Converting Video for PSP
Being on the boat I don’t really have the time or the space to constantly drag out my laptop and external to flop open a video and relax…fortunately thats where my $200 psp investment comes in. I had a hard time figuring out a proper method to assembling a conversion process since I’m using linux and most of the converter utilities are built for windows/mac platforms. So I managed to stumble upon Yogarine’s blog where he does a really good job at simplifying an outline to the conversion process for people that aren’t too tech savvy.
Southern Seas pt. 4
St. Lucia
Fortaleza, Brasil
Salvador, Brasil
Montevideo, Uruguay
Bahia Blanca, Argentina
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Puerto Montt, Chile
Puntas Arenas, Chile
Coquimbo, Chile
Callao, Peru
Panama City, Panama
Willemstad, Aruba
St Nicholas, Curacao
Santa Marta, Columbia
It’s finally that time, back in my parent division once again working on stuff I originally
enlisted to work on. I did my 120 straight days of hell in the supply division performing
my ‘mess duties’, and it feels spectacular to have my hands back in gear and getting the
gears in my mind turning. Unfortunately with the shift in my actual work type comes
a big shift in schedule, instead of working from 0500-2000 every night I do a typical
workday of 8 hours plus my watch (which is normally 1800-00). I’ve definitely been kept
quite busy trying to catch back up on my required qualifications as well as getting my
head back into comprehending how electronics work (or don’t work, in most cases).
It’s been quite a blast looking at that list above of the places we’ve visited, stories to be
told, and experiences to never forget (whether good or bad).
Panama City, Panama
We really didn’t get much of a chance to check this place out, unfortunately. We had
quite a bit of things to have tended to but we did get the opportunity to transit the Panama
Canal. The transit was supposed to take around 12 hours or so, we broke the fucker down
into nearly 3. Its an amazing feeling when you’re sitting there on the flight deck watching
the whole transit evolution take place and seeing out across the canal where a hundreds
of men were once slaving away trying to accomplish the impossible man-made wonder it
is today. Its pretty neat in how the canal works, and how advanced it was for its day and
still how advanced and full-proof it is to this day.
Willemstad, Aruba
I called my dad the minute we got to the little strip of hotels and told him I was in Aruba,
his response was “get the fuck out, fucking Aruba?!”. Yeah, fucking Aruba is that
awesome. The island is really small, absolutely beautiful, no humidity whatsoever. We
ran into a guy that could get us 3 ATVs for $20 USD an hour with nothing down but
our last names and where we were staying. Apparently there was a trail all around the
island that was right off the coast and was all types of terrain and passed by a dozen or
so landmarks. All along the coast was a neat assortment of pumice and other stones that
people had been stacking in neat little stacks (single rock on top of each other) all over
the coast for decades, it gave a kind of erie feeling kind of like the people were still alive
in spirit there.
The island was absolutely beautiful, with a good assortment of locals and dutch visitors it
really gave a good atmosphere and really made me have a fever for dutch women. Mmm,
dutch women.
St Nicholas, Curacao
All I can really say about this place was that it was a total disappointment. There wasn’t
much to do and really reminded us of the visit to St. Lucia. It was all way too touristy and
didn’t have much to do outside of sitting in the hotel or doing some lame tour of a mall.
Southern Seas pt. 3
Given the wide range of this deployment – going from the “crossing the line” ceremony of evolving from a slimy polliwog to an honorable shell back while passing across the equator, receiving my “red nose” status for passing through the Antarctic Circle, and finally receiving recognition for transiting safely through the Straights of Magellan – I can say that I’ve not just circumnavigated the South American continent but that I’ve lived quite an amazing journey. Most people will talk negatively about the things they’ve done, even after all that we’ve done in just a short 2 and a half months. So far you’d hear the same things about this cruise from the personnel on board as you would from someone who’s worked at McDonald’s their whole life. For as much hard work, stupidity, and utter wasteful letdowns that us as sailors have to go through, there’s plenty of virtues to reminisce of later on in life (even if its just moments after the fact). Most people aboard would just say “its the booter in you, give it time”, I refuse to take that as the ultimate reality.
Ports so far:
St Lucia, Eastern Caribbeans
Fortaleza, Brasil
Salvador, Brasil
Montevideo, Uruguay
Bahia Blanca, Argentina
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Pulling into Buenos Aires after a long day of transiting through the channel (if I recall correctly, it was about 12 hours) we arrived in the harbor about midday. The sight of the city was absolutely welcoming, the harbor looked well-maintained (which is always a good thing), and there were even other warships from Argentina and Ireland (go figure!) moored there in part with the Southern Seas operations. My first liberty experience here was only a half-day, let out after dinner-chow. Since liberty restrictions had been set due to a few bad apples in the last port the night had to be cut extra short. We walked through the downtown that the typical little white bus dropped us off at. The area reminded me quite a bit like Crocker Park in which the rows and rows of buildings were sectioned off by little alley ways and back streets. I really like areas that have a modernization to them with little centers of nothing but computer-parts stores, it was if you’d take newegg, tiger-direct, best buy, etc., and had a single little 20×20 store. The next day we high-tailed it back to the spot with a lot more time on our hands to the same place with a specific bar in mind called Kilkenny’s. Apparently there’s a small chain of them around the world, this one was located right across from a store that was modeled on the inside and out as a ship with people hanging off the side of the building and all. The one issue I noticed with us as Americans coming to foreign places where culture is deeply engrained within the people, ours is the exact opposite. We do things when we want regardless of who it affects or how it affects them. Walking into Kilkenny’s we noticed the place was completely empty so we headed up a creeky wooden staircase that semi-winded through the middle of the saloon, at the top was an amazing sculpture of rocks like a corner of a wall you’d see in the fields of Ireland, with a large stone celtic cross. After a few pints of the local lagers and stouts my buddies and I went onto a little more of the familiar brews…Guiness, Harp, Jameson, Mildan’s. Since the bar was still quite empty (at least on our floor) we found a little lounge-type area with two couches split by a glass-topped table. After bellying up at the bar for a bit of story-swabbing we went back to the table to set up our laptops and such to do a bit of talking home before we hit the bartender to add up our tab. For a minute we were trying to find the bartender to get us some more drinks, after a few minutes he appeared with two pieces of paper with ‘reserveda’ that he taped to the table. My buddies ordered a half-dozen Irish car bombs, which we found were totally different than the ones in America. Back home you take the pint of stout, a mixed shot of jameson (or tullamore dew, or bushmills) with baileys, and dropped the shotglass into the pint. Here they don’t drop it in which is a toally different experience, and really adds a great taste to a great drink.