stuff to do while on board.

[jimbo57]

hey folks, i dont know if this question has been asked before but i did a quick search and found nothing helpful. Im going to the recruiters in a couple days to get signed up for the navy and was wondering, while on board any of our ships, is there access to exercise rooms with weights? im an avid bodybuilder and would love it if there was, but wouldnt deter me from joining if there wasnt. Also one more question, since there are a certain amount of ships available in the navy and already a certain amount of people occupying these ships, is it difficult to get a spot on one? also your also obviously not on a ship year round, but what kind of things do you do while not out on tour? thanks in advance for any help

 

[hugh19]

Yes there are weights available, though quality varies from ship to ship. Trouble finding a spot on board?????? ROTFLMAO  No once your trained you will NOT have any probs getting to sea. Trust me I have been at sea for the last 13 years. Finally getting a shore posting to Ottawa next year.

When not at sea the ships under go maintenance. I was gonna add a sarcastic comment but decided not to as you asking good questions. If you want to know more just ask away.

 

[NavyShooter]

Well, there's always stuff to do on board.

Myself, well, as a techie, I have a couple of work spaces available to me, and while I've been gone for the past 5 months on Nato, I've been busy working on a couple of models...one's a little tank, the other one is a 3 foot long R/C Model submarine. 

As for body-building/training facilities, yes, every ship has some, and some have some pretty good kit.  The ship I'm on just picked up a new Rowing machine a couple of weeks ago, and we have 2 bikes, two treadmills, a stair climber and an elliptical trainer, as well as a full set of dumbells, and a weight room.

How you want to keep busy is up to you. 

When you're alongside (if) you end up doing maintenance and training.  If you're an operator trade, it's cleaning, training, etc.  for me as a techie, it's cleaning, repairing, scrounging for parts, training, repairing, maintaining, etc.

You're never without anything to do.

NavyShooter

 

[Island Ryhno]

I've always been interested to know, how much time do you guys & gals actually spend at sea and what's your op tempo like now?

 

[jimbo57]

thanks for the answers guys, and yeah sledge that question deserved a laugh.

 

[FredDaHead]

I've always been interested to know, how much time do you guys & gals actually spend at sea and what's your op tempo like now?

Yeah, I'm wondering about that, too. The recruiter (actually a Navy NCM) I'd asked said it went from 8 to 10 months a year, but that seems a bit... much?

 

[NavyShooter]

Well,

As for optempo, the ship I'm on sailed on the 13th of January, returns to Halifax this summer, and we have  more sailing to do in the fall

That makes several months. 

But there's some ships that hardly leave the wall.

It depends on the "readiness state" of your ship.  My ship is "high-readiness".

NavyShooter

 

[SeaRoom]

As a junior officer ("NCdt...soon") there's a very good chance you will be sent to a high readiness ship - "On The Job Training." As for what there is to do on board...work, eat, exercise, sleep...work, eat, exercise, sleep...work, eat, exercise, sleep....

 

[Island Ryhno]

So when you guys go to sea, do you get to stop at any nice ports along the way, and do you get to spend any shore time at those ports? Say like San Diego for the west coast folks or Miami for the east coasters?

 

[DogOfWar]

So when you guys go to sea, do you get to stop at any nice ports along the way, and do you get to spend any shore time at those ports? Say like San Diego for the west coast folks or Miami for the east coasters?

yes and I got to hit the town.....then there is the Boston trips and the Port Townsend trips.....bleech

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

Miami *ick*....the two best ports on the US eastern seaboard are definitely Boston and New York.

 

[Island Ryhno]

I've never been to either, I hear both are great though. So how much shore time would you get there?

 

[FSTO]

I've never been to either, I hear both are great though. So how much shore time would you get there?

Most of the time you'll come alongside Friday mornings (approx 0800 to 1000 cause we are paying for the tugs and you don't want to pay the overtime), land gash, cleaning stations and secure by 1200 to 1300. Usually there will be a cocktail party Friday night (Class A for officers, and a smattering of PO2 and above attend) from 1700 - 2100. The rest of the ships company will have shore leave until 0750 the next morning, unless they have a leave pass. Due to force protection issues most ships are standing 1 in 3 duty watch, so you'll likely have one duty during the port visit. Ship will usually sail on Monday morning.

 

[Island Ryhno]

Thanks for the info, I think given ten years of my life back, I maybe would have been a navy man (love the travel, and of course I'm from Newfoundland. I think I'm 40% saltwater) but alas I'm a married, land dwelling ape.  ;D

 

[NavyShooter]

Well, my $.02 on the best ports to visit:

New York City during Fleet week.

Newfie-John's (ANYTIME, but especially during Mardi-Gras)

Halifax ('cause it's nice to get a visit to your home-port now and then.)

Yeah, the routine briefed by FTSO is typical, usually you end up with at least 2 days off in a port, depending on your duty watches.  With the FP stuff in the goo it was 1/3, but we're hanging at 1/4-1/6, depending on the watch position.  (MCR is 1/5, some of the brow folks are 1/4)

NavyShooter

 

[FSTO]

West Coast Ports:

Vancouver is good, especially when the CFL is in town

Seattle - not bad, easy for the family to join you

Portland - used to be hot, hot, hot HOT for the Rose Festival but has really toned down last 10 years (or am I just getting older?). The 8 hr transit up the Columbia River is very nice

San Fransisco -  The Navy is starting to go back there. Great place

San Diego -  Norfolk clone, but Vegas is only 5 hrs away!!!!!

Mexico - Manzanillo, Aulcapoco, et al are great

Costa Rica -  unspoiled and unkown. Fantastic

Lima Peru -  Dangerous crap hole

Valparaiso Chile - port city for Santiago, great city

Pearl Harbour - its Hawaii, nuff said

Saipan - holiday place for middle class Japanese, very nice place, full of history. (rusting tanks in the surf)

Manila - s***t hole

Guam -  USN port - Norfolk with more sand

Singapore -  Fantastic but expensive

Any port in Australia and New Zealand is great

Phuket - prior to the tsnaumi was great, don't know now

Penang - Great!!!!!!!

Never been to Japan so can't comment

 

[Island Ryhno]

That's pretty amazin stuff there FSTO. So if you went out on a say, I don't know; a 2 month excursion, how many of those ports would you stop in? Some very, very cool places there.

 

[FSTO]

In 95 I did the farwell cruise for HMCS KOOTENAY where we travelled to Cape Horn. It was a fantastic trip and was about 2 1/2 months long.

To see the western Pacific, Australia and New Zealand you'll be on the homeward section of a 5-6 month trip.

 

[LS Blogins]

So when you guys go to sea, do you get to stop at any nice ports along the way, and do you get to spend any shore time at those ports? Say like San Diego for the west coast folks or Miami for the east coasters?

San Diego is almost as much fun as Pearl Harbour  :-X  As for Japan, that is one awsome place, beer machines in the streets, machines that pour the perfect mug of beer.  One of the best ports I have been to, next to Hong Kong and Shanghai.

 

[Sub_Guy]

I was on a fantastic trip in 01 Tandem Thrust (3months) Hit 2 ports in Japan, love the vending machines there, for some reason I like the hot coffee they sell in those machines, in the can!  We also hit Sydney (2 weeks), Brisbane, Christchurch New Zealand, Tonga...Of course there were 2 stops in Pearl, and one in Guam............


When comparing the ports on the east coast to the west, I love the selection of ports we have out here than they do out east....Boston?