En Route to Guam ...

…aka Japan’s Little Hawaii

 

We left Hawaii yesterday morning at 0900 and are now headed to Guam. We hope to arrive a day early so the repair of our communication satellite can continue. We have had no internet and very slow email since the beginning of last week. Beside the inconvenience to the crew, not having internet or communications is unproductive for our mission. A lot of people are not able to do their job at this time because of the unavailable networks. We had heard rumors of staying in Hawaii an extra day while they tried to continue to fix the problem, but obviously the powers that be decided to keep going.  

 

Pearl Harbor and Waikiki were beautiful. Unfortunately the first day I had duty. This means I had to stay on the ship for 24hrs while my section was assigned duty. In that period I stood a 4 hr watch on the quarterdeck (entrance to the ship). My watch was from 0000-0400, the hardest one. It’s hard because you don’t get much sleep. Even if you go to bed early, you still have to get up for watch. And even though you can go back to sleep, you still have to muster (take attendance) at 0730 every morning. It was kind of a bummer because we were only in Oahu for 2 days and the first day was a duty day for me. Good news, we’ll be coming back through in September. On my day off I did get to run to the NEX (Navy Exchange), pick up a few items and then head downtown Waikiki for lunch. We ate at Duke’s and sat just off the beach on their patio. It’s gorgeous there! The water is so blue and it was so sunny. After a few Mai Tai’s, a Hula pie for my birthday and some pictures with The Duke (a statue), we laid out. Sadly I didn’t pack my swim suit but still got my feet wet walking up and down the beach. Hopefully I will figure out how to upload some of the pictures soon! Around 1600 I headed back to the ship to doll up for our evening Luau. The Navy Nurse Corps organized a trip to Germaine’s Luau to celebrate the Nurse Corps Birthday! It was a blast! Great food, ethnic dancing and drinks. It was right on the beach so we were able to watch the sunset as the show continued. After we went back to the ship and went straight to bed. On days we pull out of port liberty is typically secured at 0630 so you also muster at that time. So far I haven’t slept past 0630 any day.

 

I will have to backtrack and write about last week but for now lunch break is over. Back to setting up our wards. Today we received all the equipment we’ll need (vital sign machines, portable suction, thermometers, scales, emergency equipment, etc…) We’re cleaning it all off and distributing it between our 3 wards. Maybe when we’re done I can take a nap J