Day 06 – Your workplace/desk (photo and/or description)

Spellbound and the, 20 days blogging challenge

Day 06 – Your workplace/desk (photo and/or description)

On her dark grey steel decks and  the American flag always flying from the mast of the haze grey destroyer of the fleet... Inside, on the grates and the plates that make up the decks of the Engine rooms and engineering spaces of Navy destroyers.  In the offices or command and control spaces, where operational oversight of the equipment and the personel that maintained and operated ships. 

Sailing by the coast of Hawaii, the big island, the active lava flows at night from Kiluea glowing as we sailed by and the sunset glowing on the horizon when you looked to the west...

Pulling into Cayman Brac, in the Carribean, looking down in 100 feet of water and seeing the rocks and vegetation scattered across the sandy bottom of crystal blue water...

Sailing in open water, with the ocean as the horizon in every direction... Watching a sunrise at sea, or the sunset. 

The sounds of machinery as it, whined, buzzed, hummed and ocasionally made horrible noises that promped quick intervention to make it stop... The excitement as the sounds of engines starting and the new destination to be found, and the elation of those engines whinding down as we returned to shore and would either get some time off to see new places, new cultures and well.. to be honest DRINK... OR even greater those quieting sounds as engines were stoped, equipment shut down and you were HOME and would soon be with family.

The sounds of a Commanding Officers voice as anouncements were made over the general announcing system, or the sounds of alarms as we drilled and practiced.  The sounds of water gently lapping against the side of the ship while patrolling slowly on station, or the crashing sound of water when time was more critical and we made haste to a new destination with rumbling and roaring equipment that performed as was my primary job to ensure and oversee.

The smell of fresh bread while at sea, as the night baker is busy at 2 a.m. preparing for the crew and the upcoming day's meals.  The tangy smell of the salt air, or the distinct smell of fuel and oil in the engine rooms.  The smells of charcoal as we take a small window of time in the busy schedules to have a "Steel Beach Picnic" on the decks of the ship, the BBQs and charcoal come out, and the meal is had on the decks of the ship under the sun...

In the 110 deg. F enginerooms, while sailing in the Arabian gulf, watching over the air compressors, lubricating oil pumps, the fuel systems, hydraulics, a generator and 2, ~25,000 horse power engines for the propulsion via one of 2 shafts...   watching meters, gages and indicators for things to go wrong, or just make sure they are going right, as nearly 1.5 million pounds of torque go down that shaft to turn the propeller. 

Leaving the flourescent lit spaces on the internal of the ship and seeing dolphins surfing in the large wake created by the fast moving ship, or a slow cruis and seeing dozens of whale sharks, spotted, slow and HUGE in the water near by.

Hawaii, Florida, California, Washington, Virginia... Japan, Hong Kong, Philipines, Malaysia, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, India, Oman, Djibouti, UAE, Bahrain, Saechelles, Isreal, Greece, Turkey, Italy, France, Spain, Netherlands, Scottland, Canada, Mexico, Brazil...


The Atlantic, the Pacific, the Indian, the mediteranean...

My office has not been defined for most of my career, its boundries are broad and inclined to be changed and redefined repeatedly... But it has been memorable...