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Published: September 1st 2012
It’s been quite an interesting month here back at sea. For those of you who don’t know; I finished my third year of school in the end of July and am now a licensed marine officer! A few weeks after the last exam (which was oral) I found myself back on the Oasis of the Seas.
The nicest thing about coming back to a ship which I had been on before was how easy the transition was. Being able to focus on getting familiarized with the new job and do so without getting lost was rather convenient. Not to mention seeing quite a few familiar faces! I started out on day watch, which was a great way to start out, but inconveniently it removed all my chances of going ashore. The first few weeks were pretty full of all my required trainings, but things are all good now. I’ve been on night watch for a week now, which really isn’t as bad as I thought it would be and it leaves me able to go ashore during the day!
This past week we were contending with Hurricane Isaac, which we avoided be doing an opposite
itinerary. We only ended up passing through one area of rough weather which wasn’t close to the dense center of the storm at all but was still quite interesting. 65 knot winds right in the face mixed with so much rain we couldn’t see the bow. The wind also picked up a 3 meter wave, which isn’t much but it was a nice reminder that we are actually at sea.
The other night around 1 in the morning while on watch we had a report from a security guard that they had spotted a light just off our stern. This isn’t something we’d normally ever get a call from security about, and to make it weirder there were no ships behind us on the radar. A quick check showed that one of the lights from a life ring was missing. The captain made the decision to turn back to investigate. This ended with another officer and I being in the rescue boat at 2 in the morning, 60 miles from land, and trying to maneuver to a light in a 1 meter swell. Quite an interesting experience, and even better, nobody was hurt. After reviewing the security
My room
finally a much more liveable quarters, not to mention it gets cleaned for me!camera footage it turned out that some kid had thrown it overboard for no reason.
Other than that, life has been pretty straight forward onboard. I’m going to try and make it ashore next week to go scuba diving inCozumel. Feel free to give me a shout at gbeier@gmail.com
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Leanne O'Brien
non-member comment
Super to see you back on the seas!
Wow a cleaning service. You are going to be spoiled, just like your Mom does, wink wink! I love to see your updates in your blog. Take care and be safe. Love Aunty Leanne