Rewards and Success

After 18 years I am now officially back to the rank that I left the military in. It was Air Force Captain at that time and as of Friday, I am a Naval Lieutenant.  I feels good.  The past 3 years have been some of the most stressful (work related) that I have ever been through. That being said, the bigger the success, the harder the work to get there.  The relief that I now feel is impossible to truly describe.

Focus now is on the house/yard.  Lucy (our Golden Retriever puppy) is a digger and has commenced destruction on the back yard.  We also put up a chain link fence with the help of some great friends. However, Lucy has already managed to dig her way under some areas to escape.  We have some left over sections of chain link and are trying to double up some areas to prevent her from going under them. It is a 2 person job and with both Cynthia and I working and the sun going down earlier and earlier, it has proven to be a challenge to get it done.  She is working today, but only until 2pm, so the plan is to get as much done as we can when she gets home.  I have also emptied an entire bag of grass seed on the main digging areas as they are now nothing but dirt. Hopefully, the seed will take soon.  We really need to get back to being able to just open the back door and let Lucy out without having to take her on her leash or tied up.

I have lost a fair bit of weight over the past 3 years, but most of that has been when I have been at sea. It was accomplished due to a couple of factors all occurring at the same time. Stress is the first factor.  Being mentally stressed most of the time burns a lot more calories than one might think.  When you are at sea in the Navy, you are always "on" mentally; whether you are on watch or not. This is due to the fact that you are always in uniform and need to be ready to respond to any emergency at any time. The second factor would be a messed up sleep schedule. Due to the fact that my watch schedule was never consistent, my sleep schedule was also never consistent.  One day, I could be on watch from midnight to 4am, and the next day 8pm to midnight and then 4am to 8am.  The third factor was an eating habit.  Don't get me wrong, the cooks on the ship do a good job and I have absolutely no complaints about the food.  For me, I would only eat enough to get me to the next meal and that is it.  I would also avoid dessert (known in the navy as duff).  To do this, I would utilize "urge management".  I would walk up to the dessert tray, take a look at it and then imagine that it sat out for a whole week.  Very quickly, I would not want to eat any of it.  A very useful and effective tool.

The problem that I am facing now is that since I am not sailing and the majority of my stress is over, I need to ensure that I get into an effective work out schedule.  I am finding this extremely challenging with the way my days seem to dissappear.  I know very well that any reason not to be working out is simply an excuse and that I have to put other stuff secondary to working out.  Knowing it and doing it are two entirely different things.  I know that once I start and stick to it for at least a month, then I will have created a habit that will simply be in place.  I am going to start small and work up from there.  My main focus will be core (for my growing belly) and upper body as that has always been my weaker area.

I feel that I put too much on my plate at one time, then get very little accomplished and am unhappy because of it.  I want to blog here more as I know it will help to get my thoughts out of my head and written down. I have taken some books out of the library that I want to read so that I can blog effectively and with some level of excitement.  I want to cook more as I have found that I really enjoy it.  I need to work with Cynthia on a number of things; our budget being the biggest.  I have a new laptop with Windows 7; which I have never used before and want to learn as much as I can about it (books from library again).  Helping more with keeping the house tidy and clean. I always feel better after I clean the house.

Another thing that has plagued me that I want to figure out is music on iTunes.  I want to be effective on getting songs and getting them into the correct folders in iTunes without having to do a bunch of moving, copying and what seems to be excessive work.  Internet research is good for this, but I need to find the time and know that in reality it is a very low priority.

Anyway, I am going to stop right here before this gets so long that no one would read it. Besides, I need to keep some stuff to type next time.

Halloween decorating and pumpkin carving tonight!!

I hope everyone has a fantastic day!!

Nothing fancy yet

Been a busy weekend. Nice to have the house clean though. Had a fun time with "games night" with Julia and the girls last night. Grateful that Jena could join us as well.

Big grocery shop this morning, but got all our Halloween candy and our pumpkins as well, so that is good. Now to make sure that the boxes stay closed until Halloween.

Stef is home from sailing just for the weekend before he heads off on a 3 month deployment. He and Sandra are coming over for supper. I just made my favorite dessert for the first time (Cherry cheesecake - made with dream whip).  It is always good to visit with them.

So with that all said, I did not get into my library books to learn more about how to properly blog. That's ok, though; as the good thing about libraries is that you have the books for a couple of weeks.

The back yard really needs work, but with the amount of rain that we have been getting over the past week, it has been pretty much impossible to get out there to do any work.

I really hope that my promotion comes in this week. It would have been nice for Cynthia to be there when I get it; but at this stage, I just feel like "give it to me so that I can start getting my better pay"

I am also on the hunt for a good app for my iphone what will sync properly with my microsoft outlook from my laptop. No luck yet. The search will continue.

Going to pick my sweetie up from work, take Lucy for a walk and then get ready to start putting supper together. |Zesty chicken tortilla bake. It is always a hit and we have not had it in quite a while, so I am looking forward to it.

I really need to organize my thoughts better for blogging, that is for sure. This reads like a scatter brain.  Stay tuned as I get better at this, it will be worth it (he says hopefully).

How to blog effectively?

OK, so one of my issues (maybe a bit of OCD) is that when I decide that I want to learn a little bit more about something; I tend to go a bit overboard.  By that, I mean that I will put 20 books on hold at the library on that subject instead of just one or two.

I have decided that blogging (but doing it more like a journal) might be therapeutic for me.  At the same time, I want to make it interesting enough that some people may want to stop by and read a bit.  I do have some books out from the library and am going to go through them for some ideas.  I don't have the time to spend making it all snazzy all the time, but I will post some pics now and then at least.

One quick example is below.  This is the "group photo" from RIMPAC 2012. There were 44 ships and 8 submarines from 23 countries.  I had the privilege to actually be the Officer of the Watch for this photo (meaning that I was the one actually driving the ship).  HMCS Algonquin is the 5th ship down on the farthest left hand side of the photo.

As far as work goes right now; there really is nothing to talk about. I am just helping out where they need me.

It does feel like there is way too much to do at home and not nearly enough time to do it (I know, you are thinking, "then why are you wasting time blogging?")

The attempt is to get our Calendar's synched up between Cynthia and myself. We are working on that, but I think that we still have a little ways to go to get it right.  I also have a need to write stuff down in a list, and without that I tend to become unfocused very quickly; so that is the next thing on the list.

Cynthia is working today until 2. Joel has swimming lessons in an hour and then he and I are going to clean the house for Julia and the girls to come over for games night. It is always good for laughter when we have games night.

I am going to pause now, read for 1/2 hour on Google Blogger, then take Joel to his swimming lesson.  Let's see if I can make this blog interesting without spending a ton of time on it like some sort of obsession.

Later all

Back to Blogging

I had previously commented about not allowing cobwebs settle on my blog again. Epic fail!!

However, I have decided to get back to blogging and on a more regular basis.  I am going to do some research on how to blog properly so that I can make it interesting and keep it up to date at the same time.

So....here is a quick update as to what has been happening in the life of this Navy Phoenix. MARS IV training was successfully completed on 4 March 2011. This included another intense academic phase, a simulator phase and a 6 week sea phase on the Orca Class training vessel where we had to successfully pass being assessed in navigation, Officer of the Watch Manoeuvres (4 of the ships all moving around each other in formations).  I will be honest...it felt like I had reached the top of the mountain at this point. Little did I know, that it was only the tip of the iceberg.

I was posted to HMCS Algonquin and joined them on March 7 (no rest for the weary) and sailed for one week.  My training continued over the next 18 months as I was continuously learning and getting better at my job as Officer of the Watch (OOW).  I sailed on numerous Task Group Exercises, a North American Maritime Security Initiative exercise with the Americans and Mexicans, A deployment down south (looking to intercept drug smugglers) for which I have received the Operational Service Medal for, RIMPAC 2012 (for those who have seen Battleship; I actually sailed alongside the USS John Paul Jones). I have sailed with ships from USA, Mexico, Chili, Australia, Japan, North Korea and Russia.  I have also now been to some interesting ports including San Francisco (my favorite US city), Panama, Manzanillo, Ensenada, San Diego and Pearl Harbour, Hawaii.

I received my official Bridge Watchkeeping certificate from the Captain in Feb 2012.  The next step was to sit and pass a board which is chaired by a Capt(N) and other high ranking officers in which they ask you a ton of questions to test your knowledge on all aspects of the ship and ship handling as well as how to safely deal with other ships in the area and responding to emergencies.  I have done a lot of job interviews in my past and no longer got nervous about them at all. This board is nothing like that at all. It was probably one of the most stressful and nerve-wracking thing I have ever done and will ever do (unless I go to sit a Command Board - which has still been undecided at this time).

I was scheduled to sit my board on 20 Sept 2012. So I studied and crammed and crammed and studied like mad.  Sept 20th came and I went into sit my board.  After almost an hour of being drilled, I was told that I passed the board and was now considered a Fully Qualified Naval Officer.  Holy Crap!  After almost 3 years of non-stop nose to the grindstone work and being away from my family for a lot of it, I have now come through the other end successfully.

So what now?  I have been removed from Algonquin so that they can make room for other junior officers who need the sea time and experience.  I am temporarily "attached posted" back to Venture.  I am helping with some new lesson plans and hope to get into the classroom to do some teaching.

Career wise, the next step is to select a specialty (or Director Level). This could be Navigator, Above Water Warfare, Underwater Warfare, Combat Information Systems, Information Management, Clearance Diver, or Deck Officer.  I have decided to become an Information Management Director. My course for this is scheduled to start in February 2013.

That is all for today and should bring you up to speed.  From here, the blogs will be a bit shorter, but more frequent.

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.