The first day at sea was kind of rocky. The wind was blowing at around 10-25 knots and the gentle rocking of the ship made me kind of tired. I stood my first Combat Information Center watch from 1200-1600. It was quite interesting. I learned how to plot our position on the chart, how to read the radar, and how to write backwards on the status board. The next watch I stood was 0000-0400. Enough goes on in CIC that I won't fall asleep on watch up there. It is all pretty interesting. Always doing something.

Our second day at sea (Thursday) was beautiful. A little hazy, but as we rounded the south of Sicily, we merged with a lot of small fishing boats making it interesting. We went to General Quarters at around 1445, due to a lube oil leak in the engine room. It is all simulated and all fun and games to some. I stood the watch from 1600-1800. It is short because of dinner. It turned out even shorter due to General Quarters, and I didn't actually assume the watch until 1625, leaving only 1 hour left to stand. I have spent today working on my own qualifications and reporting on the status of others in my shop. As many were sitting in training for gun qualifications, another General Quarters sounded at approx 1930. This lasted until approximately 2015, and things went back to normal, with repair lockers remaining manned for training.

Friday, my day began with a watch from 0400-0630. Things went pretty smooth. After watch, I reported to the flight deck where I participated in a 9mm gun shoot for qualification. I shot a score of 186 out of a possible 240. Not great, but it qualified. Our e-mail service has been down since noon on Wednesday, so nothing can go in or out, nor even spread around the ship. This is bad because we have been completely cut off from the outside world. We crossed into the tax free zone (the 39th parallel) at approximately 1515. Yee-Haw!! $300.00, and if we stay until tomorrow, $300.00 more. We had to stop and put a lifeboat in the water to rendezvous with the USS Hartford to Medivac a sailor out. All went without a hitch. I stood watch from 1800-2000. At 1830 the ship went to GQ for training purposes again so my watch ended short. GQ ended at 1915 so I ended up back on watch for a final 15 minutes.

Saturday, I had the watch from 0700-1200. We pulled out of the tax free zone and found ourselves a 40-mile diameter circle of ocean to play in. We spent the day maneuvering within this circle. The plotting on the navigation chart was none too pretty after all the plots were in place. General Quarters was sounded at 1410 and lasted until about 1530. After that, the gun mounts did some practice shooting at a flare dropped in the water. We pulled out of our circle at 2100 on our way to Augusta Bay, Sicily, to drop off the medivac personnel and submarine squadron 22 personnel. We are due to arrive in Augusta Bay at 0800 tomorrow. I stood the watch from 2000-2400. Not a lot happened during this one.

Sunday - Well, they actually made it holiday routine at sea. We got to sleep in. I got up at 0745. Just as we were leaving Augusta Bay. I ran out and got a couple of pictures of Sicily from the distance. We didn't actually go into the bay. We stayed out and a boat was sent out for everyone going ashore. At 0900, I sat through DC qualifications. I now have level 307 completed, but have to take the test. The test is given at 1900 tonight, but I have to attend 12-gauge shotgun training so I can shoot tomorrow. I guess I'll have to take the test tomorrow or when we get back to port. I stood the 12-1600 watch. Very busy seas today. We had a couple of times 9 contacts that we were tracking. With only one person at the status board, he was constantly writing. Tonight I have the mid watch (0000-0400). Hopefully it will be less busy. Got to get those quals signed off.

Well it's now Monday. I had the mid watch this morning. It wasn't too eventfull. I went to DC 308 training this morning and got that all signed off. I'll take the test today sometime. I have the 16-1800 watch today.

Monday at 1100 I took the DC 307 exam. I feel pretty confident about that test. Right after that, I went to the flight deck to shoot the 12-gauge. I did learn that the Mossburg has more of a kick than the Remington. I had watch from 1600-1800. Boy, these watches are getting pretty routine. I got the rest of my Navigation Plotter quals done and had my oral board. I am all qualified in that now. At 1900, I took the DC 308 exam. It was about as hard as the 307, and I feel equally confident.

Well, it's Tuesday, April 4. I had the 04-0700 watch this morning. At about 0530 we encountered a contact that was heading right for us. We altered our course 3 times to avoid him and he recipricated. We finally got around him at about 0615. We are 1 hour ahead of schedule and doing fine. We will be setting Sea & Anchor detail at 0800 and due to tie up at 1000.