Tales of Oscar and other sea stories

One of the things a US Navy ship practices over and over again is the 'man overboard' drill. Reason being that if someone falls over the side into the ocean, you want to get that person back as quickly as possible. Since using real people is not a great idea for practice, we use Oscar.

Who is this Oscar you may ask? He's a dummy. Really. Made of international orange cloth and floats, poor Oscar gets tossed over the side and we go an pick him up. Practice.

Well, yesterday we were practicing. Oscar goes for a swim and the ship turns around. We decide to lower one of our small boats for the recovery (this boat is a RHIB - Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat, about 7 meters long). Everything is going well and we're about to lower away, then someone sees a shark. Yikes. Since this is practice, we don't want to mess with a shark. So the ship circles around again to make the shark get board and go away.

Except that he doesn't get board, he hangs around. And he's not a shark, he's a whale! Big one too, at least 20 feet, probably more like 30 (the length will invariable increase every time I tell this in the future...but I digress). He's interested in what we are doing. But he moves off a little ways and we lower the RHIB. By now, poor Oscar is waterlogged and missing an arm. Then the dolphins show up. It's a party! In the end, Oscar is recovered and we have a whale of a tale to tell. The 'shark spotter' (our XO, or second in command) is teased mercilessly on his aquatic life identification skills.

The other story has to do with wierd things at night on the ocean. We had just left Dakar, Senegal and were heading out into opean water. Very hazy night with ships around us.

Then we see one on fire. That's a bad thing.

Haze makes the fire seem big, and it's flaring up occasionally. So we change course to render aid. We try to talk to him on the radio, but no joy. Then one of our partner officers from Senegal comes to the bridge and we ask him to translate.....

Seems it gets cold on thier fishing boats and they like to start fires to stay warm. We think he was telling us 'helpers' that no he's not on fire and please stop scaring the fish. LOL.

We sheepishly sail on, a little smarter to the local customs.

AFRICA!!!

Made it to Dakar, Senegal, Africa.

Wow.

Words are hard to come by to describe the place. It's exotic, mysterious, friendly, with much potential...mixed in with shantytowns, poverty, hustlers, panhandlers and the like. You will see Mercedes dealerships next to horse drawn carts. Third world meets first world. We are not in Kansas anymore Toto...

Dakar is an enigma. Looks modern from a distance. Harbor had a cruise ship in it yesterday and there are skyscrapers downtown. But mixed in are folks trying to sell you anything, and some are pretty aggressive. Imagine border towns in Mexico, then turn up the gain x20. I'll never have trouble buying a car again after interacting with some of these folks.

But the overall experience is amazing. We went south out of Dakar (the capital) to deliver humanitarian goods to an orphanage and a school the other day. The pic above is with some of the students and teachers of the school. They were very happy to see us. They sang and danced and played futbol (soccer) with us. We held the babies and unloaded the supplies and all that good PR stuff. That for me was a very rewarding experience. If you ever wondered if your charitible donations make it to Africa, recommend using Project HOPE or Project Handclasp. They do, I've moved the boxes ;) The Mormans also donate lots of stuff. Thanks guys and gals from up Utah way. I also handed out lots of candy, some toys I've collected along the way and NASA stickers. They really liked that stuff. I've never seen kids so grateful and happy (and I have some happy kids myself, hi guys ;)

More later. Hope you all are doing well...and keep those comments coming! I read every one of them.