NATS_NOW!!_ NATS_NOW!!_ NATS_NOW!!_ NATS_NOW!!_ NATS_NOW!!_ NATS_NOW!!_ NATS_NOW!!_ NATS_NOW!!_ NATS_NOW!!_ NATS_NOW!!_ NATS_NOW!!_ NATS_NOW!!_ NATS_NOW!!_ NATS_NOW!!_ NATS_NOW!!_ NATS_NOW!!_ NATS_NOW!!_ NATS_NOW!!_ NATS_NOW!!_ NATS_NOW!!_ NATS_NOW!!_ NATS_NOW!!_ NATS_NOW!!_ NATS_NOW!!_ NATS_NOW!!_ NATS_NOW!!_ NATS_NOW!!_ NATS_NOW!!_ I's a little bit excited Leaving tomorrow morning... in the GOOD car. (XM radio and cruise control). _VERY_ excited, even.
Oy! Tugboat 'ere. Everyone got here safely, some later than others, and word to the wise, the food at the Chinese restaurant nxt door leads to violations of the Geneva Convention... more updates later today.
Have a great time battlers at Nats. I can only view the past evenst on my new dvds sent by Bob.. Thanks Bob. I do hope to attend a MWC Nats event some day and if I do I will mostl likely be using a Sodak . Looking forward to new vidoes from this event on Youtube or on DVD.
Saw a lovely pic of Scharnie next to Steve Andrews' VDT before the battling began. Scharnie has not sunk yet so far (Tuesday evening). After Monday's blowouts, and the Tues AM repeat, we voted to go Blue flag/Yellow flag (some dissent). In the decidedly more even battle, I departed from convention and started from the middle of the enemy fleet It was most amusing dancing there, and I savaged Steve's VDT (in the spirit of friendship) with my stern gun and donated rounds from the bow gun to various and sundry ne'er do wells. In the 2nd sortie of today's afternoon battle, I got some rounds off, then to my horror (started in the middle of the enemy fleet again), I lost rudder! Lil sharnie could do fwd and reverse, but only circle to the left! Naturally, my calling 'Scharnie 5 minutes out of control' was a siren all to the sundry battleships and battlecruisers of the vile blue fleet. They piled on in dastardly attempt to put down the sole armoured cruiser on the water. Quite funnily, I unwittingly aided them by shutting down my pump unwittingly. Steve (who was dancing with me) declared, 'you're sunk! you're deck's awash!' and to my horror, I saw Lil Scharnie's stern TWO INCHES under water!! (according to the witnesses), at which point I hastily turned on the pump and kept driving forward, hoping to get closer to shore before sinking. Water was streaming down into the ship through the open top of the stern barbette. The little half-unit homemade pump proceeded to far outperform expectations, and actually pumped the water out fast enough to bring the back end of the ship out of the water, and soon Scharnie was floating back at her waterline. Much shoutingnd gnashing of teeth ensued as I danced around and ran out my 5 minutes without sinking. Very happy to have a champion pump
Ha!! Had a good cruiser battle on Wednesday, two cruisers sunk (Ty and someone else). We actually ran 4 sorties This morning, I started from the middle of the enemy fleet (again! ) and promptly had another rudder jam. Four capital ships donated a lot of ammo as I jockeyed Scharnie around with the throttle to avoid the worst of it. I finished my 5 still afloat and laughing I got the rudder repaired with the assistance of Ty and others lent support so I could get back on the water (note: these were enemies... fine sportsmanship!). I actually urvived the second sortie, although discretion being the better part of valor I did not start in the middle of the enemy fleet. Banzai!! The afternoon was CAMPAIGN!! (Yah, I love campaign) I was again tasked with hunting convoys and shooting shore targets. I accounted for 5 or 6 shore targets and chased a tiny convoy (maybe hit it one time in a penetrable area, Rob Stalnaker was a canny driver) but bumped him and had to sit out a 30 second penalty, so I gave up the chase. Fortunately for me the prop fell off the tiny convoy, which succumbed to it's injury despite Rob's driving skills. One of our Yamatos (I think Carl's) gave the bathtub toy a gentle push to shore, decks awash. Herr Stalnaker made another attempt to get a convoy around, a large aircraft carrier this time. Fortunately for my, I had gained some help in the form of Tyler's Japanese cruiser. The two of us hounded the carrier around the far side of the pond (I wanted it bad enough to run (RUN) around to that side), where the two of us were joined by Kessler's Bismarck and we all dumped BB's into the hapless convoy. I almost got 'push' called on me again, but squeaked by just before contact was made with the convoy, and I unloaded the stern gun into her on the way by. Rob tried to use the bridge for cover, but sadly got hung up on the pilings, which gave me some nice shots on his below area. He got off the piling, and Tyler gave him some more love before he sank about 6 or 8 feet from the offending piling. There was more to campaign but that was most of what I saw. I got 3 runs with my cruiser and Tyler who was operating near me got 2 in before sending his capital ship into the fray. I'm not sure who won yet, we sank more convoys, and shot down all their shore targets. We still had 6 shore targets standing when the time was up. Someone mentioned that we lost a Yamato to a friendly ram, but I haven't heard anything concrete. More to follow.
At the end of the fleet battle today, I had more holes and patches on the hull than I had from a whole year of battling. Didn't sink, and I made a point of starting each battle in the middle of the enemy fleet I didn't take any pics, but several other people did, and I'm getting copies of them on jump drive today before the awards banquet. Still contemplating my future shipbuilding. Got to finish a few for other people first. I will post results when I get them. But Lil Scharnie exceeded expections, started and completed every sortie, plus a 4 sortie cruiser battle, while getting in the thick of it every time I could. I am satisfied but plan to go even harder next year.
