inspired by the “Best place a ship ever took you” post- I thought I’d ask the COOLEST/WEIRDEST/SCARIEST thing you’ve ever seen while shipboard/in port…
A few of mine-
*Volcano erupting at night- Big Island Hawaii…
*Na Pali Coastline Kauai…
*Ship Getting tail slapped by a humpback off Point Alexander Alaska
*Watching glaciers calve in Tracy Arm Alaska…
Inverted Mirage in Alaska ( looked like islands and trees were floating- upside down- in the sky- pretty cool!)
*The time a drunk co-worker tried climbing the Pride of Hawaii’s mooring line in Kahului…
Night rainbow lit by moonlight
White Cliffs of Dover at dawn
I’ll echo the swimming pool. RFA BLACK ROVER and RFA GOLD ROVER are both so equipped. It always threw me to see it on my way to the Pilothouse when they’d stop in Roosey Roads for a port visit.
Breeching (?) manta ray of 7’ across in the Delaware Bay
A 40+ foot whale shark that surfaced and waved at us during swim call in the Caribbean. Rolled on it’s side and stuck a pec fin out of the water, moved it back and forth a few times.
Off Nantucket, hot, slick calm day. Hundreds and hundreds of Basking Sharks, basking in the sun.
Off Cape Hateras, headed north. Thousands of Dolphins, horizon to horizon, overtook and passed us. Took half an hour or more for them to pass.
Entering a volcanic bay in Greece, only to find the Russian Navy was at anchor there already. Our lone DE steamed in a big circle through them as they trained there BIG guns on us. Our Captain had ALL HANDS ON DECK taking pictures as we beat a hasty retreat. I didn’t have any film but I pretended to take pictures too.
One of the most memorable things that I saw and experienced was the crossing over the equator ceramony on a Navy ship…I’m glad I was able to see it before political correctness won out, as the ceramonies are next to nothing these days.
Seeing the southern cross for the first time.
Witnessing the collision between USS KittyHawk and a Russian sub off the coast of Japan. My ship was directly behind the carrier on plane guard duty.Around 1500 yards astern .Air ops had ceased for the moment as the carrier was attempting to pull along side a refueling tanker.
The whole thing was a ruse as we knew there were at least 3 subs shadowing the battle group.As the carrier was approaching the tanker, a frigate jumped in front of the carrier and the carrier was to peel off to the south as fast as possible.
Well the ruse worked, the sub commander got confused and popped up to take a look,about that time the carrier made a very sharp turn to the south and ran over them.
They painted a small red submarine on the bridge wings …Like the fighter planes do when they get a kill…
I have seen a lot of cool things, but the thing that sticks out the most were the breasts of the medic we had onboard were the absolute biggest, most perfectly shaped specimens I have ever seen. Even though I never really technically saw them outside of a skin tight white T-shirt on the bridge freezing cold over a cup of Cafe.
Got to see the elusive three water spouts while on a pipe laybarge in the GOM. That was very impressive. Not sure how close it was but I could make out 55 gallon drums and pallets swirling around.
Making way to a job on the Carl Tide II at night. A few porpoise were ridding the bow wake. Went through some green bio-sparkley stuff. I took a look over the bow and the leading edge of the porpoise were glowing bright. All the trailing edges of their fins left a cloud of sparkling green streaching out six feet. Looked like one of those psychedelic black light posters ya use to see in a headshop.
Was on a Bering Sea F/T fishing pollock. Just finished an offload in Dutch and heading out. I heard we got a couple new people and one was a hot girl. I was sitting in the galley eating turkey and stuffing anticipating chocolate in the icecream machine as the bright spot of the day. I looked up and it was my hot ex girlfriend I hadnt seen in 6 months. She was smilling at me. Seems she wanted to make-up. Best couple months I ever spent at sea
Seadog !
The Shellback that claimed me for his own that day, was a bit over zealous and started early…04:00…So we got through a little early so I could take some pics…
Here is a few pics that I’m sure you will understand…lol…
For the rest, the fat guy is the royal baby…They usually find the biggest " snipe" in the engine room for this duty…lol…He pushes your face into his very overly greased belly…The one with the guy in the life raft is a weeks accumulation of garbage and other unspeakablre things…
Shellback,
I was in before the fitness standards were in effect. The ETC had to have been 300 plus pounds. We had to suck a cherry out of his navel. Makes me gag just thinking about it. Of course at the time most of us did more than gag and you had that, plus the grease, to suck down. And did I mention that we were being beaten with sections of fire hose all the while?
I’ve given this some thought and after my relief I’d have to say the coolest thing I ever saw was my 3month payoff check with option for cash!
No serious… I’m amazed every time I see a turtle in the middle of nowhere. Watching this amazing creature paddling his heart out, making about 5 knots of speed and hundreds, if not thousands of miles from the nearest point of land… truly amazing!
I also sailed with an old man who had been sailing for nearly 50 years, he NEVER told sea stories… the guy was born in Hamburg germany in 1945 (do the math) and started sailing as a teenager, he’s gotta have a few great stories, right? Well I sailed with him for nearly 5 years and I only ever heard 2. The first was about a guy who’s arm was chopped off… this guy came to the bridge bleeding profusely, they were in the middle of the Atlantic and had no real medical training. My captain raised the guys arm and timber-hitched it to a tall stantion to stop the bleeding. Side note: I don’t know the ending because, as we were glued to our seats waiting for the climax… Natalie, the 2nd mate, interrupted with her tail of a cook who chopped off a 1/4" of his pinky… I thought someone was going to keelhaul her. He never mentioned the story again.
The second story was told after midnight and 6+ hours of watch, he said (with true sincerity) that one night he heard a thump on the bridge wing only to walk out and see the AB had dropped the binoculars. Then he looked aft and watched the sea part, a lighted orb emerge… hover over the open hole that was the ocean… then, 5-10min later, shoot off into the sky.
After telling the story the old man then poured out his coffee (another first for him) and let to his cabin.
I’m not a big believer in UFO’s and I’m not too gullible either… but this one left me thinking.
Cool stuff, John…
Seadog…I left out the cherry because I thought no one would believe me…lol…
Maybe the political correctness isn’t the problem .Maybe the fitness standards are so rigid that they can’t find a engineer fat enough and just called the whole thing off…lol
If you want to see more crossing pics, a buddy and I started a website in honor of the ship…www.dd-975.com
