.

And to add to that, my seasickness decided to kick in for the first--and only--time on this trip. Of course.

Still, I managed to get up there, though it took longer than I had hoped.

The DFO guys have been pretty interesting to talk to as well. The two we have onboard have been in the business for many years and have a wealth of experience, including some interesting anecdotes about the Turbot Wars and such.

It's been a decent week on the BWK front as well. Though I feel like I'm no closer than before we sailed, I did manage to get good marks on the various exams we had, and also gained a lot of experience in different situations, such as iceberg-dodging.

In international news, BIMCO recently published a standard contract for Private Military Security Companies, including guidance on the use of force. It's quite interesting, for those who like these things.

Until next time, remember Red Green's words: if the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.

First Deployment

Well, after 6 1/2 years in the military, months at sea, and repeatedly volunteering for pretty much every opportunity, I finally have been picked to go overseas for actual operational duty. As it stands, I will be joining the crew of HMCS CHARLOTTETOWN sometime in May for the remainder of their mission in the Mediterranean.

It's great to know that I'll be putting all that training to some use for a worthwhile mission. Not that training and fisheries patrol aren't worthwhile missions... they're just not what I had in mind when I joined the military. In a way, though, it's good that VILLE DE QUEBEC recently completed workups; I've honed my skills quite a bit during that time, and hopefully the skills won't have much time to fade before I sail again.

So, hopefully, between OPSEC and how much internet access I can get, I'll be blogging about an actual deployment. With some luck, I'll have things to say other than "today I saw the sea." As far as possible, though, I'll update once a week during the deployment. I'll also try to post at least weekly pre-deployment, but without a whole lot to say I expect I'll mostly be checking in.

Ah well, we'll see how it goes.

Until then, I can't wait to go.

Fair winds and following seas, Captain

I've been trying to write something for the past two weeks, but inevitably words fail me.

As those of you in the blogsphere know, Capt(ret) Carroll Lefon, USN (aka Neptunus Lex) died a few weeks ago in a plane crash.

I was at sea at the time, doing the last phase of workups, and only saw the notice in passing while checking my e-mails--connectivity was bad and I couldn't open the message, and it was only later that I learned the circumstances.

Let's just say I wasn't in a great mood to "fight the war" in those last few hours of the "war" we were fighting.

I never had the pleasure of having a Guiness with the Captain, but I'm sure the experience would have been both uplifting and humbling. As a junior officer with barely a year and a half of actual fleet time, reading Lex' writings about leadership sometimes made me happy that I was following what seemed like a good track, and sometimes made me feel like I was drifting away and needed a swift kick in the pants to get back into it. Always, though, I could count on his posts to entertain and educate.

He'll be missed.

Rememberance Day

So this year I'm in Newfoundland for Rememberance Day. Hopefully the weather will hold for the ceremony. VDQ has a marching contingent but a lot of us are only going to be watching with the rest of the crowd.

Unfortunately, with each passing Rememberance Day more of our WW2 veterans disappear and, with them, all their memories and lessons. We need to make sure those guys get the attention they deserve while it's still relevant. If it wasn't for them, we'd all be speaking German right now. Of course, between WW2 vets and the newer Afghanistan vets, we mustn't forget about the other wars, like Korea.

Words fail me, as they often do, in events like this. So please, go out to a ceremony today and thank a vet. Those old gentlemen wearing berets and blazers with patches and medals? Walk up to them, talk to them, thank them.

Remember

Rescuing the Barracuda

So, RENARD 58 was just driving along, doing some navigation training in Sansum Narrows (between Vancouver Island and Saltspring Island), enjoying the (almost) total lack of contacts. It wasn't a particularly nice day, but it wasn't too bad. Then, all of a sudden,

"PAN PAN, PAN PAN, PAN PAN, this is Barracuda..."

Not a big deal, panpans go out all the time, and most of the time they're hours away at best speed. So we just keep on going though I (as OOW), the OIC, and some others on the bridge keep on listening. Victoria Coast Guard got on 16 and asked them what the issue was, and if they had a GPS onboard, which they did, and what their boat looked like. Red sloop, coordinates whatever, stalled engine refusing to start again, in calm winds, 2 souls on board. Now that sounded kind of familiar.

Oh, right, that's because we'd just passed a red sloop with two people on board, the winds were light, and the coordinates were for about 500 yards behind us.

Now, the rules are pretty straightforward, at least as far as what the OOW needs to do. Which is nothing. Or as close to it as possible. Only the Captain can decide whether or not to respond to an emergency, and until he does, the OOW is not to do a single thing. Even turning back towards the stricken vessel (where relevant--like in open ocean or when it's 500 yards away) can be considered as responding, and the ship then is obligated to keep responding until relieved by another more capable asset. The OIC listened in on the conversation between Barracuda and the Coast Guard, and when the CCG said they would put out a broadcast for assistance, he called them up and said we had them visual and would respond. At this point, the sailboat was close to the rocks and, if we left them to their fate, they would surely run aground. Besides, one of the recent Canadian Forces recruiting campaigns calls for us to...

Actual image from a CF recruiting video

...so we did.

We launched the zodiac with a small prize crew team, which included our only engineer, to assess what the problem was with the engine, and hopefully get it started. They tied up to the Barracuda to stop its slow drift aground, and then fiddled for a few minutes. The engineer reported that it was unlikely he could fix the engine at sea, and they would need to put in somewhere. The Barracuda was adamant about waiting for a friend to come give them a tow but, of course, we couldn't very well just leave them in the middle of the narrows so they could run aground, so we offered to tow them to safety.

RENARD's zodiac towing the BARRACUDA alongside

All's well that ends well, we got them onto a public wharf at a small marina, made sure they were ok and would be getting a tow from their friend, did a bit of necessary admin, and went back to our navigation training.

But not before our downright heroic prize crew had gotten their recognition.

LS Pope (Engineer), Lt(N) Laplante (XO), and A/SLt McGowan (JOUT)

with their latest medal and a well-deserved cup of tea

Still alive

So... even though I started a lot of posts in the past year, I haven't finished or posted any. I don't really have any reason for it, other than maybe I keep thinking that they might be a little boring or uninteresting.

Well, I've been in the fleet for almost a year. I've been sick on three different classes of ships, and learned a lot. There have been good times, sucky times, and downright shitty times. And, no, not all the shitty times have involved red hats. I had a chance to try my hand at actually being a leader, not with peers but with actual subordinates. I've even managed to get a bit of warfare stuff in. Those of you who don't know me personally probably don't care about what exactly I've been up to--and those who do know me either know already or don't care--so I'll skip that.

When I started this blog, one fall afternoon all those years ago in my room in Fort Sauvé, I intended to "chronicle my life as a Naval Cadet at the Royal Military College of Canada (and) also chronicle my training." I think I didn't do that very well and, in any case, my experience was anything but usual, and doesn't paint a good picture of life at RMC. Besides, I'm now a Sub-Lieutenant in the fleet, and I'm sure there are other subbies out there, on both coasts, who get bored occasionally and start writing about their lives. Mine is particularly bland.

Since blogging about my life is probably not interesting to most people out there, and isn't terribly relevant. Instead, I intend to realign--and restart--my blogging in a new direction. Though I'm not gifted in prose, brains, knowledge or experience like Lex and Cdr Salamander, I like their style of blogging, and if I'm going to keep writing, I think I should try to emulate their style.

In any case, it's high time I start this thing again.

Getting there

So here I am at "home" again--and by home I mean my mom's house. I spent a few days in sucky Toronto hanging out with the most awesome girlfriend ever (seriously, she bought me a remote controlled helicopter for my birthday, AND didn't get mad at me for wanting to fly it right away... or all the time.) and now I'm getting to spend a day at home enjoying home cooked food.

And in a few hours, I get to start driving again to make my way to Halifax, where I need to find an apartment within a few days. It should be all right. I found apartments in Victoria, twice, within a day or two of starting to look, so I'm not too worried. I actually have a few places I want to look at already.

In any case, I'm glad to be "off" and moving around, but at the same time I'm looking forward to sitting down in my new place, start work, and go back to a regular workout schedule and such.

And now I go on the road again, yeehaw!