Wow I can't believe it's only been three weeks since we got underway. It feels like much longer than that, yet less at the same time. I guess working every night for 12 hours without a real break will do that. We pull in to port pretty regularly, but it's really only for a day or so, not long enough to make much of a difference. My sleeping schedule has been thrown for a complete loop, I don't even know what time of day it is normally, which is kind of fun sometimes. I find myself waking up during my off time thinking that somehow I've missed shift or rotation and nobody has woken me up (which would totally never happen, my ass would be dead if I missed work) and then I realize I'm still in my pajamas and that it's only 3 pm and I'm not late. That's always interesting.
So far I've had lots of fun adventures being on a ship for the first time, my favorite being that yesterday we had swim call and got to jump off and swim on the side of the ship. That was possibly one of the coolest things I've ever done in my life. I don't think there are many people in this world who can say they have swum off the coast of Somalia in the middle of the ocean. It was so much fun, a great decompressor for me after working non stop. Getting in the water and just chilling for a couple hours relaxed me a lot.
There isn't really much to talk about other than that, it's the same thing every day; get up, work, get off work, sleep, repeat. It's a simple life and I enjoy it, I get a lot of sun so my arms are officially a different race than the rest of my body and my sunglasses have tanned raccoon eyes on me. Such is life and I still have a long way to go on this mission.
I miss you all so much and I hope that these little tidbits give you some insight into my simple little life.
Sleepy greetings from your favorite MA,
Victoria
