Shipboard living enters routines quite quickly. You tend to see the same people doing the same thing day in and day out. There's the Company Officer that can be found in the Officer's Mess every afternoon at about 1500 having a glass of milk, reading a book along with a few magazines; another that you can be sure to find him in the gym at 1100 sharp every day except Sunday. The Chief Engineer holds court each morning in the Mess Deck at 0730. Folks tend to sit in the same spot every meal, take walks in the same direction on deck. Yes, it is actually funny to notice these things.
But for the cadets it is different. Of course we don't see their daily routine as closely as our fellow crew, but you do tend to notice occasionally. The same two cadets shooting hoops together on the Helo Deck after dinner; or the small group sitting in the library in the afternoon gives evidence they too are creatures of habit. Of course their routines are so demanding and ever changing. One day on watch, the next in class, two days later back to watch or switching to maintenance.
Where am I going with this, I don't know, but I was reflecting on it last evening, after a unbelievable change in the weather. Yesterday morning we had very violent thunderstorms in the morning - lightning and thunder with sheets of rain. It actually interrupted our anchor drills more than once. But by 1500 in the afternoon it was clearing - and we were heading west toward Mexico. By 1800 it was a warm evening with a brilliant sunset and by 2000 the full moon was high overhead and we had calm seas. A walk about the decks saw many, many crew and cadets taking advantage of the nice weather finally. Now, as we get out on deck more we'll see each with a different view
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