"on a three-hour tour"

Photographer Jon Fletcher (pictured above) and I just finished a three-hour tour of the USS John F. Kennedy. Up and down stairways, along mazes of passageways we went, knees aching, visiting departments ranging from air traffic control to jet engine maintenance to zoology.

OK, I’m kidding. There’s no zoology department on the aircraft carrier. But they’ve got just about everything else.

Anyway, we picked up some fresh scuttlebutt when we were up in the weather office. Lt. Cmdr. Richard Murphy told us that projected sustained winds around Boston will remain above 25 knots for the next couple of days, and that he would therefore recommend to the ship’s CO, Capt. Todd Zecchin, that the Kennedy stay put another 48 hours. The reason: high winds it extremely difficult to get a huge ship around and out of the harbor.

Jon and I looked at each other and smiled when Murphy said that. Already today we have been told, in chronological order:

1) that we would be arriving in Jacksonville a week from today instead of on Thursday, because the ship must stop in Norfolk on the way to Mayport Naval Station.
2) that we weren’t putting to sea today as planned.
3) that we were then skipping Norfolk after all and could be home by Friday.
4) and now, that we may not be leaving until Wednesday, which puts us back in Florida who-knows-when.

Please stay tuned here at Jacksonville.com and in The Florida Times-Union as the When-Will-the-JFK-Really-Leave-Port saga unfolds.

Jeff