For anyone interested in plotting our track we departed Miami on schedule at 0700 on Monday the 6th of April, and proceeded in a northeasterly direction to the Northwest Providence Channel. We continued through Northeast Providence Channel then headed offshore and turned to the south southwest , passing southwest of San Salvador Island. From there we took Crooked Island Passage, and finally passed through the Windward Pass into the Caribbean. From there we followed a s southeasterly course through Cannal Du Marc to Baie de Port au Prince, arriving at our anchorage the morning of the 9th. Track information will be posted to the blog after arrival at each of our stops so you can keep track of both where we are and how we got there.
Yesterday I talked to one of our boat officers, Second Officer Day Jean Marien, as I returned to the ship on his boat. This was near the end of a long day of moving ship’s personnel and patients from Comfort to shore and back. His face was red from the sun and his uniform was stained with dried salt spray and sweat, but through a weary smile he told me about how much satisfaction he gets from interacting with the patients every day - bringing them out to the ship in need of care and taking them back to shore healthy. Jean’s comments are typical of what I am hearing from our boat crews. While driving boats in the hot sun day in and day out is exhausting work, our mariners get so much satisfaction out of their jobs that there is nothing they would rather be doing. The extra care they take when loading the patients - many of whom are not feeling well - onto the boat for the short journey to the ship is truly amazing and they take well deserved pride in making the beginning and end of the patient’s Comfort experience as stress free as possible.
Operating Comfort’s two 10 meter Patient Transfer/Logistics Boats is one the MSC crew’s most critical roles. Each boat has a crew of three civilian mariners, carries about 30 personnel and has a top speed of 10 knots. On a typical day the boats make their first run to shore at daybreak and operate continuously until after sunset, moving ship’s personnel, patients and supplies to and from the ship.
Moving over two hundred personnel and significant amounts of material from ship to shore and back on a daily basis requires close coordination between the mission command staff, medical planners and boat operators. The bulk of this work is done by our two cargo experts Captain Joseph Lindsey, USMC and Gunnery Sargeant Kenneth Roberts, USMC. They work on a daily basis with the medical planners, and other groups that will require transportation the next day to develop a detailed manifest and boat plan to ensure that everybody and everything is where it needs to be when it needs to be there. Without their “behind the scenes” efforts team Comfort could not accomplish its mission.
Yesterday I talked to one of our boat officers, Second Officer Day Jean Marien, as I returned to the ship on his boat. This was near the end of a long day of moving ship’s personnel and patients from Comfort to shore and back. His face was red from the sun and his uniform was stained with dried salt spray and sweat, but through a weary smile he told me about how much satisfaction he gets from interacting with the patients every day - bringing them out to the ship in need of care and taking them back to shore healthy. Jean’s comments are typical of what I am hearing from our boat crews. While driving boats in the hot sun day in and day out is exhausting work, our mariners get so much satisfaction out of their jobs that there is nothing they would rather be doing. The extra care they take when loading the patients - many of whom are not feeling well - onto the boat for the short journey to the ship is truly amazing and they take well deserved pride in making the beginning and end of the patient’s Comfort experience as stress free as possible.
Operating Comfort’s two 10 meter Patient Transfer/Logistics Boats is one the MSC crew’s most critical roles. Each boat has a crew of three civilian mariners, carries about 30 personnel and has a top speed of 10 knots. On a typical day the boats make their first run to shore at daybreak and operate continuously until after sunset, moving ship’s personnel, patients and supplies to and from the ship.
Moving over two hundred personnel and significant amounts of material from ship to shore and back on a daily basis requires close coordination between the mission command staff, medical planners and boat operators. The bulk of this work is done by our two cargo experts Captain Joseph Lindsey, USMC and Gunnery Sargeant Kenneth Roberts, USMC. They work on a daily basis with the medical planners, and other groups that will require transportation the next day to develop a detailed manifest and boat plan to ensure that everybody and everything is where it needs to be when it needs to be there. Without their “behind the scenes” efforts team Comfort could not accomplish its mission.
I am astonished everyday at the dedication and generosity of the wonderful men and women who are serving the underserved. Thank you all for reaching out to these deserving people whose lives will never be the same, whose hearts will never forget.
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