I'll give you an example of an average year for an average west coast MCDV. There are only 5 of the ships in routine at any given time... so here we go:
1 Jan - 7 Jan Leave Period
8 Jan -10 Feb MARS IV Consolidation/NRD/OJT - Local Area Deployment (Olympia, WA - Port Hardy, BC)
11 Feb-1 Apr ISSC/Esquimalt Available
2 Apr - 15 Apr NRD/Route Survey (Local Area)
16 Apr - 20 May Esquimalt Available/MARPAC Taskings/Workups/Sar Zone
21 May - 1 Jun Empire Days in Nanaimo/NRD/OJT
2 Jun - 15 Aug MARS IV Reserve/NRD/OJT - Out of Area Deployment (Alaska, San Diego, Mexico, Etc)
16 Aug - 1 Sep Leave Period
2 Sep - 15 Sep ISSC
16 Sep - 1 Nov MARS IV Regular Force/NRD/OJT - Local Area
2 Nov - 15 Nov Esquimalt Available
16 Nov - 15 Dec NRD
16 Dec - 20 Dec ISSC
20 Dec - 31 Dec Leave Period
This is a made up schedule, but is fairly commonplace for the 5 in routine ships.
As you can see, it equates to an average of 180-200 days at sea per ship (slow year)
During MARS IV deployments we will conduct any number of operations concurrently such as (but not limited to), Sar Zone, CFLC events, Surveillance, Dedicated RMP periods, WUPS assist for the FFG/DDH types, TGEX's, etc etc etc.
MCDV's are also required to conduct MARPAC taskings throughout the year. (No details here)
Additionally, the ships are required to sail in support of various community events... some of these include:
-Empire Days (Nanaimo)
-Bathtub Races (Nanaimo)
-Symphony Of Fire (Vancouver)
-Swiftsure Sail race (Victoria)
-Night of Lights (Victoria)
-Rose Festival (Portland, OR)
-Seafair (Seattle)
-and of course, Canada Day which is generally celebrated in some random US port (Juneau, Seattle, etc)
Further, one ship will generally be dedicated for BOIV operations, and one for Route Survey operations.
You might even get to add some sailing days for 2 weeks of Work Ups which usually includes a weekend in Seattle.
Foreign Ports (any port that is not Esquimalt) are fairly commonplace on 6 out of 8 weekends in your average 2 month program. Personally my most visited ports (in no particular order) are:
1. Seattle (by far the most)
2. Vancouver
3. Portland
4. Juneau
5. Skagway
6. Prince Rupert
7. Victoria
8. Olympia
9. Everett
10. San Diego
The ships are fairly busy.... so you'll never be bored! Naturally, each foreign port includes a Duty Free issue (up to one a month), which is always nice.
Any other questions, feel free to ask
LJ Kenward
MS
Senior NCIOP
HMCS Yellowknife