No Rest for the Wicked Wahines this Week
The fleet is in. We are blessed with the second carrier into port in less than a month. This is a rarity for us.
My husband works for the Navy and he gets a heads up for me as to the date and time for me to go ship watching.
He takes the grey boat to and from work daily and sees all of these ships on a daily basis as well as our subs, as this is basically a sub base.
But, today, he gets up early with me and goes down to the beach to watch.
We grabbed a couple of cheeseburgers from our little grill and picked out a spot.
Having to wait for high tide, we had timed it correct.
Then, all of a sudden, there she is, coming in from the far right and travelling at a pretty good clip I must say. In fact, probably the fastest clip I have ever seen a carrier come into port. We are talking about some
very savvy captains here. They are piloting her like she is
a 20' CrissCraft, there are four tugs out there for her and she doesn't need a one. These guys are good.
We followed her across the horizon and she is taking a huge portion of it up. She is bigger than the container ships we see all the time.
When she turns into the harbor, you can see her strange shape and wonder how she keeps an even keel. She looks totally top heavy.
She goes right by us very close. My husband had smiles all over. I think he finally gets it why I am so excited to see the ships. This was the first time he got to see the flags and all the sailors lined around her decks in perfect attention. Across the harbor sitting at Hickam was a huge crowd of people, they were waiting for their sailors to come home after several months. You could hear this huge roar go up when she passed. Thank god there are still people supporting our military.
Our neighbor was standing there with us and said his son was on the ship. We knew he had been gone several months, as his cool sportscar had been covered. We just didn't know where he had gone.
Even though this was just a short stop for her on her way to her homeport, at least several families had a wonderful weekend visiting.
She had been out in the West Pacific for quite some time and had a huge fleet with her. I think it totalled about 30 ships and 20,000 sailors. So you can imagine our excitement in seeing such a display of ships coming into our little world.
Oh, yeah, the fleet is in, the silence was soon broken with two of the F18's the carrier hauls around. We hear the F15's and 16's daily, but the F18's have their own special sound......LOUD. They came in a little later and will most likely follow her out and then land on her.
Even my normally quiet, mellow husband got excited.
My husband works for the Navy and he gets a heads up for me as to the date and time for me to go ship watching.
He takes the grey boat to and from work daily and sees all of these ships on a daily basis as well as our subs, as this is basically a sub base.
But, today, he gets up early with me and goes down to the beach to watch.
We grabbed a couple of cheeseburgers from our little grill and picked out a spot.
Having to wait for high tide, we had timed it correct.
Then, all of a sudden, there she is, coming in from the far right and travelling at a pretty good clip I must say. In fact, probably the fastest clip I have ever seen a carrier come into port. We are talking about some
very savvy captains here. They are piloting her like she is
a 20' CrissCraft, there are four tugs out there for her and she doesn't need a one. These guys are good.
We followed her across the horizon and she is taking a huge portion of it up. She is bigger than the container ships we see all the time.
When she turns into the harbor, you can see her strange shape and wonder how she keeps an even keel. She looks totally top heavy.
She goes right by us very close. My husband had smiles all over. I think he finally gets it why I am so excited to see the ships. This was the first time he got to see the flags and all the sailors lined around her decks in perfect attention. Across the harbor sitting at Hickam was a huge crowd of people, they were waiting for their sailors to come home after several months. You could hear this huge roar go up when she passed. Thank god there are still people supporting our military.
Our neighbor was standing there with us and said his son was on the ship. We knew he had been gone several months, as his cool sportscar had been covered. We just didn't know where he had gone.
Even though this was just a short stop for her on her way to her homeport, at least several families had a wonderful weekend visiting.
She had been out in the West Pacific for quite some time and had a huge fleet with her. I think it totalled about 30 ships and 20,000 sailors. So you can imagine our excitement in seeing such a display of ships coming into our little world.
Oh, yeah, the fleet is in, the silence was soon broken with two of the F18's the carrier hauls around. We hear the F15's and 16's daily, but the F18's have their own special sound......LOUD. They came in a little later and will most likely follow her out and then land on her.
Even my normally quiet, mellow husband got excited.
posted by the golden horse at 11:26 PM
2 Comments:
I really enjoy your story telling about the ships and aircraft you see coming into port. It's interesting to those of us who have never been in the military or live close enough to view all the comings and goings. Wish I could go down to the beach with you when the ships come in....maybe someday.
Joker,
Thank you for the nice comment.
Sometimes, I am sorry I have spent so much time living in other areas and missing all these sights.
I am a real mush when it comes to the military. I love watching these young people and how proud they are to serve.
Sure makes you wonder about some of these other people that call themselves Americans.
We were lucky last year when another classmate, David W. come with his family and extended friends and we took them down to the Harbor just in time to see a sub come into port, they loved it.
Anyway, anytime you get this way, the door is open.
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