Floating superstore home for restocking
A/SLt Jim Smith
HMCS Protecteur
March 3, 2008
The mid-Pacific oiler duties are now nothing more than a memory for the crew of HMCS Protecteur, and with just a few final housekeeping items on the schedule, we are ready to enjoy time at home for a much deserved rest before undertaking a demanding year.
It can be said the past seven weeks have been both diverse and eventful. The very first day of the deployment Rick Mercer embarked for the day, putting together a segment for his CBC program that aired in January.
Protecteur was then subjected to four consecutive storms making for a less than restful transit south to the Hawaiian Islands. Once on station in the Hawaiian area, Protecteur started her duties as the mid-Pacific oiler, replenishing at sea (RAS) with three American ships prior to going alongside Pearl Harbor for the first of four port visits.
In a way, Pearl Harbor was so familiar to the ship and crew that it became the port-away-from-home port.
Adding to the crew’s comfort, Protecteur did not sail with a helicopter detachment, which left the hangar free to be well used as a gym and to store a number of personal bicycles to make the visit just a little more pleasant.
During the deployment, Protecteur completed a total of 13 RAS’s, 11 of those with our American allies. While that number may sound less than impressive, the actual quantity is. In total we transferred over 9.2 million litres of fuel during the operation, 6.8 million litres to the Americans and the remainder to HMCS Vancouver and HMCS Ottawa after their transit south to the Hawaiian Islands. In total Protecteur travelled more than 8,600 nautical miles (equivalent to over 16,000 kilometres) and used 1.8 million litres of fuel during the entire seven-week deployment.
While at sea around Hawaii, the weather was tolerable, but the myth of the Pacific as the placid ocean was discredited. For the majority of RAS’s the weather was not always on Protecteur’s side, giving us strong winds from essentially the wrong direction. Nevertheless, each RAS was completed without incident and proved the ability and agility of Protecteur, which is now over 38 years old. Feedback from the captains of the American destroyer’s was positive and appreciative.
While our only port of call was in Pearl Harbor, the ship did take advantage of viewing the beauty and uniqueness of the other islands. During an evening transit back towards Oahu there was an opportunity to sail past the southern coast of the big Island of Hawaii. This gave the crew a spectacular view of the active volcano of Kilauea, with the lava flow quite visible in the early evening twilight, as well as the steam spilling out over the ocean for miles. There were also two anchorages just south of Lahaina, giving the crew a spectacular view of Maui and its towering mountains that stretch skyward over 10,000 feet.
The slow and gradual transition back to the cooler climate was a welcome sign for the crew because it signaled the end of this lengthy but successful operation.
It has been an interesting year since last February, when Protecteur ventured to sea for the first time since her refit. In all, Protecteur completed contractor sea trials, reduced readiness workups, more sets of sea trials, a full set of workups, a Task Group Exercise, and now MIDPAC Oiler to cap off the year.
The ship is alongside now and there is time for rest, but as Protecteur is now at high readiness the rest period promises to be short. As the captain said to crew just before coming alongside: “All can be proud of the hard work put forward during these several weeks at sea, but the year to come will bring with it a new set of challenges.”
