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The USS Montpelier USN 765, a Los Angeles class attack sub made a port call in Bizert, Tunisia this week, and I was lucky enough to get a tour. Wow! It's 362 feet long, 33 feet beam and 20 foot draft. For over 130 some crew, this boat is NOT roomy. I don't think I'd like to be a submariner...

During my 15 years in the Foreign Service I've never had the opportunity to see any U.S. Naval vessels. (They don't make it to landlocked sub-Saharan African countries for some reason). There aren't any Navy bases in Alaska anymore, either, so I never got to see any there. In the past month...

I came across this the other day. It's the first (shipping) Mac (OS-X) compatible charting and navigation program I've seen. I knew there was another one in development by Barco software, but it isn't shipping yet. This one (MacENC) is apparently compatible with ENC vector charts (such as...

Part 1: Lost and Found I live in Niger, West Africa, a country that was just designated by the U.N. as the poorest on earth, recently beating out Sierra Leone. If any of you watched much (pre-Katrina) news, you’ve probably seen pictures of the place. Generally speaking, seeing pictures of...

I had a Wallas stove installed on Aiviq this summer. So far I've used it mostly for cooking, but a little bit for heating. I had three concerns about it from a heating standpoint. First, the fan was noisier than I expected when the lid was down. Second, I was a bit concerned about increasing...

The "Patch" is a prescription medication called Transderm scop. It contains the medication scopolomine, an anticholinergic. The patch should be applied at least 4 hours before traveling, and can be worn for up to 3 days. It does have a fair amount of side effects, including dry mouth...