Updated November 13, 2001
Logbook
Logbook 1999 - this is what we did in
1999
Logbook 2000 - this is what we did last
year
Logbook 2001 first half
- this is what we did previously this
year
Video from the gun firing in October '99 (1,1 Mb)
And this is what we have recently done... Hold your mouse over the picture to get the text.
Week 43-45 (October 22 -November 11)
Before sailing northwards on Monday 22, we had a photo session wit the PCs in Special Boat Squadron Two. Here is a few pictures from that day. We hope to be back with some pictures from the helicopter..
Week 43 was spent in Washington DC. In cooperation with the Norwegian embassy we hosted a lot of guests, briefed about the ship and did demo tours on the Potomac River. It all concluded with a reception inthe embassy.
After a week end port call at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, we continued further north. We have been back in Newport, R.I. conducting various tests of the vessel. On our way we passed through New York and continued up East River. Below you find some pictures from this.
Week 41-42 (October 8-21)
Our American crewmembers are now fully
integrated. They have qualified for their watch duties and we have had an
work-up within damage control, seamanship and medical that has been very successful.
The crew is ready for the sailing activity that is planned. Fortunately we have
one more week for technical preparations and then the ship will be ready as
well. There is a lot of interest in Skjold and we have many visitors on board.
This week we was honored with a visit by the Commander in Chief for the Atlantic
Fleet. He also tried to maneuver Skjold in high speed during a short ride off
the base as you can see on the picture below. Hold the mouse over the picture
and you will have the text for the rest of the pictures.
Last week it was our turn to be guests on board another ship. Below is a couple of pictures from a most interesting visit to the LCACs. There is also a picture of USS Joint Venture. An interesting ship that that also is a result of modern ship design, just as Skjold. We look forward to the first race.
Some pictures from our time off. It is obvious wherever you go that there is a war going on, and the support from the public is firm. We also managed to find a little piece of Norway here in Virginia. Chili's deserved a picture because they do a good job in feeding us.
Week 38 - 40 (September 17
-October 7)
There has been some hectic
weeks since the last update. The trip from Ammasalik and southwards along the
Greenland Coast went well, and transiting through Prince Christian Sound was a
nice experience. There was quite a lot of ice there, but the landscape reminded
of Norway. We had to stay in Nanortalik a couple of days to let a gale pass us
before we started on the longest leg from Greenland to Canada. We had picked out
the small village Cartwright for refueling, and when we were secured in
Cartwright we celebrated the arrival to the American continent with a glass of
Champagne. Greenland had been an adventure with its very special landscape and
all the icebergs. Here are a few examples :
From Cartwright we continued for Corner Brook at the east coast of Newfoundland. Due to problems getting the fuel we had ordered, we soon continued for Sydney, Nova Scotia. Our whole trip along the Canadian coast we experienced problems getting the fuel that had been ordered long time in advance, and although our fuel broker back in Norway worked hard all the time. Due to all this our stay in Halifax were much shorter than planned. However, just after midnight September 25 we crossed the U.S. border and arrived Newport, RI in the morning hours.
After a very interesting and pleasant stay in Newport we continued south towards Little Creek, VA where we will have our base while here. The reception has been great and our American colleagues impress us with their professionalism and hospitality. We will now have a few weeks of maintenance and we will start to train our new American crewmembers. Here is a few pictures from the trip along the Canadian and U.S. coast.
Week 37 (September 10-16)
Reykjavik - Greenland
This week we have followed the tragic and horrendous terrorist attacks
in the U.S. We have expressed our deepest sympathy and support to our American colleagues,
with whom we communicate on a daily basis.
We stayed in Reykjavik longer than planned
due to the bad weather between Iceland and Greenland. We also needed some spare
parts sent over from Norway. We had time to do some work on board and to receive
different guests. The Commander of the Iceland Defense Force was on board as
well as the Icelandic Coast Guard and the Norwegian Ambassador to Iceland. As
the days went by we got more restless, but some took the time to calm down in
one of the hot springs outside the city. Finally the weather improved and we
were able to leave Iceland at 03am on Saturday.
As expected it was quite
choppy out of Reykjavik, but improvement as we proceeded west. The sun rose well
before we saw the first icebergs on the horizon. This was an incredible sight.
They were much bigger than they appear in these pictures. We had to maintain a
rather large distance because there is always the danger they could capsize or
fall apart.
After ten hours at sea we could see Greenland. If you look close at the bottom
left picture you can also see a whale that sneaked into the cameralens. There was an incredible
wildlife as we got closer to Greenland with whales of all sorts, seals and
dolphins. Ammassalik is a tiny village with Eskimos that clings to the cliffs of
Eastern Greenland. Small as it is, it is still the largest population in 500 nm.
The people here are very friendly and got more and more confident as they
understood that this strange ship came with friendly intentions.
As this is goes into writing it seems that we have to stay in Ammassalik for
a few days. There is a storm outside and the crew has been on deck all day to
ensure that we are secured properly. Fuelling has just been completed, and it
took over six hours as there is only a small and old tank lorry available - it
had to go back and forth a lot of times. We look forward to head south towards civilization
and hope to get underway on Tuesday when the storm has passed.
Week 36 (September3 -9) Departure
On Tuesday this week it was
time to set off. Commodore Sandbekk inspected the crew and wished us a fine
journey. Finn Jacobsen, an 11-year old Skjold-fan showed up with his model of
the ship. After the cermony and a short press-conference we left the Norwegian
coast at midnight and passed the oil installations in the North Sea before
sunrise. The rugged and picturesque coastline of the Faeroe Islands met us after
only 8hrs 15mins at sea. We were received very nicely by the staff at the Danish
naval station at the Islands as well as by the locals and they even took us on a
sightseeing around the islands.
After staying at the Faeroes one day extra due to heavy winds south of Iceland we left on friday. Iceland rose from the sea at a distance of 80 nautical miles. We have included a couple of pictures of Birgir and Gudjon from Reykjavik who provided excellent service, helping us out with some work on board. At the end of the week we are still secured in Reykjavik due to heavy wind and seas between us and Greenland. As soon as this passes we will be on our way again.
Week 35 (august 27-september 2)
Work-up and safety exam
During the week we have had
an endless amount of exercises related to safety and at the end of the week the
experts from our damage control school came on board to test us. We passed with
good results and are now ready for deployment. There has also been hectic
activity to get everything on board for the trip.
Week 34
(August 20-26) Work-up
This week has been filled with disasters on board.
Fortunately all of them was exercises. We are well underway with our
work-period, getting better day by day at handling fire, damages, man over board
and other situations. We have also conducted trials for Konsberg Defence &
Aerospace in connection to the future integration of the new Anti-Shipping
Missiles on the Skjold-class. Our planned deployment to the U.S. was finally
confirmed last Thursday. It was nice to have it confirmed although we have
planned with this for a while now.
DThe two pictures to the right is from a
fire- exercise showing smokedivers evacuating injured crewmembers. The other
pictures is of some of our new officers; LtCdr Ulf Stoea (XO), SubLt Richard
Salomonsen (1st officer) and LT Olaf Brekke (1st engineer) .
Week 33
(august 13-19) Training
Skjold is now fully manned. The total crew consisting of
fourteen officers and sailors started training this week at the
Damage Control School at the naval base. A special course is put
together for us so we will get through all aspects of safety
before the planned departure on September 4. The crew has been
busy smoke-diving, fire-fighting, conducting first aid and life
raft training.
LT Geir Arne Hestvik has been XO on Skjold since April and are now leaving us to prepare himself for the FPB Commanding Officer Qualifying Course this autumn. We wish him good luck!!
Week 32 (August
6-12) Maintenance, preparations
We have been
docked at the naval base until Thursday morning for routine work
and maintenance.
Here we see the ratings Hjertnes, Hoel and Rustad working. They have served on the FPB Sq. 22 until this week and will stay on Skjold until their dismissal in December.
Week 31 (July 30 -
August 5) Back at the base
This was our
last week at the yard in Mandal and Skjold is almost ready for
the deployment to the US, now it remains to work up the crew. The
new navigation system was installed on Wednesday, we did trials
on Thursday and left for Haakonsvern on Friday. The first picture
of the bridge was taken this Tuesday, the second on Thursday,
illustrating the speed everything was done in during the last
week. A few new antennas have emerged in the mast. Now we look
forward to recieve the new crewmembers and start the training of
these.
Skjold has installed Inmarsat C. The number is 425902610. If you are not a registered user, Inmarsat has a free service on their homepage where you can send short messages to ships.
Week 25-30 (June18
-July 29 ) Maintenance and vacation
Skjold has
been in Mandal during the summer, and this time has been
effectively spent with lots of maintenance work and installation
of new equipment such as extra radar, satcom and an upgraded
version of the navigation system. All this with the deployment to
the USA in mind. The most obvious change is the new colors. The
"old" colors were specially designed to match the
Norwegian topography, now she is painted in much lighter colors
to reduce the surface temperature in the hull while operating in
a warmer climate.
The planning of the deployment to the US has continued through the summer, and you find a brief outline of the plan on the programme- pages.
Week 24 (June
11-17) Docking in Mandal
We sailed to
Mandal on Monday and was docked in at the yard on Tuesday. It is
time for some maintenance after more than two years of thorough
testing. We well also start the preparations for the deployment to the US here at the yard.
Before the docking we tested a device for launch and recovery of rubber dinghies that Umoe has constructed for the US Navy. The right picture show the workers at the yard posing in front of their most prestigious product.
Week 23 - (June
4-10) Maintenance
Haakonsvern
Week 22 - (May 28
-June 3) TV shots in northern Norway
This week we
sailed for northern Norway and we were visited by the famous
Olympians Bjørn Dæhlie and Vegard Ulvang who has something like
11 Olympic gold medals in total. They have their own television
show here in Norway and we shot one of the programmes on board
Skjold in beautiful scenery and nice weather. Dæhlie and Ulvang
are reserves in the Norwegian Navy and from time to time they
need some training. The result can be seen in one of Norway's
most famous TV-shows this autumn.
On the top left picture you can see Vegard Ulvang and Bjoern Daehlie trying to find their way as they are navigating Skjold. Arne Brimi is a famous chef in Norway, and in the bottom left picture he is helping the cook out with the dinner on board Skjold. In the evening he served delicious fresh cod.