Almost Home

At about 11:00 this morning we rounded Montauk Point or so they told me.
It was over the horizon thus out of sight. It was a lazy afternoon. I
finished the last of my packing and my cruise report and tried to take in
the sights of the ship the rest of the day.

Early on the cadets had their "Deck Wars" games on the bow. They competed
in various activities such as line tossing. The rest of the day, the
outside decks of the ship were an obstacle course. Everywhere I tried to
go on the ship there were painting and cleaning crews blocking the way.
They're trying to make the tired, old Empire State look presentable for
tomorrow's grand sail up the East River.

Right before dinner I saw something in the distance. It was the water
tower at Robert Moses State Park. Now I knew we were getting close to
home. Cell phones came out as everyone started to get service. I made
one call then headed for dinner.

It was our last dinner on board. As usual the Chartwell's folk had a
special dinner for the officers' last night; prime rib and lobster. For
desert, we had canoli, napoleons and cheesecake. Life is good sometimes.

We should be anchoring in a couple of hours between Brooklyn and Staten
Island. We'll spend the night there and about 7:00 on Saturday we'll take
aboard the pilot and any dignitaries that have been invited and start the
cruise into the harbor, up the river and then home. We should arrive at
the Fort by 10:00.

Packing Up

The cruise is almost over. We're sailing through the Nantucket Shoals at
this point on Thursday morning. The weather is warm and clear. The seas
are calm. I closed the library for public services on Tuesday night, but
my work is not yet done. I've been chasing down scofflaws who still have
books checked out and I have to pack up and straighten the library.

Yesterday I started packing up both my personal effects and the items from
the library that have to be returned to shore. The library packing is a
strenuous undertaking. Fifty one boxes came over to the ship before the
cruise and I expect a similar number to return. The majority of the books
remain on the ship, but many have to be returned. Most of what has to go
back is the Gove Collection of sea books. The bulk of these are large,
hardcover books and a packed case weighs about 40 lbs. I also have to
send back all of the 300+ DVDs, several cases of reference books (also
heavy) and miscellaneous supplies that are left over.

Some of the cadets are complaining about the library being shut. The
rumor is that I did it to have a few days off to relax before getting
home. Ha! This is the hardest I have worked all cruise and, to make
things worse, the AC is on the fritz again. It is hot here.

Once the packing is done and my cruise report is finished, I have to
arrange to have the cartons brought from the ship to the Luce Library
after we dock. They have to be hand carried up 2 decks, across the
gangway to the dock, placed on pallets, driven across campus and
delivered. Thank God there are plenty of cadets to do that work. When
the last box is delivered, my work is done. Then , all that is left to do
to do is to return to the ship, get signed off by the Captain, retrieve
my belongings, and head home once again bidding farewell to the Empire
State VI.

Sailing the Foggy Banks

We left St. John's last night in a hazy mist that turned into a dense fog
by morning. The fog lingered most of the day. It started burning off
above us, but a low fog clung to the ocean. It was weird. When you
looked up there was sun and blue sky, but when you looked out, there was
nothing but a gray mist. The air temperature in these Canadian waters has
been rather cool, 65 -70°, a refreshing change from the hot Mediterranean.
The ocean is fairly calm as we start to enter back into American waters
off the coast of Maine. We're doing about 10 knots so we will get to NY
in time. We'll be tracking by Cape Cod sometime later this week.

Today is the last day the library is open. I have to pack materials and
supplies that are returning to shore and that is quite a bit. Even though
most items remain on the ship, I still had over 40 boxes of stuff to go
back last year. This year should be the same. I also have to track down
the scofflaws that haven't returned their books and DVDs. There are over
25 cadets and a few officers who still have materials out, even though it
was publicized over a week ago that everything had to be back by August
3rd. I have the help of the Regiment officers to track down the
miscreants. I will turn the names of anyone who doesn't return their
items by Friday over to the shore library for impoundment. Such is the
job of a librarian.

St. John’s

Last night was magnificent. It was warm. You could see every star in the
galaxy. During the night the ship began to pitch and roll. I heard
several large crashes during the night outside my cabin. I obviously
didn't sleep too well. When I got up this morning, we were in a pea soup
fog. We had hit the foggy Grand Banks.

We sailed on in fog all day and finally reached St. John's about 17:00,
right around dinner time. We maneuvered near the mouth of the harbor
which was barely visible through the fog. Two peaks guard the narrow
entrance to the harbor. While we waited for them to get the fast boat
readied to take the cadet ashore, a whale swam around the ship to
entertain us. The cadets were more excited by the fact they had cell
phone service from shore than by the whale. Using their phones when they
have service is their major leisure activity. God help us if satellite
phone service gets cheap enough, they'll be on their phones all cruise.

Finally, the patient made his appearance hobbling along with the aid of
the two corpsmen. They got him into the boat and he, one of the corpsmen,
two of the mates and two cadets were lowered into the water and headed to
St. John's. We are still awaiting their return, and then we'll head
south, past Nova Scotia and New England, to home.

All in all, it was an interesting diversion to a boring week.

Detour

Nothing is easy. This morning we got the news that a cadet had broken his
ankle while horsing around. The doctor deemed it serious enough that it
required getting him to a hospital ASAP. The injury was not so serious as
to require an airlift, but serious enough to get him off the ship. There
were two choices; turn around and go back to the Azores or proceed
northwest of our track to the nearest port with medical facilities, St.
John's, Newfoundland. The Captain decided that St John's would be our
best bet for keeping on our timetable to get back home on the 7th. We
made the turn and increased the ship's speed. We should arrive at St.
John's late afternoon on Monday and anchor in the harbor. The two Navy
medical corpsman on board will take the cadet ashore by launch and
accompany him to the hospital. It is assumed that he will be staying
there for treatment and then be flown home. We will then proceed home,
hopefully arriving on-time. I'll keep you posted.

So, I'll get to see another part of this earth that I've never seen,
Newfoundland. Newfoundland is Canada's easternmost province and its
newest, having only joined Canada in 1949. It consists of the large
island of Newfoundland and the mainland portion called Labrador. It is a
huge, sparsely populated region with a rich maritime history. St. John's
is the capital and most populous city. Strangely, off the coast of
Newfoundland, are two tiny islands that are the last remains of France's
North American colonial empire; St. Pierre and Miquelon. An odd thing
about Newfoundland that will affect us tonight is that it is in its own
time zone that is 3 hours and 30 minutes less than Greenwich Mean Time.
That means we set the clocks back 90 minutes tonight instead of the one
hour we were supposed to. We'll have to make up the rest of the 30
minutes another night this week.

On a related note, the Regimental Staff, when investigating the accident,
were displeased by the condition of the cadets living quarters. As a
punishment, the movies that I show every evening to the cadets in the
lounge outside of the library, have been suspended indefinitely. One less
job for me.

With all the excitement, our last Sunday at Sea continued as scheduled.
It was a beautiful, sunny day. The barbecue that Chartwell's food service
put on for us was as good as usual. Everyone enjoyed the food and the
rest. Six days to go.