Day Two On The Nimitz

This is the focsicle. Two sets of anchor chains get wound up in here..

This is a painting of Chester Nimitz, fleet admiral.  He recovered nicely from running a ship aground on a Philippine sandbar in 1908.  And that is an old fashioned admiral hat on the shelf to the right of the painting.  He didn't wear it as part of his uniform.  It was given to him and is now part of the collection on the ship.

This is a Zodiak - a life boat used to rescue a man or woman overboard.

See how the nuclear power can churn up the water behind the fantail?  We are cruising!

I'm up for breakfast again at 6 a.m.  Today I have eggs, yogurt and french toast.  I was hungry because I haven't eaten since 3:30 the previous afternoon.  This morning I have signed up for a tour of the Intelligence Department.  I go with a group of tigers and sailors to an area usually restricted.  Intelligence sailors describe how they keep track of the various risks like wind, heat, UV rays, waves, swells, etc.  A pilot talks about flying and the tactics they use against the enemy.  Some enemies have moral indignance to the United States but little resources.  He saw one combatant with a shoulder rocket launcher at sea on a jet ski.  Sometimes a fly-by of a F18 is enough to get people to back off.  If not, a close fly-by usually works.  The Unites States and Russia have agreements as to how to behave at sea.  When the Nimitz was deployed in the Red Sea, it was followed by a Russian battle ship.  The Russian battleship kept the Nimitz and it's protector ships company the entire time they were in the Red Sea.  Once the Russian ship crossed the bow of the Nimitz.  That bold action led to state department discussions with the Russians about their behavior.  The deployment was extended 2.5 months because of the time spent in the Red Sea.  Besides not going home the conditions were hard.  US Navy ships are not ususally in the Red Sea.  Getting supplies was not easy.  Fresh food became unavailable.  Anything shipped in was in transit for 10 days so no fresh fruit or vegetables.  All salads became pasta salads.  Frozen spinach and frozen okra were the only vegetables served.  Plus the desalination equipment sprung a leak so water was rationed.  These were tough days for those on the Nimitz.  Later we were led to another area that was so secure we had to turn in our cameras and phones to enter the room.  I listened carefully but most of the talk was explaining the various departments and all the acronyms for each department that I became overwhelmed with information overload. After I hear about ACC, TAC, and TDC my eyes tend to glaze over. Then they made up a scenario of a conflict with Canada.  The president of Canada, Sir Ip of Maple, declared Canada was taking back all property above the 48th parralel.  It was a humorous scenario but it did lay out the kind of report intelligence would give to the admiral.  After lunch I went on another tour.  We started out in the fantail (at the back of the ship).  We toured the jet engine repair shop.  This shop repairs F18 engines.  They can be built from scratch down here.  They test each engine before installing

The wake of the USS Nimitz.

it in a plane by running it (on the outside deck of the fantail) for two hours to make sure it runs right.  They keep two engines ready for both kinds of F18's at all times.  When they were in the Red Sea they kept 4 engines of both kinds ready.  After that we toured the museum where some of the property of Nimitz is kept.  Some of his personal letters are there as well as one of those old fashioned admiral hats.  Then we went to the focsicle which is way on the front end of the ship where the anchor chains are kept.  Actually I had already seen the focsicle once when I was lost trying to find my berth.  These tours are really a physical workout for me.  I've been up and down so many ladders today my calves are aching.   After my 3:30 dinner we hung out.  Tonight I have the option of a movie or karoke at 8 o'clock; both options include ice cream. I think I want to go to bed so early because I eat dinner so early.  I decide to take a hot shower and relax a while.  The shower is great and the water is hot and even in temperature.   It's weird to think that my water is heated with nuclear power.  Everything is nuclear powered - the lights, the hot water, even the water is desalinated with nuclear power.  Nuclear power leaves so much more room for supplies than gas.  A ship can go for 50 years without needing to refuel.  There is no need to throttle down the motors to save on gas with nuclear power.  The Nimitz can go full speed ahead without worry.  I haven't thought through my feelings on nuclear power entirely but on this voyage I can see some real benefits to it.