The Homecoming

I owe my readers a blog post for July (and for that matter, I ought to be publishing every two weeks- or fortnightly, as I have done for several years). Where have I been? I crossed the equator five times, boarding the ship at less than 10 degrees north and debarking at less than 10 degrees south. This is a public forum, so it's not advisable to blast the ship's whereabouts all over the internet. How long have I been gone? 90 days on the ship, and about a week of roundtrip travel?. What were you doing? "CONSOL" operations, or fueling from a tanker at sea. Specifically, I was not working in the engine room as I normally do, but closer to the ship's bridge to help coordinate fueling-at-sea events. Why were you doing this? I elected to take a half-year Mobilization with the US Navy Reserve. Who was with you? Contracted mariners who are civilian employees for the perroleum shipping company. When did you sneak away without anyone noticing? I thank starlink onboard the ship. It was seamless connectivity 90% of the time, so didnt miss out on news from home. As longtime mariners know, this is both good and bad. Good that you know whats going on, bad in the sense that you have limited ability to deal with matters on land. Indeed, when I returned home last week, there were a myriad of items I needed to address. I needed to replace my iphone screen, and was able to bring my laptop back from the fritz (it was a charging canle issue, resolved now). I needed to schedule home repairs. so, a lot to do, while maintaining an office work schedule as well.