Friday, October 23, 2009

Deck Department, Crew Journal

Posted by POLAR SEA
I don’t know what happened over the past few days, but man did it get cold. The other day I think they said it was -14 degrees and this morning while I was on watch they said it was -7 degrees. The wind is blowing at about 35 to 40 knots. I can literally lean back and have the wind hold me up. We have done some Damage Control drills over the last couple of days, which has kind of sucked as a member of Repair 3. We have to don our FFE (Fire Fighting Equipment) out in the cold weather. Repair 2 has it easy in the gym to get ready because they are constantly warm. We have to get down to our trousers and t-shirts to get our equipment on. For those few minutes it is the coldest feeling a human body could experience.
Today is the 23 of October, and we had a polar bear come within 50 yards of our port quarter. We could see the bear perfectly, with a clear picture of his face. Then he all of a sudden stood up and just looked at all of us on the boat. It was truly a unique experience seeing a polar bear so close up that isn’t caged at some zoo. It really makes you appreciate the experience more. Not many people get to see what we on the POLAR SEA get to see. The wildlife that we have encountered on this trip has really made this trip worthwhile. Today we were granted holiday routine early, with tomorrow as a holiday routine as well. If the weather doesn’t get any better we might get Sunday off also. This would be a great thing. The crew of the POLAR SEA needs some rest. We only have another week or so at sea before we are finally going to get a port call. Then we all will be relieved from the feeling of isolation. I’m very sure that the moral of the ship will increase at these port calls.

~SN Avey
at 1:39 PM

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