Good news/Bad news/ the best shots II

It has been steadily raining since Saturday night.  The rivers and creeks here are nearing flood states; I hear Noah’s coming and that Arc construction begins at noon.

I am SO glad I don’t do the daily newspaper deliveries any more.

 

 

The good news

I got called into the Ast. Director’s office this morning and now have a Mid-day run.  This will bring me up to nearly full time status four days a week and over on one.  When the new contract goes through, that will mean almost a thousand more a month.

Very good news, and the fact that the Ast. Director specifically pointed the mid-day out to me is a very good sign.  I am not disliked at work – sure, I’ve made mistakes, but I have a good attitude there and it pays off.

 

 

The bad news

Last month, I had plenty of time to post several times a day; with the new mid-day run, I won’t have as much home time and thus will be posting less.

 

 

The best shots II

I was in the US Navy for a few years in the early 80’s and I bought a Pentax ME Super at the Navy Exchange.  I bought a few lenses and a flash unit, and I took a few pictures while on the ship.  I sold that camera before I went to Japan the second time and came home in 96 with a Nikon point and shoot camera, a 35mm camera which I didn’t use much because the film and developing was more than I could really afford after the car wreck in 98.  In 2005, I bought a Nikon Digital camera, one of the lower cost ones, but it takes fine pictures (of course – it’s a Nikon) and have posted a few of them here (well, a few thousand, anyway).

These pictures were taken with my ME Super and were scanned back when I first got a W98se computer in 2000.

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Petty Officer NWC:

A Gas Turbines Systems (mechanical) engineer on FFG 42, the USS Klakring.

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My duty station, the main engine’s local operating panel:

This operating panel is in the engine room; control of the engines was normally assigned to the bridge of the ship, or to the Central Control Station from here.  With the controls on this panel, the engines could be started and stopped and run up to full power.  The single stick on the left controlled the propeller’s pitch; going from no pitch and no thrust to a full 24.5 feet of pitch – every time the propeller went around, it moved the ship that much ahead.  The twin sticks on the right were the engine speed controls, going from no rpms to full ahead.  With gas turbines, the ship could go from dead at the pier to full ahead in less than five minutes, unlike steam ships, which take as long as 8 hours to build up pressure to turn the turbines, the reduction gear, and the propeller shaft(s). The various edge gauges showed the temperatures, pressures,  and speeds of the various engine components and pumps, and the lights showed the operation of engine peripherals.  With this panel, I had control of 82,000 horse power, enough to move my ship at more than 29 knots (about 35 mph).

My ship was homeported out of Charleston, South Carolina, and was a part of Destroyer Squadron 2, US Atlantic Fleet.  My ship was a guided missle frigate, a small escort ship designed to escort convoys and underway replenishent groups, and was one of several frigates home ported in Charleston.

Here, we raced FFG 45 back into port:

It was full speed ahead, balls to the walls, and no slacking off at all.  You can see how the stern of the ship sat down in the water as 82,000 horsepower thrust the ship forward, raising a big bow wave and leaving a wake behind it for miles.

I’d love to say we beat the pants off the 45, but it was a dead heat.  Both ships were brand new and built to the same specs; we both pulled into port at the same time.

But it was fun to run the ship at full speed; those were the days.

 

 

3 pics a day for DecPhoMo; more Navy pics to come.

Stand by please.

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