A few days after the ship pulled in to port, I got to go on my first Tiger cruise! Here they used to call it Friends and Family Day and it was renamed to Family and Guest Day (someone didn't pay attention to that acronym) but it was a fun day!
We woke up at 3:30 in the morning because the brow went up at 7 am and it can take 45 minutes to 2 hours to get to Yokosuka. Leaving at 4:30 am though only took 45 minutes, but then another 40 minutes to get through the gate because of all the people coming on board. We had breakfast in the officer's mess (dining room) and took a tour of the ship. Many of the things Glenn had told me about in the past were always locked up or closed because no one was working, but on Saturday, the whole ship was working so I got to see the radar room and catapults and things that I haven't before.
Oh and we got to ride the elevator- much faster than I expected! This is the elevator that takes the planes from the hangar bay to the flight deck. There are 4 of them on the carrier and people usually don't get to ride them so it was a fun experience. Here's a picture on the elevator-
One of the highlights for me was seeing the E-2C launch from the catapult. The video seems pretty slow, but the thrust really hits you when it gets towards the end of the runway.
We woke up at 3:30 in the morning because the brow went up at 7 am and it can take 45 minutes to 2 hours to get to Yokosuka. Leaving at 4:30 am though only took 45 minutes, but then another 40 minutes to get through the gate because of all the people coming on board. We had breakfast in the officer's mess (dining room) and took a tour of the ship. Many of the things Glenn had told me about in the past were always locked up or closed because no one was working, but on Saturday, the whole ship was working so I got to see the radar room and catapults and things that I haven't before.
Oh and we got to ride the elevator- much faster than I expected! This is the elevator that takes the planes from the hangar bay to the flight deck. There are 4 of them on the carrier and people usually don't get to ride them so it was a fun experience. Here's a picture on the elevator-
One of the highlights for me was seeing the E-2C launch from the catapult. The video seems pretty slow, but the thrust really hits you when it gets towards the end of the runway.After the planes launched, they did an air show. One of the jet squadrons has a former Blue Angel so he did some pretty neat stuff including a sonic boom. I thought the plane exploded for a second cause I didn
't hear the announcement of what he was going to do! Here is a picture of one of the F-18s and the Prowler showing how refueling happens midair. The helicopter was demonstrating a search and rescue.
After the airshow, Glenn and I had lunch and watched a movie in his state room. Since he hadn't been on the ship for about a month, we had lots of packing up to do as well. He had to bring the rest of his uniforms and the playstation back home. Since the ship will be in port and things will get fixed and people are living aboard, we also had to lock everything up. You never know what will go missing on the ship.
We headed home right after the shipped docked at about 5 pm and this time it did take about 2 hours to get home. I love Japanese traffic! Glenn and I were exhausted from such an early start to our day.
't hear the announcement of what he was going to do! Here is a picture of one of the F-18s and the Prowler showing how refueling happens midair. The helicopter was demonstrating a search and rescue.
After the airshow, Glenn and I had lunch and watched a movie in his state room. Since he hadn't been on the ship for about a month, we had lots of packing up to do as well. He had to bring the rest of his uniforms and the playstation back home. Since the ship will be in port and things will get fixed and people are living aboard, we also had to lock everything up. You never know what will go missing on the ship.
We headed home right after the shipped docked at about 5 pm and this time it did take about 2 hours to get home. I love Japanese traffic! Glenn and I were exhausted from such an early start to our day.
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