And then I slept...
After discovering that
a Steam Engineering plant is one of the most divinely complex systems ever considered or created by man, I crawled into my
coffin-like bed and slept until 11:30 this morning. At 11:30, I stirred, looked about, and slept for another hour. I awoke, stiff and guilty, but well rested for the first time in several days.
It cost you $750,000 today for me to be underway today.
My fine vessel hosted 1600 extra people today as a sort of 'hey, this is what the Navy is all about' day. That's right, because a
conventionally powered aircraft carrier costs about one million dollars a day to run (food and fuel), the little three quarter day jaunt I took this morning and afternoon cost about $750,000 dollars. Of the sixteen hundred people that left with us, I'll bet around seventy-five actually join. So let's see, $750,000/75 = $10,000 per general issue, grade A sailor. The first ten grand of many to come, I'm sure.
A ship requires electricity, even when not steaming.
When we pull in, we have to pull
shore power cables up to the ship. These are about fifty feet long and way about 1,000 pounds each. We pull 24 shore power cables (each have a rated capacity of around 400
amps) This gives us enough power to run everything but the anchor windlass, a winch powered by an enormous electric motor that has a
starting current close to 5,000 amps. Anyway, we tied up to the
pier around 4:30 and didn't finish pulling them (and thus being able to leave) until 7:30. Now, here I am, back on the ship at 12:30. Yeah, all 1600 of you morons and idiots come on down and join the Navy. Just don't expect to leave anytime soon.
But I did get to rub lotion on my wife's legs again,
which is nice.