High Seas Adventures

A picture of the USS George Washington at dusk.
Rory has been able to send me some pictures from the adventure that is the GW heading over to Japan

The above picture is a panorama taken of Rio de Janeiro from the top of Sugar Loaf. Sugar Loaf is the name of a mountain 1,299 feet above sea level that rises up straight from the waters edge. A glass paneled cable car takes passengers up the mountain

This is a gorgeous sunset where the USS GW was anchored next to the bridge while in Rio

Above you can see Christ the Redeemer Statue.
Some interesting facts that Rory sent along: The statue was originally made to cover an antenna because it would have marred the scenery. There was a vote and you see the end result. A statue of Jesus was decided on to cover the antenna. Because Brazil ran out of money France gifted them with Jesus' hands and head.
Wow that would have looked awful if they hadn't been helped out.

Rory was able to go up on Sugar Loaf and look what they found.
I guess there was an area with a lot of little monkeys living.
Interesting looking fellows:)

Here come the high seas!
Take into consideration that the GW's height keel to mast is 244 ft.
It's max. navigational draft is 42 ft.
Rory emailed me saying at one point the waves were 10-15 feet high and they were expecting 20 foot waves. He also mentioned that he felt at times like he was going to fall out of his rack.
The blessing is these seas didn't last long for the sailors

Sunrise on May 10th overlooking the flight deck. You can see the 73 on the left.

This picture was taken as the ship was passing through the Straits of Magellan with mountains on either side. Obviously the picture is of the rainbow but if you enlarge it you can see the snow capped mountains.

Here the Spirit of Freedom (USS GW) is dropping anchor off Punta Arenas.
Punta Arenas is the most prominent settlement on the Straits of Magellan.
It is also the world's southernmost city.
Punta Arenas is roughly 881.35 miles from the coast of Antarctica.
No wonder Rory told me at one point he believed the wind chill factor out on vultures row was in the teens (outside the "skin" of the ship there is an area above the flight deck that you can go out on a catwalk type area this is called vultures row)

Part of an email that Rory sent around about going through the Straits:

What an amazing site! The first day was a lot of flat land on both sides, most of the time too wide to see either side. But it did come pretty close at times and I got some good pictures. That evening we anchored off the coast of Punta Arenas, the southern most city in the world! Pretty neat to say I have seen that. We did not go ashore but I took some good pictures. The next morning it was back to the grind to get through the rest of the way. This day was amazing! There was beautiful scenery on both sides. Huge mountains that we were literally passing right between. We passed the southern most tip of mainland South America. That was pretty cool. There is a cross at the top of that huge rock. It was placed there long ago and was somehow destroyed. The Pope made a visit to Punta Arenas back in 1987 and the city wanted to place the cross back up before the Pope arrived. There is no access by helicopter so men had to carry the materials more then one kilometer up this treacherous terrain to erect the new cross. What an awesome site!! Most of the mountain tops were snow covered and made for beautiful scenery. I have great photos which I of course want to share but won’t be able to do so for some time. Then later yesterday afternoon we emerged into the Pacific and started cruising right along in some rough weather. The ship is rocking and rolling which makes for a good time to sleep since you are being rocked like a baby!! So now the USS George Washington has become only the second aircraft carrier to have transited the Straits of Magellan. I guess we are history in the making on this deployment.