First rule: be flexible

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I try, not always successfully, to begin every day with the expectation that at least 2 things I have carefully planned or arranged will go awry. It has significantly reduced my tension (and probably my blood pressure). It has served me well so far here.

First, some background: we have been traveling back and forth to the beach from the ship either in landing craft or helicopters when the ship is not pierside.
LCM: landing craft mechanized - a medium-sized cargo transport that can carry more than a hundred persons.
LCU: landing craft utility - a much larger version that can carry trucks and other heavy equipment
Well deck: the bottom of the ship is actually a hollow space that can be filled with water to allow the LCUs and LCMs to dock. Then, with a mechanism like ship locks (e.g., the Panama Canal or the Ballard Locks in Seattle), the gate closes and the water drains out, giving access to the ramp up into the ship.

The other day we mustered at 0530 (my favorite time of day - not!) and waited an hour or so to troop down the ramps and load onto the LCM. Each of us has a life jacket, which makes a good cushion for sitting on the metal flooring. The 2 LCMs pulled out of the well deck lashed together. Once out, they untied from each other, but the seas were so rough there was a danger of one crashing down on top of the other (not to mention everyone was getting completely soaked from the water crashing over the bow and the sides - thank goodness for my REI poncho!). So after a few hundred meters we pushed back in and waited for the water to be emptied from the well deck to troop back up the ramp. We waited another hour or so for the ship to move closer to the beach (by which time the wind had died down a little so the seas were calmer) and we trooped back down the ramp and loaded back up. Once at the beach, we had to load personnel and our equipment into buses and drive about 45 minutes to the San Cristobal Hospital. We ate lunch on the bus, then worked straight through from 9:30 to 2:30 when we had to get the buses to the HLZ (helicopter landing zone - don't you just love the acronyms?). For the helicopter ride we don flight helmets with goggles, and life vests with air containers - it's quite a procedure loading and unloading. Makes the trip back to the ship a lot shorter, though, which is nice.

That evening, when I checked my e-mail, I got a message that someone had accidentally set off the fire alarm on the V deck (don't know what V stands for) - the storage deck. It triggered water from overhead sprinklers as well as AFFF (fire-fighting foam). Project HOPE has hundreds of thousands of dollars of donated medical supplies, some for use by the Navy medical when we go to our clinic sites, and some for donation to the Ministries of Health in the countries we are visiting. The supplies are in heavy cardboard boxes wrapped together with plastic wrap and loaded onto palettes. So on my 'day off' , i.e., not scheduled to go ashore to clinic, I spent the day opening as many of the boxes as I could access by myself (there were 2 full crews working on the huge amount of supplies and equipment that are the Navy's - some for donation, some for use on the ship). Today, they will be able to provide me with some help. I was happy to find that we had minimal loss, as long as we can prevent mildew from forming. Some of the boxes got pretty wet, but most of the contents are packaged in plastic of some sort, and weren't hurt.

Then the second change for the day: last evening, we got word that we're leaving Colombia early (today - as soon as they can collect all the equipment that was left at the various sites - both medical/dental/optometry and the engineers' construction things). We will be going to Haiti to provide transportation assistance with the helicopters. It seems there are a lot of emergency supplies in the airport in Port au Prince after the hurricane(s), but they can't be transported to the areas in the north of the country that need them because the flooding has washed out the roads. The health care teams will be on standby in case we are needed there. Otherwise we will just be waiting. As you have probably seen, there is another hurricane, Ike, coming right behind the other two so, as always, we are prepared to be flexible. So, no liberty (vacation) time in Cartagena, Colombia, which was planned after we finished in Santa Marta. And we don't know yet if we'll be able to go to Panama or not. We're rolling with the punches (and likely rolling with the seas if we get near the hurricane).

More to follow......

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[Andrew D. Whitmont]

Hurucan?
Ojalá que no sufran del próximo hurucán!