Programming Alert

We will be out of pocket for the next couple of days as we will be out at sea on the USNS WALLY SCHIRRA, the 8th ship of the LEWIS AND CLARK T-AKE-1 Explorer Class.

We are honored and proud to be part of a team that is delivering to the fleet a quality product on time and under budget.

Because of our absence, posting will be of the heat’n’serve scheduled variety. We hope to be back doin’ it live on Friday.



Pictured: USNS SACAGAWEA (T-AKE 2)

Out and about

When we’re not making war and liberating people, what else are our armed forces doing while roaming around the globe?

Pacific Partnership information update as follows:

"USS AMELIA EARHART (T-AKE 6) transferred her passengers and cargo to USNS
RICHARD E. BYRD (T-AKE 4), in support of PP09. BYRD's first stop is Apia,
Samoa, from 30 June to 10 July. During her Samoan stay, BYRD's 120 embarked
personnel will perform three Engineer Civil Action Projects (ENCAPS) and
four Medical Civic Action Projects (MEDCAPS) at six sites on the Savaii and
Upolo Islands. The focus is on supporting the Samoa National Health Service
efforts to improve hospital and clinic infrastructure, and providing basic
life support training to police, firemen, and Red Cross and other
non-governmental staffs. BYRD is also scheduled to make stops in Tonga,
Solomon Islands, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and Kiribati."

Pictured is the lead ship of the LEWIS AND CLARK (T-AKE) CLASS ships of which two are participating in PP '09.

The Launch of the USNS CARL BRASHEAR

Folks, you know you’ve hit the big time when you get on YouTube. The launch, which is part of a larger tribute to Carl Brashear the first amputee Navy diver and the first African-American Navy Master diver, is at the front of the video clip. Previous posts on the launch here.

You will be able to see the smoke from the grease caused by the friction between the sliding ways and the ground ways and the tsunami effect from the water that was displaced by ship pushing it out, rushing back in (and soaking quite a few people on the launch of the 1st ship of the class, the LEWIS AND CLARK) as well as the ship’s stern kicking out to port as a result of Bernoulli’s principle.

Enjoy!

WET!

... and she floats, too.

The USNS CARL BRASHEAR was christened and successfully launched yesterday morning at 10:50 AM.

We'll hopefully have more on this later.

(UPDATE #1): Interesting phenomena that may only interest us: Notice how the stern of the vessel has kicked-out to port? That’s not the tugs doing it, that is a natural occurrence owing to launching from Ways 3 at the yard. The sea wall on that Ways extends out about 130 ft. further on the port side of the vessel than the starboard side.

So what is happening is a physical demonstration of Bernoulli’s principle. As the ship is sliding into the water, that water between the hull of the ship and the sea wall is being pressed out at a greater velocity than the water on the starboard side of the ship, where there is no sea wall. Bernoulli’s principle dictates this difference in the velocity of the water creates a corresponding difference in pressure – the water pressure on the port side of the ship will be lower than that on the starboard side so the aft end of the ship, which is the first part of the ship to experience this physical state will be “sucked towards” the sea wall resulting in the the ship rotating in a clockwise direction (bow of ship at 12 o’clock position).

And yes, if the sea wall were longer, there would be a small issue of the port side of the ship slamming into it.

Holy smokes that was evil! We hereby sentence ourselves two Red Hook Long Hammer IPAs and the 2nd half of the Baylor-Uconn game to purge that geek outbreak on a Friday night.

We haven’t forgot about Radio KBwD. Owing to circumstances down in the Gulf, we are doing something a little different. Tune in tomorrow.