Oddly, just as he is seeing all his hard work come to fruition, [Craig Baines] is getting ready to step down after a two-year command of the Winnipeg. Naval officers generally only get one shot to command a warship, and many never see the kind of action that Baines and the Winnipeg have seen over the past two months. Baines not only got his shot to command a ship, but guided his crew through one of the more exotic missions ever undertaken by Canada's navy.

"Typically, you only get one command," Baines said. "That's why deploying on this mission was such a thrill for me. But my wife and my kids for the last two years have provided me with a lot of support and sacrificed a lot so I could dedicate myself to the ship and the mission. It's really time for me to give someone else a shot."

"The soul of a ship is its people," said Baines. "You bring together all these people from disparate backgrounds and you have to turn them into a coherent force. At the end of the day, the ship is steel and equipment. It's the people that make it come alive."