Captain's Log

DATE July 13, 2007

Thursday’s weekly emergency drill was a simulated fire in a berthing area laundry. As this was the first full-speed rehearsal for the new fire and repair party squads, the drill was both briefed the night before and de-briefed the night after the drill. Briefs are conducted to maximize learning by all involved and to develop tactical thinking. All facets of fire response are considered and factored into the procedure: ventilation securing, power shut-off, fire-screen door closure for isolation, using the appropriate extinguishing agent for the situation, approach posture, escape and retreat routes for the teams, perimeter limiting and cooling and overhaul.

To shorten suit-up time as much as possible after the sounding of the signal, each squad firefighter is assigned an assistant to speed gearing up and making sure all the gear is properly donned and working properly. In this first picture, we see a cadet fireman being assisted by his assistant.  

The squads deploy as teams and within the team composition is the basic safety system of a two- man buddy system

When commanded by the squad commander, squad members “go on air” (self-contained breathing apparatus – SCBA). Once the fireman is confident that they are ready to enter the “hot zone”, you get the international all ready thumbs up signal.

As the fire situation is being resolved, the survival craft are always readied as a precaution. Here we see the number 1 lifeboat lowered from its stowed position and being readied at the embarkation deck.

Fortunately, the simulated fire situation was successfully brought under control and extinguished, so the ship recovered her survival craft and continued the plan-of-the-day.

Friday afternoon, the ship’s track brought us within five miles of Marcus Island (Minami-tori Shima), a small 1-mile long atoll only 18 meters high. It is literally in the middle of nowhere and hundreds of miles from the nearest land – the Marianas Islands group (Guam & Saipan) located southwest of us. The island’s main function is as a weather station and foundation for an aero beacon used in aviation navigation. This picture shows the island’s most distinctive feature, the beacon tower.  

Even though the island is a low-lying atoll, it is still radar conspicuous. Here is a radar picture of the island. The ship is represented by the center of the screen and the line emanating from the center represents the ship’s heading. The island has been acquired by the computer and is being tracked as a target (lower left quadrant).

You can also see the island represented on the ship’s newest piece of navigation equipment installed since last cruise, an electronic chart system known as ECDIS (electronic chart & display information system). This display unit contains a complete chart portfolio of the entire Pacific Ocean, from the largest to the smallest scale charts; all instantly available at the click of a button. The unit can be seen mounted next to the port radar display unit.

Looking at the chart display, again with the ship being at the center of the chart picture, you can see Marcus Island ahead of and to the port side of the ship in the same relative position as you see it on the previous radar picture.

With a long seventeen day passage to the PI, a “land ho” sighting brings many crew topside for a peak of something other than blue ocean going by.  We will continue to delight our audience with other sightings as they happen. Don’t be too anxious though as we have many more miles of ocean before we sight northern Luzon in the Philippines. Stay tuned.

Captain Leyda

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