My Twelfth Tattoo...

My twelfth tattoo is a quote in the book I am reading. It says "Fly Across The Sea On Wings Full Of Wind". It was said by Daenerys Targarean in the book series Game Of Thrones By George R. R. Martin.

"In the Free Cities, there are ships by the thousand," Dany told him, as she had told him before. "Wooden horses with a hundred legs, that fly across the sea on wings full of wind."

This is in the first book of four. Here she is talking to her husband (a vicious nomad that rules over an army of thousands that her brother "sold" her to in order to gain the army). Long story short.... She is trying to get back home and needs to sail across the sea in order to do that. Her husband's tribe is horseman and do not trust the sea let alone go on boats. So she is  trying to convince him to sail.

I can relate to this quote in different ways. I have always had a love for the sea but an utmost respect for it as well. I have always prayed that when I go out upon the sea, I will make  it back home. I always hope for a swift transit to where ever I'm going.

 Finally I have always had dreams about flying. I would feel a gust of wind coming and I would jump into it and fly where ever I wanted to go. Most often then not it was over pastures and the water.



Done by Jason Goodnight at Ink Addiction in Ft Lauderdale, FL
Left and Right feet

It happened again...

Well it happened again! I got another tattoo! Oh yeah, that's right. This one hurt like a BITCH! I got it on my feet.

Haha this reminds me of a flip-flop

I like the reversed image because you can see the print a lot easier. It is so difficult to get a good picture because of the way it wraps around my feet. You can read more about the meaning behind it on my tattoo pages or by clicking HERE. The guy was awesome. He came up with the script on his own and only charged me $60! It took over an hour and a half to do (including re-drawing). He had to re-draw it because originally I wanted it on my right foot, but as he tried to place it, it got awkward  so I asked him if both feet would be better. Of course he was totally down for that. It made it so much easy to place and also made it bigger so you can read it so much better.

It says: Fly Across The Sea On Wings Full Of Wind

Other than that, not much else has been going on. We completed phase 1 of the OT&E. It was pretty much drills all over again, but it was evaluated by how the boat works and not on how well we do the drills. Although we are awesome anyways. Everything pretty much went smoothly except when we towed another cutter. After we broke tow, the other cutter decided to run over our tow line so we had to let go and get back because of the tension it took. After a minute, the order was given to cut the tow line. And of course after we cut it, it broke loose. So we hulled it on board. After all that work we can't use the towline and have to get another. Stupid other cutter. (I'm not going to tell you the name of the other cutter..... but it rhymes with "Kick-nak")

So after Thanksgiving we will start phase 2 of OT&E. Not the part I am crazy about. We get to make a 10 day trip up north. No further than Virginia, but it will still be cold. Not looking forward to thank. The one good thing is that I may be able to meet up with the guy who did my half sleeve and we can make it into a full sleeve!

Until the next time...

One down...

Well I have my first patrol under my belt. We went out on a three week in and out patrol. We went all over Southern Florida. I have to say it was very tiring and exciting all at the same time.  We had a little bit of everything thrown our way. We had a couple of Search and rescue cases, alot of boardings, a big law enforcement case that involved multiple countries and agencies and a almost drug and smuggling case.

The second search and rescue case involved us picking up two guys who had been lost at sea for 3 days. They were happy to see us! Haha. Of course we were miles away from them to so it took us forever to get to them.  We got them onboard and then towed their boat all the way back to Miami. We passed the boat off to Station Miami Beach and got to moor up for a couple of hours.

The guy driving the small boat from the Station was a good friend of mine. He of course wasn't to happy that we passed off a broken down boat with 2 guys who have been reaking in the sea for the pass three days. haha. This was his response:

I have awesome friends!

Now we have had a few days back at home. Which is good because on the last day of patrol I started to get sick, a cold not sea-sick. Almost everyone on the boat was catching it. I came home and started to dope up on Advil Cold and Sinus and Nyquil. Oh, and a little Wild Turkey American Honey to wash it down with. Needless to say I didn't do anything on my time off except for sleeping and lounging around. Today was the first day back and I feel better. I still have a cough, but at least its not as bad as it was. The first day I was sick I had a tremendous headache so I laid down around 6 pm and didn't wake up till the next morning. Haha I guess I needed it. I'm just surprised that I actually got to sleep on the boat that long.

From here on out our new mission on the boat is OT&E which is Operational Testing and Evaluation on the Cutter. This is usually done on the first of the fleet, but since we are so awesome, they are doing it with us. It's a good thing to do, we get to prove what we can do, but it also takes away from patrolling. The Captain said that if there is a case or a go-fast (boat trying to get into the country suspiciously) we will go for it and if we have free time we will do more boardings. So we won't be totally out of the game but just sitting on the sidelines waiting for the coach to call us in.