Miami Nate Runs Aground

Well, oddly enough, Nate's cutter is due for upgrades. The following is what I understand to be true from what Nate understands to be true... so definitely subject to change...

Upgrades? You ask. Well, apparently it has 80's technology and they are looking to at least put it into the 90's. So they are driving it (floating it, piloting it, whatever) up to the Baltimore Harbor. The crew will return to Miami to work at the Coast Guard Airbase instead of crewing the cutter. Nate already has an apartment. He thinks he can get permission to take a car back down with him. If that happens, he will be able to drive back to Miami with his roommates after it goes in for a checkup, radiator flush, oil change, and titling and insurance through MVA...

Apparently few of the crew have cars (personal or assigned by the service) and the apartments they are assigned to are at least a 15 minute drive from the airbase. So he will be back around here around the 12th of June - give or take a few days, dependent upon the journey and such.

He is already catching hell from the the other crewmen - apartment on his first day of service, returning to his home port, plus he has liberty until they board ship Tuesday and are underway towards Baltimore! Boy, he is gonna get it when they are settled and he knows it. They are trying to come up with a suitable nickname for him besides "New Boot". The only one related to his name so far is "Lincoln" (as in Lincoln Logs), and no one really wanted to call him that.

He has two roommates, one is 18 and has been aboard Valiant for 7 mos. and is actually younger than Nate. The other is 24. They both speak Spanish and Nate is going to try to increase his skill with the language again, since he is in Miami anyway. Nate is bringing his Wii, so that puts him in good with the roommates - and since he will have a car, they will have a ride.

They have nothing for the apartment yet, and no real way to get around, so Nate has been bunking at his rack on the ship. It is, of course, on the beach...He has already gone running down at Miami Beach last night, and likes it there, don't know if that has something to do with the views - of nature and of feminine nature....

Some guys have ALL the luck....

But this does put a hold on some of his training - don't know how long it will take him to move up in rank from E-2 to E-3. This may add 6 months to his stay there before he can go to A-School in North Carolina for Avionics Mechanics Technician, but perhaps he'll have the opportunity to pick some stuff up at the airbase. I don't know what you do with a sudden influx of 85 personnel when they are already staffed... if all else fails, I imagine they can be put to work at menial labor. Nate won't be able to work towards his exams if he isn't on the cutter, though, from what he understands...

We'll see how it all works out... Randy can't believe Nate's good fortune with regards to all of the perks - army life went NOTHING like that for him...