LOADED - Locks, Stocks and 2 Smokin' Bagels!
Today is the 26th, Saturday. Yesterday we finally left North Carolina and began our journey eastward. Wilmington NC seemed to be a pretty neat town. Horse drawn wagons for tourists and the battle ship NC there to see. The river although very brown is flanked by very attractive terrain and is beautiful to see. The mouth of the river to the Atlantic is narrow and it was interesting to see all the people fishing on the banks and people looking from their home windows to see us enter the river. If not for the heat and humidity North Carolina would be a nice place for a home. But like the rest of the south, the weather makes it not for me.
Our first port was in Wilmington. While there we loaded 6 boats for the Kenya Navy. What ever you do, don't mess around with the navy in Kenya, well unless you got something sharp enough to deflate their boats. It took awhile to get them all to the ship, I guess when we arrived one of the boats was still on a truck in the Midwest, but by the next evening they were all there and we got them all loaded. As soon as they were loaded we departed that dock and sailed about 3 hours back the way we came to Sunny Point.
At Sunny Point we loaded our cargo for our first port. The Stewart department continued its chaos while in NC. The Chief cook this time decided to quit. That was probably a good decision on his part because the general thought was that if he did not quit he'd be fired. It got tiring after a while trying to avoid him when he would arrive on the deck. He is a black guy from the south. It has always been near impossible for me to understand what he is saying, but even tougher after he began his drinking binges, and boy does he have allot to say when he is drunk! The Stewart dept. is fully loaded now, but we will see how it all works out. The Chief Steward is an older lady named Robin, I am hoping she has an easier time of it now, she deserves a break.
The whole loading thing in NC kept all of us up for well over 24 hours and I was more than ready to take to my rack when it was over. Unfortunately as I type this I am washing my sheets because being so tired I missed a big grease spot on the back of my leg when I showered, so I woke up with black greasy sheets LOL. But I slept well :) My favorite part of the voyage is right now. I like the being underway part of sailing the best, the work is plenty but not near as much stress.
Well, now off to Israel, but probably no chance to get off the ship there. I wish we had at least one day to go out and see a little. Then off to Oman to deliver one boat for their navy. After Oman it's Kenya, which everyone is looking forward to, followed by Tanzania. I hope your all doing well and having a good time. Miss ya all and will prolly see yas sometime in October.
Jesse
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