Bahrain

October 24-27 2009

After 45 days we finally made it to our next port. Hopefully this will be the longest underway we have while we’re out here, but you never know. I usually don’t have too much of a problem just staying out here, others get a little stir crazy.

Bahrain is far from the best port we’ll be going to. It starts with going through the Strait of Hormuz. Apparently there are people that don’t like us in that area so we have to have all of our guns manned and for even more security they shut down all of our e-mail & internet. That lasted for a day or so. Then we pulled into Bahrain the next day. That transit is about 4-5 hours. For me that means sitting in the Focsle, where the anchors are and 4 of the lines they use to tie the boat to the pier are. We have to have medical there in case someone gets hurt. I’ve been sitting up there whenever we pull in or out for a while now. I think, and hope that was my last time though.

I had duty the second day so I hurried down to get changed and ready to go out. I said I didn’t mind staying out but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to get off this thing when we do pull in somewhere. I was here 10 years ago when I was on deployment, which seems like a theme so far. I of course don’t really remember it too much though. I do remember they weren’t as strict on liberty when I was here before. This time around only E-7 & above can stay out overnight and we had to have 2 “liberty buddies” instead of the usual 1. I’m not big into staying out overnight. The only time I can think I might is in ports where we anchor out and have to take a boat to get to shore and then a long bus ride to get to where anything is. Finding 2 people that want to do the same as me or at least don’t mind compromising is a little harder though, especially when you’re not into clubs and drinking.

So I found my friends and we headed out. We went to the base and walked around to see where everything was and get some real food. That was a pain in the ass. I was starving! I didn’t eat breakfast and was too busy getting ready to eat lunch. Well when we double the population of the base in a couple hours and none of us have had any food that we’re really used to for 45 days you’d better expect long lines. They had an A&W, Asian place, southern grill, American Grill and a pizza place. I waited 20 minutes in line for Asian and when I got up there my card didn’t work. Of course the ATM lines were long so I didn’t get cash yet either. By the time I got done my friends already finished eating so we just took the bus back to the ship and got on another one to go out in town to the mall & Hard Rock Cafe. On the way back to the ship, right after we got off a bridge there was a huge bang and a bunch of thuds in the back of the bus. I looked back and saw huge pieces of tire on the road. It shouldn’t have been a surprise. The bus we were on was a short old bus that didn’t look like it was maintained very well. Luckily it only took them about 20 minutes to get us a new one. Bahrain is a very rich country (you’d think they’d take better care of their buses) and they love shopping. The mall we went to was called City Centre & it was pretty close to Hard Rock. We went to Hard Rock and got some food and souvenirs then headed to the mall. Other than being much bigger, taller & having marble floors, it was very similar to American malls. I think we counted 6 different coffee shops, a few book stores, all sorts of high end clothing stores, a Virgin media store, a play area and a food court that was mostly fast food. It was only a couple hours since the Hard Rock but I was ready to eat at least a little again so I got some Little Caesars. I was going to get McDonalds but they don’t have bacon for their burgers. We walked around a bunch and before we left we got a couple dozen Krispy Kreme donuts. I knew we’d have to get that as soon as we got the brochures on the boat and saw they had it. We went out to catch the bus to head back to the boat to a huge crowd waiting. They were supposed to run about every 15-20 minutes but a lot of people had been waiting an hour already. So we decided to just get a cab back to the ship instead of waiting. We never did find out how long the others waited.

The next day I had duty. I thought I was going to be stuck on the ship all day, but we needed someone at the clinic on the base to make sure everyone made it to their appointments & back to the ship with no problems. That turned into making sure anyone that might have been a little to drunk later that night made it back to the ship instead of a hospital out in town when they just needed to sleep it off. That along with taking care of a guy that broke his leg sliding into second base playing softball. I’ll never understand why these guys think they’re playing in the pros when they’re out there. I love to get out there but it’s not that serious. The absolute best part of this port and having to spend duty on base was being able to get on a computer they had at the exchange and chat with Jamie & my Mom. It happened to be on Dawson ’s birthday and they had web cams on the computers. Unfortunately Jamie couldn’t get ours to work, but they were able to see me. Mom said D was waving and growling at me. :-D I wish I could have seen them too but the timing of it being on his birthday was great. If that was the only thing I got to do the entire time in port it would have been well worth it.

The next day they had trouble getting someone out to replace me at the clinic so I was out there till about 1030 instead of 0730. I could think of worse places to be stuck but I still wasn’t too happy. I finally got back to the ship and left again to go back to base and get one last taste of the food before we left. We came back to the ship after we ate and that was it. The next morning I was back up in the Focsle for a few hours before coming back down to medical and getting back into the groundhog day routine we have. I’m sure you’ve noticed a lack of pictures this time around. I even had our camera out here since Jamie sent me our old one. There really wasn’t much to take pictures of though. I know Jamie will enjoy the break from having to add them all to the blog, but I’ll make sure I get some from our next port.