The whole family is in Victoria!!!

Yay!!!! We are finished unpacking the boxes. Now to filter through the contents and place them along with setting up the rooms. I will write more when time becomes available. My next course starts Sept 13.

MARS III is now finished!

I passed my run yesterday and am now finished MARS III!!!!!!!! That was definitely something that I would not want to repeat.

1 down, 1 to go

Passed yesterday's run just fine. If I pass today's run, I will be done! Yay!! I will let you all know how it went.

Only 3 more sleeps for me and I will be heading back to be with my family. Double Yay!!

They moved the end of the tunnel

Well, I passed 5 out of 6 of the assessed runs. I did not quite pass my Navigator runs, so I had to go in front of a board and justify why I should be allowed to continue with the extra week (Pause week). This was approved. We did 2 more developmental runs last Wednesday and Friday. Today is our first assessed run. The good thing is that I only have to do the Navigator position and not any of the others. We were supposed to start at 8:00 this morning. We were all there getting set up and were mentally ready, when our CTO (Course Training Officer) came in and told us that we would not be starting until 4:00pm today and the same time for tomorrow. I have to pass 2 out of three again. If I do not get both passes today and tomorrow, then I get a third shot at it on Wednesday; but I am not planning on that happening.

Only 4 more sleeps for me and I will be with my family again (Friday night does not count for me as I will be flying all night long). YAY!!! It has been a very long stretch since October, but it is now coming to a close.

Down to the final stretch...

Developmental in the NABS (Navigation and Bridge Simulator) has been challenging. Today is our last day and then Thursday, Friday and Monday are assessed. We need to pass 2 out of three runs for each of the three positions (Officer of the Watch, 2nd Officer of the Watch, and Navigator). Some runs go better than others. Yesterday, we were "pre-assessed" and I would have passed all three runs. Today we have a big parade early in the afternoon, followed by a late night in the NABS. My days have been pretty much exactly the same for the past 3 weeks. Plan our passage (which can take up to 6-8 hours), execute the passage (or be one of the other positions for other team mates runs), go to sleep, wake up and do the same thing again. The end is now in site.

17 more days until I am back with my family. I can't wait!

Sea Phase is now done with

I am back on land and getting prepared for the next couple of weeks of conducting runs in the simulator. Two weeks of developmental and one week of assessed. This is where you pass or fail MARS III. There are three positions; Navigator, Officer of the Watch (OOW) and 2nd Officer of the Watch. You have to pass two out of three in each position. If you don't quite make it, there is a week after the assessed called Pause Week, where you get another crack at it. Hopefully, I won't have to do anything during this week.

The sea phase was interesting. Very, very little sleep and a lot of work each day planning your passage for the next day. The time it took to plan a passage slowly reduced as we became quicker at it. In the beginning, we would spend around 10 hours planning a 1 hour passage.

The first weekend that we were away, we were in Ladysmith and the second was in Vancouver. It was interesting going under the Lion's Gate Bridge and seeing Stanley Park and the Sea-Wall from the water side.

The countdown is now on....26 days until I am with my family again. I can't wait!!

The Academic phase is over!!!

Today was our final exam for the academic phase of MARS III. I won't have my mark for a couple of days, but feel confident that I did well on it. It feels a little surreal that we are finished this part already, although not a day too soon at the same time. It has been full out every day since it began. The rewards to the efforts have been worth it so far as I am third highest in the class of 21 for marks so far. We leave for our sea phase next Thursday. We will spend the first weekend in Ladysmith and the second in Vancouver; returning here on Wednesday, June 9. From there, we continue doing runs in the simulator for two weeks and on the third, we are assessed on our runs in three positions (Officer of the Watch, Second Officer of the Watch and Navigation Officer). I am looking forward to the sea phase; putting together all the things that I have learnt over the past 7 weeks.

We now have a PMQ!!! Now to get the movers sorted out and we will be ready to go! I can't wait to have my family out here with me. I miss them so.

What a day to feel proud to be in the Navy

Yesterday was the 100 year birthday of the Canadian Navy. Here on the west coast, 2750 members of the Canadian Navy paraded downtown Victoria to celebrate. This was combined with the Freedom of the City Parade which the Navy marches in every year since 1985. The number of citizens who turned out to support us was amazing. They applauded us and cheered us and yelled thanks to us. It really did make me feel proud to be part of the Navy.

Studying continues to go well. Two more days before my Tides/Astro/Time Zones exam. I am feeling very confident in this exam; but have no plans to let up on the studying. There is still a couple of us that get together every night and work together. So far, no one from our study group has failed an exam and we plan to keep it that way.

I hope everyone has a great day.

Half way through the academic phase

Week 4 of MARS III is now completed. The academic portion of the course is 8 weeks long. We wrote our second exam on Thursday on the subject "Rules of the Road" or sometimes called "Collision Regs". It is the rules that you must follow while on the sea or inland waterways. There was a huge amount of verbatim that had to be memorized and the pass mark on the test was 80%. I finished with a 91%. Really, just glad that I passed and don't have to worry about a re-write. Four of our guys (there are 21 of us) did fail it and will have to re-write. If they fail the re-write, the have to go in front of a Training Review Board to see if they can get re-coursed or if they are deemed unsuitable for MARS and have to find some other military occupation. I sure hope they all pass.

Our next big test is on Tides and Astronomic Theory. So far, I am not having any issues understanding it. The math is simple, but there are a lot of steps required to get to the answer; so I will be spending lots of time practicing this one so that I have it down cold by the time we write the exam (which is this Friday). After that we have Passage Planning which is now done on a computer program. The first couple of passages (based on historical data) will take us about 7 hours to complete, and once we get used to it, some may get it down to as low as 4 hours to plan one passage. We will be doing a lot of these on our sea phase, which starts May 27 for 2 weeks.

We have a parade this Tuesday to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the Canadian Navy. The entire Pacific fleet will be marching downtown Victoria. It is a huge celebration day and there are a lot of events planned both by the city and at the various messes on base. The Chief of Maritime Staff has even directed the Navy to "splice the mainbrace". This is a long standing tradition spanning since the beginning of the Navy in which an issue of rum is given to every sailor. This is something that can only be directed by a very select few (usually the Governor General) and most of the sailors now serving can not remember the last time this was actually done.

The intensity of studying has been extreme, but I am not feeling overwhelmed by it. I think that it is because I have simply set my mind to putting in 110% to it and so far the rewards have been well worth it.

Have a great and sunny day.

Shaking off the cobwebs

Sorry for being absent for so long. With MARS III starting, there has been practically no time whatsoever to update my blog. I am taking a short study break right now, so here is the update with a couple of pics.

The trip to Alaska was amazing. I can say for sure that I do not get sea sick. On the Monday that we left, we hit some rough water and a huge amount of the ships crew were sick, including the Captain. Guys who have been sailing for years and have not been sick in years were throwing up. I was simply laughing at it and loving it like some giant roller coaster ride. Alaska was simply wet and windy. The rain fell horizontally all weekend, but we still managed to get out a little bit (had to try the local beers). I was one of 8 our of 34 selected to have a special dinner with the Captain on the second Monday. It was a privilege and very enjoyable time.

Easter weekend, I flew home for a very short visit. We did not tell the kids that I was coming, so when I came in the door and they saw me, the looks on their faces was priceless; then they both started to cry. It was very touching.

MARS III is off to a good start. I have already written the first exam in Relative Velocity and scored 89.2% (yay for me). Our next exam in this Thursday on Rules of the Road (sometimes called Collision Regulations). This one will be the toughest as it involves a lot of memorization as you must be able to write many of the rules verbatim. Thank heavens there are a couple of guys who I meet with every night on the 6th floor common room to study together. It has been a huge help. Below are also some pictures of the paper carnage from studying for the Rel Vel exam. I had put in roughly 40 extra hours of study time for that exam and will easily match that for the Rules exam. Effort equals success. I simply ask myself "how badly do you want this and what are you willing to do to get it?" and the answer is easy "anything and everything necessary". I don't mind, even though my brain hurts a lot every day, the reward at the end will be more than worth the effort. How many people can say that they drive a warship for a living? Personally, I think that it sounds pretty cool.

Anyway, here are some pics of the Alaska trip and our early study sessions.

I will do my best to not let the cobwebs land on this blog again.

Away on an Adventure

Well, I leave tomorrow morning for my adventure aboard the HMCS Algonquin up to Alaska until April 1st. I will not have any internet contact until I get back. I hope that everyone stays safe and remembers to focus on the positive things in their lives. I know that I will be thinking of my family and how much I love them while I am floating up the Pacific Ocean. Be ready for some cool pictures when I get back.

Steve

Getting ready to go to sea

This past week was all classroom work and a little bit of practical dealing with ship handling. This included such things as the procedures for Refueling while at sea, the ships organization in regards to emergencies, dealing with threats, etc.

Mom and dad were here last week and a half and I was able to see them a couple of time. All visits were great. Thanks again for supper at Japanese Villiage.

The excitement begins on Monday when we go for our sea phase. We will be on HMCS Algonquin returning on Thursday April 1. We will be heading up to Ketchican, Alaska and probably staying there for the weekend. See picture below for the Algonquin. It looks like I will be out of contact completely (except in case of emergency) for the entire time. It will be a great opportunity to learn tons of new stuff (and believe me, there is a ton of stuff to learn). It should also be very exciting.

This weekend, I am going to be hooking up with Chris and Lori, so that will be great as I have not seen them for a little while.

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone.

Standing in the middle of a blazing fire was cool

OK, so for the past week, I was still at the Damage Control School. We learned about fire fighting on board a ship. We learned to use two different types of breathing apparatus. The first is called Chemox. This is worn on the front with rubber lungs and a metal canister that uses potassium super-oxide to create oxygen to breath with. The issue with this is that if you somehow "collapse" one of the lungs, you suddenly can't breath at all. This unit has been used in the Canadian Navy for over 50 years and is extremely out of date. Fortunately, it is now slowly being replaced by a "Drager" system which is what real fire fighters use. It employs an oxygen tank carried on the back. It is much more comfortable to wear, easier to use and you don't have to be scared about collapsing a lung.

For those who asked, I got 96% on the first two exams and 100% on the fire exam.

We went through a "smoke maze" which lead us through the trainer that is set up like the inside of a ship. We were in groups of 6 or 7. Once we were inside, either the smoke was so thick that you could not see your hand until it was directly in front of your face, or in some parts it was so dark and if you closed your eyes tightly and then opened them, there was absolutely no difference. It was really cool.

Then we had to do some real exercises with fire going on. We did this twice. The first time was going into a mess (sleeping area on ship) that was on fire and put it out with the hose. While we were trying to put out this fire, flash over occurred. This is where the flames suddenly grow across the ceiling to the point where it was pretty much directly over our heads; while the rest of the room was still in flames. The second one was where we had to also descend down a ship's hatch into a compartment below which was already on fire. I basically went down the ladder and stepped right into the fire. Then we had to advance further on the fire as it was spreading. At one point, the flames were on the floor only about 2 feet from my feet.

With the temperature of the fire and the small areas that we were in, when we stepped out, the amount of sweat was amazing, but the adrenaline rush prevented me from even noticing when I was dealing with the fire. It was a blast (not that I would want to do it for a living, so don't worry Cynthia).

Below is a picture which shows exactly what we were wearing for the exercises.

Damage Control School

This week we have been spending time at the Damage Control School. The three main subjects that we cover here are CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological & Nuclear) hazards, flood, and fire.

We started the week with CBRN and had to do exercises in a "gas hut" that has real tear gas in it. When we first enter, our faces are exposed and we do not react until we feel the effects of the tear gas. We then have 9 seconds to get our gas mask on and another 6 seconds to finish getting our CBRN suit done up 100%. The tear gas sure burns on the eyes and is hard on the throat. Yesterday and today we have been learning flood control techniques. At the school, they have real life-like simulators of compartments on board ship and we will be in them when they flood the compartments. The water comes from the city water supply and is supposed to be really, really cold and will come out of the holes at 140 psi. When we witnessed an example of it today, the sound was so loud from the pressure that you could not hear each other even if we were to yell at the top of our lungs. Next week we take on fighting real fires at temperatures upwards of 200 degrees. Should be pretty fun.

It has not all been fun and games, though. We already had an exam on Tuesday and have another one tomorrow, so I am off to study as there is a whole lot of information to know for it.

Have a wonderful day and let good thoughts warm your heart.

Speeding around Esquimalt harbour

Today we went to the boatshed and learned to drive the Zodiac and the RHIB (pronounced RIB) which stands for Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat. The zodiac had an outboard motor and the RHIB has an inboard motor. We went out into the harbour and really just zoomed around for a while and practiced approaching the jetty. Even though it was a sunny day, it was quite cold out on the water. The splash of water coming up over the bow of the boat got to be extreme as we were all creating waves and driving through them. By the time we got back to the boatshed, we were all extremely drenched from head to toe. Let's just say that a good time was had by all. Most of the guys said that this was by far the best day of NETPO so far.

Two tests tomorrow though, so I have been studying over the past few nights and all afternoon today so that I can watch the hockey game this afternoon. Bonus to being out here is that the game starts at 4:30, so I will still have lot's of time to do a final review of my notes before bed without it being too late.

I am very proud of all of our Canadian athletes and the effort that they are putting into these Olympic games. Go Canada!!!!

Have another great day everyone and remember....no matter how bad off you might think you are; someone is much worse off. Enjoy what you have each and every day. Give without strings attached or a "what's in it for me" attitude and you will get good things in return when you don't ask for it.

At the Range

Went to the shooting range today to qualify on the C-7 rifle. When I was in the military previously, the C-7 was just being introduced as I was leaving and never got the chance to fire it. I surprised myself by doing very well on it. For those who have never seen one, below is a picture of one.

Tomorrow I will be shooting a pistol called a Sig Sauer, also pictured below.

Should be interesting as I also have never fired one of these, only the 9mm Browning and that was a long, long time ago.

Hope that your day is full of sunshine. If not in weather, then in your hearts.

Week 2 completed

Week 2 is now done. Other than the swimming in our clothes, the week consisted of classroom lectures on such things as flag raising ceremonies, emergency stations and wardroom etiquette. This coming Monday and Tuesday, we go to the range to fire C-7 rifle and 9mm pistol. Should be cool.

Wow...how about those Olympics so far. Opening ceremonies were awesome. Women's hockey team showed amazing stick work and passing....gold medal game, here we come!

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone, but especially my wonderful wife. I Love You, honey!

Have a great day everyone.

Swimming in my clothes?

Yes, today's lesson was "Sea Survival". We spent the afternoon in the swimming pool with our clothes on and even had to work with a 20 person life raft. Funny enough, there are 20 of us on the course and all 20 of us fit into this life raft (very tightly, I might add), but we all fit. When you first get wet with all your clothes on, it really feels weird; but after a while, it was OK.

Although the superbowl was not the most exciting football game that I have watched, it was still quite enjoyable and I was happy to see New Orleans win. It is always nice to see the "underdog" win and New Orleans deserved to have something good to celebrate.

Tomorrow we are back in the classroom for more power point lessons. I have been working on my essay and remember why I chose science in high school and university; writing lengthy papers does not come naturally to me. But hey, if Cynthia can do the math and kick butt in it, then I certainly can suck it up and write a history paper.

Have a great day and remember that there is always something to be grateful in your life.

First Week

The first week of NETPO is over with. As is usual with the first week of most courses, it consisted of introductions by staff and basic classes (all power point presentations). We did have a museum tour on Thursday and have to do a presentation on a case study of a situation explaining how the Principles of Leadership apply and would be used. I don't mean to brag, but the instructor gave us 2 hours to prepare and I only took 10 minutes. This is the sort of thing that I have been doing for years and feel that it comes naturally to me. The younger guys told me that they were impressed by my presentation and how I would approach the situation. For sports, we played touch football on Friday afternoon. The field was a little wet from the rain of the night before and at one point I lost my footing and this morning realized that I had wrenched my lower back. I will be taking it easy and trying to slowly stretch it out today. I will be going over to my brother's this evening to babysit my nephew so that my brother and his wife can go out to a movie. It is their 13th anniversary this weekend. I am looking forward to that, Sean and I will have some fun.

I know that my family and friends on the East coast are having a very cold time right now, but I hope that the sun at least shines for them.

Have a great day everyone!

The start of NETPO

Well, the first two days of course have been quite interesting. A lot of welcome briefs by the staff, a little bit of death by power point, and already some homework. I have a minimum 4 page essay to write on the events leading up to the formation of the Royal Canadian Navy. It has been over 20 years since I have had to do research for a paper, so this should be interesting. Tomorrow is a day filled with power point presentations, but hopefully will be full of interesting information. My class has started a squash ladder for next week, so that should be fun. How it works is names are put together in a pyramid form and anyone can challenge anyone who is a level higher. If they beat them, then the names change and the winner goes up a level and the loser goes down a level. We do have a scheduled sports period at the end of the day tomorrow, but it was not announced what sport we will be doing, so stay tuned.

Have a great day everyone and stay safe.

Getting ready for stage 1

Getting excited for course to start on Monday. I will be spending the weekend preparing. Especially polishing shoes and ironing my uniform while watching lots and lots of hockey on Saturday (Hockey Day in Canada, gang).

I really don't like it when people power trip just because they hold a rank or position. This morning, I showed up for morning Colours as I am on duty at 0737. The orders, which are taped to the desk where we meet states "Duty personnel will muster at 0745 for morning brief". I happened to be the last person to show up and the senior duty officer proceeds to chastise us about being junior officers and setting good examples and that we always need to be 5 minutes early for any timing. He keeps looking at me the whole time. I bit my tongue, but was very close to saying "well, I guess we are all good, since we are all here more than 5 minutes ahead of the timing".

Oh well, a little rant and now I will just learn once again to remember not to treat people like that.

Starting next week, these updates will most definitely increase as my course starts.

Happy Friday everyone!

Sunday

Been a bit of a slow week. The parade was super basic and no problem. The only drill we actually did was 'attention' and 'stand at ease'. I was able to have another good time on Friday night with my brother for a little bit. He appears to be in a better head space lately as he is getting some potential good news; which is nice.

Great hockey last night as both the Habs and the Canucks won.

NFL Playoffs today. I will be working on polishing my shoes, ironing my uniform and adding in some studying as well.

Hope the sun is shining in through your window today

Wednesday

Got to do some actual work today. We have a big inspection of the rooms tomorrow, so myself and one other guy checked all the rooms on the third floor. Most were good, but even for officers, it was sad to see the state of some of the rooms. The other guy has been working here for quite a while now and he was the one writing the notes in the rooms. He was not nice to some of them (not to say that they did not deserve it).

Parade tomorrow morning too. Been polishing my shoes and ironing my uniform. Should be interesting.

I kept thinking about all the snow that Saint John was getting and was hoping that it was not getting too bad for Cynthia. Maybe tomorrow will be a snow day for her and the kids and they won't have to go anywhere.

Tuesday

Had a fantastic time with Peter and the family on Sunday. We went to Sidney and saw a Lego display. It was pretty cool. They also have quite a few book stores in Sidney which carry really old and unusual books. It was neat to wander through them and see some of the super old books.

Was going to play dodgeball today, but it turned out to be floor hockey. They needed a goalie and I volunteered. Not too bad, I recorded a shutout. Weather has been dry, but very windy. We were fine here at Venture, but parts of downtown Victoria had their power knocked out due to the winds this morning.

Just had another video conference with Jena and Joel. Got to see Jena's new glasses and top teeth with no braces. She will get the bottom ones taken off tomorrow. Joel and I played a game of bowling on-line.

I am going to focus on a couple of hours of studying tonight and probably watch NCIS.

Weekend

The rain has held off this weekend and we have had some sunny periods, which has been nice. I got a call from a guy who I met here in Victoria during my Naval Assessment Board who just started Basic Training. He was quite sick with the flu and had been quarantined, so was feeling a little down. Had a good talk with him and he is doing fine now. Been watching the NFL playoffs this weekend and enjoying my video calls with the family.

Friday afternoon, my brother knocked on my door and we went to the gunroom for a few beers. First time we have ever done that. It was a great time and I will be going over to his house this afternoon for supper with his family. Looking forward to it.

Going to go for a run before lunch now.

Have a great day everyone. Remember to find your positive thoughts in any situation.

Thursday

Pretty quiet couple of days. Got to meet more of the people who are going to be on my course with me, so that has been nice. They are fresh out of Basic Training and are full of questions (some of which I can answer for them and others I am told them that I will find out at the same time as them). Went for a run on the treadmill this afternoon as the rain was really pouring down. One of the guys that I worked at NTS with who is starting his MARS III course this coming Monday offered me the use of his car if I need it. Very nice of him and I will be taking him up on it for small trips to places like Canex.

Jim, the gentleman who I now work for has accumulated quite a lot of stuff that people have left behind over the years, including lots of clothing and such. He bagged a lot of it up today and has made arrangements to have it sent to Haiti to assist with relief. Nice of him to do that. The amount of parts of uniforms that people leave behind is astonishing. Clothing stores does not want them returned either, so I am glad to see them being put to good use.

It is a quiet night tonight, so I am just going to go to bed early and do some reading and get a good night's sleep.

Tuesday

I started my new job for the next 2 1/2 weeks today. Pretty laid back, not really too much to do. We did do some inventory checks on some vacated rooms in one of the barracks to make sure they all had things like a lamp, a chair, pillows, linen, etc. Then checked all the Emergency Preparedness boxes. These are large plastic boxes full of supplies in case of something like an earthquake. Things like flashlights, freeze dried food, emergency blankets, etc.

I did get to test out our new webcams with Cynthia and the kids. It was really good to be able to talk and see them at the same time. I look forward to doing it again. Definitely a good purchase in my mind.

Went for a run in the evening and just hung out in my room reading, watched NCIS and the new Kids in the Hall show, then went to bed.

Have a wonderful day everyone.

First day back

Well, not a lot happened today. I did not report to NTS, but instead will be working for the gentleman who is in charge of the accommodations here at Venture for the next 3 weeks until my course starts on Feb 1. It is a pretty sweet deal as I will be working in the same building that I live in, so no worrying about getting rides to work. I start tomorrow after I go to the Base Orderly Room to finalize my travel claim from Christmas.

I spent the day getting organized and went for a run on the treadmill. I had wanted to run outside, but the rain was pretty bad and the wind was even worse, so I chickened out and went to the treadmill. I have a long way to go to get back into shape and lose that mini Buddha belly that I have got going on; but will get there with hard work.

Enjoy your day!

Back in Victoria

I had a fantastic time with my family and am sad that it is over already. I am grateful to have as much time as I did, but now that it is over, it sure feels like to went way too fast.

I am back in Victoria now and getting ready to get back into the daily routine here. My flights went well and there were no issues. I have unpacked everything and quickly ran out of hangers as I brought back a lot more clothes than I had here before.

I did gain a few pounds over the holidays and will be working extra hard to get rid of them as quickly as possible. I still need to organize my stuff and have some pictures that I bought from Saint John and will post tomorrow.

Happy New Year to all and my 2010 be all that you make it.