Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Yesterday Once More: 1997 Navy MSTD Trip - Day 22 (Honiara)

22 Sept 1997 Flashback

Map of the Solomon Islands

At this moment of writing, I'm finally arrived in Solomon Islands capital, Honiara. I'm quite tired after being a bowman for the past few hours. Our ship reach here at 4pm++, couldn't find a place to berth and therefore drop anchor. Ops 'O' ask me to be part of the EP crew. The duty will run 50% on each day. A lot of funny, frustrating stuffs today, being ticked by Ops 'O' and at the same time bothered by the duty watch system. Was an EP crew and didn't go for late night shore leave. Shore leave starts at around 8pm. Money complications also occur when I shared with Yeo to change $80 and another $20 from the one Wong claim I shared $50 from Ang. Very complex. Hope all these will be sort out tomorrow. I feel myself quite a nusiance to people at times with my outspoken manner. Maybe I should tone down a bit. Tomorrow got to wake up at 6.30am for SSD to enter harbour. Still to prep for cocktail and wait for my only day in Honiara. From people who go for shoreleave today, an expensive place. Argh.....很烦! Signoff, Weizhong

Honiara (highlight in red), the capital of Solomon Islands

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I remember that on our first day arrival in Honiara, no available berth for our ship to alongside (park), so we have to stay far out at sea and drop anchor. We lower the two attached FCEP (stands for Fast Craft for Equipment and Personnel) of our ship to the sea and use it to ferry the shipcrews to land for their late night shore leave. I became part of the FCEP crew by becoming the bowman, who primary role is to handle the ropeworks to secure the craft to the wharf or ship side & set-up ladder for embarking & disembarking of passengers. Other miscellaneous tasks include being a lookout and other manual tasks.

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