It's minus 14-degrees ...

“It’s minus-14 degrees with the windchill, we’re ready to get the h--- out of here,” a sailor shouted when I asked him if he was glad to be getting underway in just over an hour. I took his answer as a yes.

Jacksonville resident John O’Neil, a retired Navy captain and a director of the Mayport Navy League Council, handed me a sheet of paper a minute ago titled “USS John F. Kennedy Green Sheet.” It gives the ship’s itinerary for the day. And right there, half-way down the page in beautiful all-capital letters it says: “1230 UNDERWAY.”

It’s the surest sign yet that the Mayport-based warship is really leaving Boston today, which is good news to visitors and Kennedy sailors alike. All kinds of departure-related announcements are being made over the public address system and you can feel the difference on board right now.

I grabbed Navy airman Justin Brant, a Pennsylvanian, as he walked past my bunk room. Brant, 24, said he’s eager to get going because he’s supposed to ship out Friday for the USS George Washington, a Norfolk-based aircraft carrier. For a year, Brant has been a plane-handler on a retiring flattop that hasn’t had airplanes since February 2006. “It’s going to be nice to be on a ship with actual aircraft,” he said.

Jerry Stageman, a Jacksonville nursery owner (pictured above), is a member of the Navy League but was never in the Navy. He said he can’t wait to see what it’s like being underway – if the ship feels or sounds different. And it’ll be a bonus if the JFK arrives on Friday, as tentatively planned. “I turn 50 on Friday, when we’re hopefully pulling into port,” he said.