Inserv Underway and Checks

Tuesday the 20th, was our first day back in port for a good while, and since Duty Section 2 had duty that day, the Leadership decided to give our section a few hours off that afternoon before liberty expired on board at 1800 (to be ready for an early underway the next morning). I thought that was generous, and I certainly enjoyed my time! And I managed to make use of it, stopping by an electronics store to see if I could find a part we need that wasn't available through normal routes.

Since this week was a pre-inserv (the ship's certification) event, they told us our personal stuff had to be out of our equipment room... and part of what I took with me off the ship was pretty heavy: with all the temperature measuring devices we dropped during the last three weeks, I managed to wind seven pounds of excess copper wire (that would have been thrown away) and sold it to a recycling business in Norfolk for enough money to cover the cost of the part I needed to buy. My, how well that worked out!

Sea & Anchor the next morning was relatively early; my station was in Sonar Control, keeping the logbook for when we went active for our first Inserv demonstration. There were some hiccups, but we completed the event satisfactorily in time. Since we were only out for a day, we went back to the old five-hour watch rotation, and I had the afternoon watch with my same watch-mates as the last three weeks. I did one of the quickest checks with an inspector, and not long after, one of the longest checks with another. Before dinner, I went up to the bridge to watch the anchor drop demonstration for a ESWS line-item signature. The OOD, a former Sonar Tech himself, signed it off after I observed the evolution. Before we reached the spot for the drop, we were clipping along at a pretty good pace... and all of a sudden we came upon dozens of dolphins, riding through our wake. They looked as if they were swimming and diving right into our dome, but I'm sure they were too good of swimmers to do that. It's entrancing to watch their graceful maneuvers just under the surface, up through it and down again. After dinner I managed some rest, then got up for the late evening ASW demonstration, in which I found the contact! Yay! I felt useful!

I thought I was on the UNREP (underway replenishment) demonstration, but when I checked the watchbill in the morning, I wasn't on it. So I stayed in Sonar Control to augment the watch team and used that time to finally figure out how to use our new electronic leave request forms. It was a big relief, and it was so much easier than filling out the paper form... it automatically put all the standard information in, including stats on how much leave I had left on the books, whereas before, I had to go look that up on MyPay... which is a pain in the neck (and recently when I checked, not available). Then it was time for my watch, and while I worked on our system for ordering parts, I also generated the day's muster report as the watch before me hadn't done yet.

My Sup sent me back aft for line-handlers during Sea & Anchor, since one of our girls on the line was LLD (light, limited duty). I didn't mind at all since I hadn't been a line-handler for a long time. Sometimes it's nice to be topside... I love feeling the wind in my face and watching our wake as we tore through the water (while we were still a ways out). After S&A secured, and the trash taken out, we didn't have to wait too long for Senior to allow us to go on liberty for the rest of the afternoon. First he had us put the cover on the port torpedo tubes... and that was harder than it looked. But at least I know how that works now, and we got it done.

Today, I had just one check with one of the same inspectors from Wednesday, and it turned out to last close to four hours. There were a few issues we had to fix, along with a few burnt out light bulbs, on top of the check itself. After being let go, and after I enjoyed a wonderful all-you-can-eat sushi on the way, I picked up a special open-purchase order from a business in town, then picked up the electronic part I ordered on Tuesday. Can't wait to enjoy one whole day of staying home and relaxing tomorrow.