All Aboard!

This past July, I had the privilege to be the chaperon of the Eldest Unfortunate and her very good friend BondGirl, aboard the USS Curtis Wilber--SailorMan's Tin Mistress. It was an great adventure for us all and I have only been on such a trip once, aboard the USS Vandegrift when it was still here in Japan. You get to see a G-rated version of how your sailor works while underway
and you get fed well too. On this occasion, the Eldest was old enough to come aboard for the day and we were hoping that BondGirl and her dad would be coming too... sadly, BondGirl's dad couldn't make it; but that didn't stop our B-Girl.

Not to be late, me and the my crew were up and out the door by 07:15 to pick up B-Girl. Who was just getting finished with breakfast. Her mom dropped us off at the ship and took the CrazyOne with her for the day. Walking through the security guards and up to the ship, we were greeted by Sailorman himself and escorted cross decks (if I remember right, that is what it is called when the ships are moored side to side and you have to cross the deck of one to get to the other. If I am wrong... this might prompt SailorMan to actually post a comment) to the Tin Mistress. The girls were so excited there was nothing but silly-giddy smiles all around.



Once aboard we were taken down to the mess decks to wait for the safety brief from the CO of the ship. We got to meet the young lady, who works at the gas station, and is nearly covered in beautiful ink. In fact, she told us she won at seperate ink shows (2003 if I recall) for the tattoo on her back and made it in national and international ink magazines because of it. How cool is that?! (sorry, I didn't get any pictures of her, but hopefully at the next ship gathering she will be there and I will try to get a picture or two)




Once we had time to meet'n greet those around us, the CO's voice came over the air welcoming us and giving the safety brief. After all was said and done, we were set free to do nearly as we will. Running/walking to get topside, we didn't want to miss a thing. So we settled on planting ourselves on the fan the helo deck and were entertained by all the small fish surrounding the the ship...
Later I found out that those are lovingly called $*#! fish and are one of the constant companions around a ship due to the bio
-waste that is thrown over board such as the kitchen slew--those things love it. Yet, as the wonder of the little fishies began to wear thin and musings of when we would be casting off began to grow louder, we were off and would not have realized it if it weren't for the shore and other ship beginning to move away from us. We were really steaming away to Sagami-wan (the open bay you need to get through to get to Tokyo bay). Nudged along by a tug and piloted out to sea by the Harbor Pilot we excitedly watched Yokosuka get smaller by the moment.



The tug boat in the picture is one of the last US Navy tugs. Stateside and much elsewhere, tug boat service is provided by company/privately owned boats. Once the Harbor Pilot was aboard the tug, we waved good by to it and the security boat whizzing by; this was it, we were off to enjoy being in a place you don't get everyday to experience; being on a US warship watching the sea and shore pass by--I cannot forget to mention the dead fish the girls saw and jelly fish we all thought was a piece of trash at first. It looked like a giant cupcake paper that use to be around a chocolate cupcake. It was just hazy enough, that the further we parted the shore, the worse visibility became. I didn't get any good shots of Yokohama and seeing Fiji-yama was completely out of the question--damn.

We wandered all over the topside--from aft to stern, port and starboard--the sights were grand and grander still was just the sheer fact of what deck our feet have been pounding: we're on a warship, traveling out to sea!!! Yeah, I was just as silly-giddy as the girls. After standing at the rails for a good bit, we decided to find shade--it may have been hazy but it wasn't that hazy and that day was proving to be one of the hottest days yet of the summer. So we found a great place that no one was which afforded excellent views of port and starboard from up on high.

Amazingly, we stayed there for nearly 2hrs then our digestive systems alerted us to the hour of snack time and we climbed down. While doing so, we discovered a new way to blow dry one's hair and wondered if any of the few women aboard used this option.


We made our way farther down to the food on the mess deck where fruit and girlscout cookies (thank you US citizens who donated those goods during cookie time--keep up the good work!) were to be had. While we were having our respite, we watched the end of the movie, 'Are We There Yet?' and a good part of the cartoon, 'Cars. While there, the mess was getting set up for lunch and BondGirl decided to help out while we all contemplated what else to do before lunch. Just when we made our plans to go see what we can see in the ship, that is when another man in blue showed up--it wasn't just any man in blue or with a plan; it was SailorMan. Promising to lead us around after he took care of one more thing, we ran back up to the helo deck to wait. I tell you that water was an amazing color and the girls made me take many pictures of it. SailorMan did not disappoint and happily we followed him after giving both girls CO ship covers (they are the covers that have the scrambled eggs on the top--its a partial lei of oak leaves that go around the brim). As we checked out the passage ways and spaces, we came across what the girls thought was one of the coolest places on the ship: the barber shop. Stepping inside, the girls joked about getting a hair cut to commemorate the day and before the coolness of the place wore off, and before the girls inspected the space a bit further and took notice of the reading materials in the magazine rack; we left and inspected the spaces SailorMan works in and met a few of those he works with. That was pretty good.



As lunch time drew near, we made our way back topside and checked out the fire fighting gear all sailors aboard the ship train and must wear for... well hello, self explanitory. (Remember the USS Forrestal? Constant training and gear abound as a part of keeping that from happening again.) The best part was getting a chance to dawn up in all that gear. I only got half way, the suit itself was heavy enough. Once unpeeled from the suit we got a guided tour of the rest of the ship. We saw the bridge and got to sit in the captian's chair--the girls felt it was fitting since they were wearing CO covers. If you notice Eldest and B-Girl looking not so excited, we were all starved and B-Girl is battling a bit of motion sickness that warranted a visit to the ship's corpsman station for Dramamine.

While SailorMan snapped some pictures for us we spotted flying fish and that was amazing to see what you only hear about. They were very elusive to get a picture of though, the damned things wouldn't jump when I was waiting to capture their flight. Finally lunch was served: ribs and burgers topside; pizza and spagetti and meatballs on the mess deck. We were entertained through the first part of our meal with a great boarding party demonstration.

We also met a sailor who could be handcuffed behind his back and move his arms up over his head and look as if he was cuffed in front. The girls said, "freaky!" I thought it was fantastic! The girls then took part in throwing a line from the ship and lets just say, the Eldest Unfortunate should leave that to others, lol!


Once we were really out there in Sagami-wan, we were graced with a fly over from a helicopter from Atsugi Naval Air Station. That was a great highlight and I still want to fly in one! Not too long after waving good-bye to the helo, and the girls were down in SailorMan's stateroom playing with their Nintendo DS', the ship did a bit more showing off by getting up to good speed then throwing it into reverse. This maneuver began just as SailorMan was finishing up my tour of the ship's engines. The engine room is really great and very loud, even with ear protection. It is no wonder why SailorMan is hard of hearing. Anyway, as we hurried topside to see this feat, we met the girls in the passageway, them carrying all there stuff and wide eyed--since the ship was shaking and producing a very loud noise--just when the ship was really getting into the full reverse. We burst out topside and saw our wake going backwards--cool! "Engineering Casualty, Engineering Casualty," and off went a very worried Sailorman only to return a few moments later just letting us know it was nothing but the engine that was brought online while we were down in the plant. It didn't like not getting a chance to warm up before being thrown into reverse, so it shut down, yet it was brought back to life again. So no harm done. The ship commenced with more maneuvers and we got to speed around the bay back and forth and in circles. That was exilerating!!! The whole ship tilting to the portside then switching to the starboard side; wind and waves whipping all those on the helo deck. It was a very soaking experience and the girls loved every moment of it.




The fun and games came to an end as the sun continued to settle closer and closer to the west. Homeward bound were we, with full hearts happy minds and a few souvenirs from the ship's store. I got to snap a shot of a hydrofoil ferry, hopefully I get to ride one while stationed here.As we came back into port, the girls ran up to the bridge for a better view. They were tired, yet happy and couldn't stop talking about the day's events. Being nudged back into position by another of the Navy's tugs, the girls eagerly awaited to get ashore. Falling into the third wave of departing guest, we bid SailorMan good-bye and headed home. I decided to walk the girls back since it was such a nice afternoon. Along the way the girls begged to catch the base bus. Taking the bus was a great end to a marvelous day. Hope you enjoyed the pictures and I'll be posting more topics later.