USS Eisenhower Family Day -- Around the Ship

I'll soon be wrapping up this series about the USS Eisenhower Family Day in another post or two.

Just a few interesting shots from around the ship:

We "landlubbers" would call these 'doors', but on the ship they are 'passages'. The sailors call them 'knee knockers' because they have to lift their knees high to step over them. I call them 'tripping shin shockers' because I was forever tripping on them and banging my shins. In a passageway as long as this one there are passages every 20 feet or so, in line with the frames of the infrastructure. This picture might look like mirrors in a carnival fun house, but is actually one of the longest uninterrupted passageways on the ship.

At the end of the day all the tables were cleared out and the visitors were debarking. The hangar bay began to look more like a hangar bay. It was easier to imagine this area being full of fighter jets. The ship can hold up to 60 aircraft and many of them are in the hangar at any given time. It is one of the most awesome areas on the ship. Thankfully there are no 'knee knockers' here.

Around the flight deck there are large mesh nets or catwalks. The nets are to catch objects falling over board. The catwalks can do the same, but are also for moving from place to place, and moving to the lower decks. This is what the catwalks are made of and I'm sure the sailors think nothing of it. But that is the sea down below and I found it very disconcerting walking on them --- now I know what vertigo must feel like.

At the end of the day the sunlight was bouncing off the water. In the windows of the island are reflections of the sea below. Those windows are very thick; I don't remember exactly, but well over an inch. They block out nearly all the sound of the jets.

The fantail is Scott's favorite place on the ship to get away for some "quiet" time. I can see why he likes to go out there. One can spend hours getting in touch with himself, the sea, and his creator.

After the air show was over many of the visitors went back to the hangar bay for more food and fun. A couple hundred stayed on deck near the stern to be part of a photo op: spelling N A V Y on the flight deck. Those folks can barely be seen off in the distance. At this point we were back up to full speed and the wind made it difficult to stand still. By the way, this shot was taken with only an 85mm lens, not wide angle or anything fancy. It is just that from the bow the stern is a quarter mile away!