Brest at 10:30 Monday morning. The weather was cool and drizzly.
Everyone made it back to the ship from their French adventures except
those few, like Admiral Craine, heading home early by air.
I was not personally impressed with Brest. I know I was not alone. There
were few attractions there. The city was closed down most of the mid-day
hours and pretty much all of Sunday. The street construction for their
new tram system made it annoyingly difficult to get around. The
neighborhood that we had to walk through to get back to the ship was not
very attractive or safe at night. Although we met some nice folks, the
locals did not go out of their way to be friendly. Most of the people who
got out of town, some as far away as Paris, seemed to have a better time
than those who stayed local. My trip to Quimper and the tour of Normandy
made the port worthwhile for me.
Now we're back on the Atlantic heading home. As soon as we got to the
open ocean we hit a thick fog that lasted most of the day. Thank God the
radar's working. The drone of the ship's fog horn cut eerily through the
"soup" for hours. By evening it began to clear, but the afternoon's
planned lifeboat drill was cancelled. I knew that they'd probably have it
in the morning, so I prepared for such. I was right. At 08:30 the alarm
rang. I pulled on my pants, but left my pajama shirt on. I just threw
on a jacket, my life vest and my gear and I was off to stand on the deck
for 45 min. A real treat.
One nice thing was that we crossed into another time zone last night.
That means we gained an extra hour's sleep. I'm getting back all of the
hours Joe lost sailing over here. We're only 5 hours ahead now and will
probably gain and hour every other night.
The cadets are scrambling to finish their work. Teachers are preparing
their finals for next week. I started packing some of my gear today,
especially all of my port clothes and accessories since we have no more
ports. Might as well get them ready. 11 days to go and counting.
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