Thank God For The Barge

I have been writing some entries over the last few days intending to sign and post them, then not getting around to it. For some reason I cannot sign on to the blog from the computer in the office, so I have to do it at night. It is so tediously slow it is maddening.
The big excitement for Wake over the last week was the barge, which comes from Hono every 6 months with food, fuel, and whatever large volume supplies are needed for the next 6 months. There are a lot of construction projects upcoming so the barge delivered something like 100,000 pounds of concrete, and a couple of large trucks. Also a new sail for the catamaran which you can sail in the lagoon with the morays if you like.
Unloading the supplies and then reloading the various and sundry things that they don’t want to leave on the island , like old trucks and equipment took Tuesday through Saturday, and actually a few hours on Sunday morning. We kept an ambulance manned (well, occupied) at the marina where the crane was lifting cargo containers off the barge
for the whole time they were working. Mostly quiet evenings all week; everybody was pooped.
I got a tour of the tugboat from the captain and the engineer, took some pics of the engines and engine room; very interesting, and the engineer was a real motorhead, just loved talking about any kind of engine, but especially diesels. He also liked to talk about his cat.
The tug and barge finally got under way on Sunday afternoon, and things started to get back to normal. We had a going away party for a couple of folks who are leaving on the next plane. One of the Air Force guys, and a woman who has been here on and off for several years. I’ve gone diving with her a couple of times. I didn’t realize until she mentioned it at the party that she had been here as a child when this was an active base. She went to grade school for several years on the island.
One really good thing happened from the barge coming here; when I went to drifters for the party I saw that the beer menu had been expanded dramatically; now we have Guinness, Sam Adams, and even Red Stripe (no Dogfish Head Jim, sorry). So we should be good for the next 6 months, or they will be; at my rate of consumption, I’m sure the Guinness will last ‘til the end of October. .