And let’s not forget the ship’s normal daily routine… as modified by the Plan of the Day (POD).
The POD is an official daily document – and is not meant to be taken from the ship. Usually, it not only contains the events for the day, but also notes for the crew (example – quotes from the Uniform Regulations, “Atta-Boy’s” from the CO to the crew), the meal menu, OMBUDSMAN information, times for sunrise & sunset, and perhaps even the long-range schedule. Different commands have different viewpoints on what to put in the POD – such as a movie list while underway.
Ship’s routine – Daily items include sweepers/clamp down (another way of saying clean the ship & take out the trash), quarters, and Department Head meetings. Weekly items would be things such as Supply Petty Officer training or divisional training.
There are irregular events that occur, both in port and underway. Among items that can happen both in port and underway are refueling & small arms qualifications. Flight Quarters is normally an at sea event (for things such as refueling the helo, or sending/receiving parts, personnel, or mail), and the Sea & Anchor detail is for pulling in and leaving port/anchorage.
Being underway isn’t much different than being in port, other than not being able to go home to the wife and the 2.5 kids (I’ve yet to see that .5 kid…). One gets up in the morning, goes about the daily routine, and goes to bed at night. It’s like consecutive duty days in that regard, as most have underway watches to stand.
Oh, okay - there are differences. The deck moves… constantly. Like living in a funhouse, where the floors move up and down, back and forth, and not always to the same degree. Sometimes it’s calm, sometimes it’s rough. If you get motion sick, there’s usually some sort of solution at Doc’s – though the solution is best applied before the problem, in this case. I usually recommend eating some bread or crackers – something to settle the liquid in the stomach. Don’t try (at first) to match the old salts… just because they can drink four or five mugs of coffee a day doesn’t mean you’ll be able to do the same. Trust me – you really don’t want to be seeing what you had for breakfast… yesterday.
And there are other things to be aware of at sea. Water conservation is a big issue. Even though one is surrounded by water, it’s all salty. The engineers make the water for all the shipboard uses, and that means we need to report leaky faucets and such for repair ASAP. If too wasteful, the ship could go on water hours – having only specific times in which one may take a shower, and that, one is taking a “Navy Shower” (get in, turn on water, get wet, turn off the water, soap up/lather up, turn water on and rinse, secure water and get out. Mean time – 3 to 5 minutes, tops). There’s not an infinite source for water on board.
Another item underway is separation of trash. In port, one can simply bag it up, and take it to the dumpster at the end of the pier. Underway, though, we can’t do that – environmental concerns, doncha know.
Most every space on board, when underway, has three trash receptacles – Paper (and garbage, on the mess decks), Metal/Glass, and Plastic.
