Hey everyone, here are some recent pictures from my deployment in the South Pacific. We were down there for about 3 months, we hit Pohnpei, Micronesia - American Samoa - Western Samoa.
These pictures are from my Canon Digital Rebel XT, Canon G9, and iPhone 4. Let me know if you guys have any questions, and I hope you enjoy!
Setting sail from Honolulu:
These guys just threw a NOAA buoy overboard for research, I think we had 11 of these to drop in certain points for NOAA
We pulled into Pohnpei, Micronesia for a 2 day port call, a group of us volunteered to do some painting and maintenance for their local hospital:
Here's me painting one of our new junior officer's:
These are from a hike I did with a buddy in Pohnpei, we heard about these old Japanese WW2 guns up in the mountains. I had to see them!
Looking at my ship in Pohnpei harbor:
Found them! There were two guns, some under ground bunkers, a turret and ammo lockers there, very neat!!
After the WW2 guns, my friend and I stopped by a carving shop to pick something up, I got a cool little figure carved from wood, here is the shop:
These wood carving shops were everywhere and a lot of people traded things for the wood carvings. Bike's were held in high regard, as well as PSP's and portable DVD players!
This is my cab driver, he is showing me Betel Nut, the local's chew it and I guess it gives you a buzz. From the looks of some of the locals it DESTROY'S your teeth! It was off limits for us.
Next up was a visit to Nan Madol. From Wikipedia:
"Nan Madol was the ceremonial and political seat of the Saudeleur dynasty, which united Pohnpei's estimated 25,000 people"
We took a cab out there, it took about 45 mins or so, then we had to hike to the ruins. It wasn't very far but it was a nice hike:
You have to go during low tide, this all floods during high tide and is over run with about 1.5ft of water (I know because I tried it during high tide the first afternoon)
A skink:
This is kava, "the roots of the plant are used to produce a drink with mild sedative properties." Also off limits for us, but our cab driver was dropping off bottles on our ride back to the ship.
Setting sail from Pohnpei, Micronesia:
Enjoying a Diet Coke, I call it "Underway Beer":
Halloween underway (a lot of the crew just made costumes with whatever was laying around):
I had to go up in the helicopter to snap some pictures of other ships in the area:
This was AWESOME, we were diverted to conduct a search and rescue case. A family from Butaritari Atoll had been swept 300 miles out to sea. They were originally transiting between atoll's on their islands. It was two adults and their grandkids (7 & 8), they had been lost at sea for 5+ days in a 12 foot long aluminum skiff. With the help of the New Zealand Air Force we found them and picked them up. We got them onboard and flew them home the next day. Their entire village gathered and gave us a few giant bushels of banana's and bags of coconuts. Everyone slept good that night!
Butaritari:
The family and some of the crew:
These pictures are from my Canon Digital Rebel XT, Canon G9, and iPhone 4. Let me know if you guys have any questions, and I hope you enjoy!
Setting sail from Honolulu:
These guys just threw a NOAA buoy overboard for research, I think we had 11 of these to drop in certain points for NOAA
We pulled into Pohnpei, Micronesia for a 2 day port call, a group of us volunteered to do some painting and maintenance for their local hospital:
Here's me painting one of our new junior officer's:
These are from a hike I did with a buddy in Pohnpei, we heard about these old Japanese WW2 guns up in the mountains. I had to see them!
Looking at my ship in Pohnpei harbor:
Found them! There were two guns, some under ground bunkers, a turret and ammo lockers there, very neat!!
After the WW2 guns, my friend and I stopped by a carving shop to pick something up, I got a cool little figure carved from wood, here is the shop:
These wood carving shops were everywhere and a lot of people traded things for the wood carvings. Bike's were held in high regard, as well as PSP's and portable DVD players!
This is my cab driver, he is showing me Betel Nut, the local's chew it and I guess it gives you a buzz. From the looks of some of the locals it DESTROY'S your teeth! It was off limits for us.
Next up was a visit to Nan Madol. From Wikipedia:
"Nan Madol was the ceremonial and political seat of the Saudeleur dynasty, which united Pohnpei's estimated 25,000 people"
We took a cab out there, it took about 45 mins or so, then we had to hike to the ruins. It wasn't very far but it was a nice hike:
You have to go during low tide, this all floods during high tide and is over run with about 1.5ft of water (I know because I tried it during high tide the first afternoon)
A skink:
This is kava, "the roots of the plant are used to produce a drink with mild sedative properties." Also off limits for us, but our cab driver was dropping off bottles on our ride back to the ship.
Setting sail from Pohnpei, Micronesia:
Enjoying a Diet Coke, I call it "Underway Beer":
Halloween underway (a lot of the crew just made costumes with whatever was laying around):
I had to go up in the helicopter to snap some pictures of other ships in the area:
This was AWESOME, we were diverted to conduct a search and rescue case. A family from Butaritari Atoll had been swept 300 miles out to sea. They were originally transiting between atoll's on their islands. It was two adults and their grandkids (7 & 8), they had been lost at sea for 5+ days in a 12 foot long aluminum skiff. With the help of the New Zealand Air Force we found them and picked them up. We got them onboard and flew them home the next day. Their entire village gathered and gave us a few giant bushels of banana's and bags of coconuts. Everyone slept good that night!
Butaritari:
The family and some of the crew:
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