HMCS Charlottetown is entering quite a few Great Lakes harbours

And few others--she's now at Windsor:

Local residents will have a chance to climb aboard a Canadian warship while the HMCS Charlottetown is docked at the riverfront this weekend -- but for one former Windsorite, being on a military frigate is a way of life.



"You get used to it," said Leading Seaman Michael Bastarache. "You have a job, and you have to do it, because the person next to you is depending on what you do."

Bastarache, 30, is wrapping up his third tour of duty on one of the Canadian Navy's Halifax-class multi-purpose frigates -- the workhorses of the Canadian fleet.

Each of Bastarache's six-month tours have taken him into the waters of the Persian Gulf.

His regular tasks range from co-ordinating maintenance plans, to giving deck signals to the Charlottetown's Sea King helicopter, to manning one of the ship's .50-calibre machineguns. There's also contributing to the ship's twice daily cleaning regimen. It all adds up to 14-hour workdays when the Charlottetown is at sea. "Extremely busy," Bastarache said simply.

While patrolling the Arabian Sea, the HMCS Charlottetown -- a "high-readiness unit" -- has conducted what the Navy calls "maritime interdiction operations." These can include boardings of vessels, looking for drugs and what Bastarache described as "criminal merchants."

In February, the Charlottetown intercepted a shipment of more than four tons of hashish after tracking a suspicious fishing vessel from its Pakistani port.

In April, the ship's Sea King conducted surveillance of a French luxury yacht hijacked by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden [more on the Charlottetown's voyage here, here, here and here].

But Bastarache said the toughest parts of his job remain the long hours and rigorous scheduling.

Although life on a ship with a crew of 208 means constant close proximity to others, the itinerant nature of the Navy can make shorebound relationships difficult. "It's harder in some ways," admits Bastarache, who's still single and has no children. "But you just adapt to it, like everything else."

Born in Moncton, Bastarache grew up in Windsor and was completing a mouldmaking apprenticeship when he decided to move to the east coast and join the Navy eight years ago.

Here's the port schedule, from the Navy news release:

* Montreal, Que. Sept. 5-8, Old Port, Alexandra Basin, Pier 12
* Cleveland, Ohio Sept. 10-12
* Windsor, Ont. Sept. 12-15, Dieppe Plaza
* Port Colborne, Ont. Sept. 16-17, Snider's Terminal, Wharf 16
* Toronto, Ont. Sept 18-22, foot of Yonge St
* Hamilton, Ont. Sept. 22-25, Pier 8 East (near HMCS Haida)
* Oshawa, Ont. Sept. 25-29, West Wharf
* Cornwall, Ont. Sept. 30-Oct. 2, Government Wharf
* Sept Iles, Que. Oct. 4-Oct. 6, Quai Monseigneur-blanche
* Charlottetown, PEI Oct. 7-9, Cruise Ship Jetty

The ship’s company of HMCS Charlottetown looks forward to hosting you onboard this fall!