Southern Seas 2011 pt. 2
Ports so Far: (new ports are bold)
- Port Castries, St. Lucia
- Salvador, Brasil
- Rio De Janeiro, Brasil
- Rio Grande, Brasil
- Montevideo, Uruguay
- Punta Arenas, Chile
I was on the flight deck during sea & anchor while pulling into Montevideo when I huge rush of emotion swept over me. At first I couldn’t quite put my mind to it, but eventually I figured it to be a severe case of deja vu. When I arrived back in the states from my last deployment, I told them that a trip like this was a “once in a lifetime opportunity” and that “I was lucky to get to see the entire ¼ of the world in one trip”. How ironic is it now that I was chosen to go again and see this entire ¼ of the world, not to mention the same exact spots as well (with a few changes, mind you)? I’ve started to notice while writing the last installment that I was having quite a hard time differentiating my memories of last deployment and this deployment which I found to be pretty entertaining, if not entirely sad.
Rio Grande, Brasil
This port sucked on account that, despite being here for 3 days we were only granted 1 true day of liberty. This day of course was the day that I not only had duty, but was also the day that I was standing a double-watch. In hindsight I guess this was a good thing since we pretty much lived in Rio De Janeiro for 2 weeks and everything there was really expensive.
Conversion: $1USD – 1.56 $Real
Montevideo, Uruguay
I was really looking forward to this port, but unfortunately I let myself down. I remember how Lee, Biggs, and myself hiked all over this fucking city trying to find some internet. Instead we found a pretty awesome bizarre not more than a mile or two from our drop-off point. With this discovery in mind my liberty buddies and I set out to visit the bizarre and gather some knick-knacks and such. This is where my personal let-down arose. I’ve been trying to pay my car off by essentially throwing my entire paycheck towards my loan payments, while still having a few dollars left over to enjoy the cities. Needless to say I was really stingy in this port and spent about 25 cents on a bracelet for a friend of mine when I should’ve bought a shit ton of other cool things that were available here.
Conversion: $1USD – 18.69 $Pesos
Punta Arenas, Chile
I truly forgot that this place has an entire section of my heart devoted to it. For being the outdoors-type and loving scenery, this place can easily be my next home in a few years. The crisp air, lack of light-pollution, and mountain ranges has me longing to be able to actually visit the area and possibly go hiking with the locals for a few months. Last time we were down here it was only a brief stop for fuel. Our original plans for this stop were to actually enjoy the area, however a pretty decent-sized storm blew from the south forcing us to anchor out for 3 days. Of course this all happened on the day that I had off (go figure).
Conversion: $1USD –
Southern Seas 2011 (1)
Ports so Far: (new ports are bold)
So here I am again, writing about my experiences and my travels on deployment. As I’m typing this I’m sitting in a liberty-bus traveling over a 9 mile long bridge over a bay that leads from the Atlantic Ocean into the stunningly beautiful and friendly city of Rio De Janeiro, Brasil. My last deployment was quite a success in the topic of traveling and getting to experience all types of cultures, however Rio was a port I hard greatly looked forward to along with the entire crew of the Klakring and were let down at the last minute with a port change. Last deployment I tried to write an update every port, but so far this deployment I’ve been kept pretty busy with gear going down and an unfortunately scheduled maintenance period. Things are looking a little bit lighter in the future so I’ll try and keep to the same routine as last time.
Port Castries, St. Lucia
The deployment so far has been quite identical with ’10s, except this time I’m not slaving away working in Supply Department as a filthy crank. St. Lucia was a brief overnight stay for fuel and we were denied liberty (understandably), this didn’t bother me much since I remember this port being pretty lame and shitty. I’d been working 20 hour days responding to casualties and troubleshooting in attempts to keep my gear somewhat online. Unfortunately most of the gear that’d gone down I wasn’t familiar with, so its been one hell of a learning experience.
Salvador, Brasil
Just like the last time I was here, this place failed to deliver much of a presence in my heart. The place was just so run down and there was really not much to do in regards to MWR tours or even things to try and see by yourself on foot. There was too much of a step-up from the lower-class to the upper-class in which things were either far too expensive or they were just not available at all. Still working long days underway to this port, and having a bit of an issue getting into that “deployment groove”. Our working and watch hours are constantly in rotation and the shifts are killing my circadian rhythm. I’ve been working out quite religiously though, its been my means to not smoking and keeping my head clear.
Conversion: $1USD – 1.56 $Real
Rio De Janeiro, Brasil
OH MYYAN! I was so stoked when I learned that we were pulling into this port and we actually did. I’d wanted so bad to get to go to the Christ the Redeemer statue as well as the other sights that Rio has to offer. Did you know that not only does RDJ have the world’s largest stadium but they also have the world’s largest in-city rainforest? An IN-CITY rainforest, wtf right?!? Anyways, the journey from the typical drop-off point in the city to the top of the mountain with the statue was quite epic and went pretty solid without much of a hitch. We ran into a few bumps, but nothing that couldn’t stop us entirely. The view from the top was just amazing and something I’ve yet to see anywhere else in the world, definitely adding this place to my ‘go-to again’ list.
We made it our mission the other day to find an authentic Brasilian steakhouse and splurge as much as possible on the food there. I’ve never been to a place like this before, so I was just going off of what my liberty buddies were explaining to me. So for 100 $Real we dined on the most epicly prepared cuts of pork, beef, chicken , fish, and lamb known to man. I mean, each and every time they’d bring another skewer of meat to cut off onto your plate it somehow was better than the last time they brought it out. Its a shame I won’t be able to prepare meat like this when I get back, because now I have a set idea as to how the meat should taste and I don’t think I’ll ever find that again (unless of course I come back down here, which I completely plan on doing).
Conversion: $1USD – 1.59 $Real
Trips tracker update Pt. 2
So I’ve been diligently working on my trips program (Trips) while we’ve been underway and in port. I’ve had an issue regarding the data not displaying properly. I managed to redo the data, but the issue still remains within the program. Right now I’m recording positions daily and adding them to the database. So far I’ve gotten the update process quite well, I’m still working on the display and adding more information to the system. I’m even looking into adding pictures and links.
I also have my pictures: