Dive officer with Atlantic Strike Group from 1973-89 while also a cadet at the academy from 1973-77? Is that even possible?
I’m sure it’s because the form asked him, “when were you in the coast guard?” Then, “what did you do in the coast guard?” It doesn’t really give options to break it down year by year.
Fair enough.
I smell an embellishing bullshitter when it comes to his claims of throwing the LORAN overboard, and if (and I mean IF) it did happen this guy is a complete fucking idiot.
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I then leaned back with the LORAN in my right hand and threw it astern as far and as high as I could. That silly electronic box made a large arc in the sky and then fell into our wake and floated away.
LORAN in his right hand, what make was it? Some kind of mini-LORAN? You must be a shot put world champion to throw that with one hand far and high in an arc, but even then. The guy is obviously lying through his teeth big time.
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I was reading it like that until I got to the last bit:
It looks a lot like he thinks they were very heroic. If I was telling the story, I would have ended it on a different note, something about all that free beer leaving a sour taste. If not because of self insight, then because I don’t want to be “That” guy.
True. The story reads like a warning until the ending that glorifies their stupidity.
Exactly. Courts would have a field day with that.
Add reckless, foolish, un safe, un thoughtful, think i could keep going. Most likely just another sea story.
Guess I could come up with some if I tried, but hard to imagine a more un seaman like thing to do than to throw a perfectly good navigation tool over the side. Maybe brag about it ?
That’s the most seaman like thing about the story!
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The only thing I got from reading that article is this:
WAFI’s are weird
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So, I read this to the wife to see if we all got it right. She reminded me of her years of sextant and RDF use in the Pacific, North Atlantic and Caribbean. She also reminded me that she tossed the RDF off the stern. It didn’t arc high or go long and didn’t float. Subsequently, I bought new loran (1981 model) and mounted it next to the sextant box.
Getting Lat/Long with one LOP?? I used to advance sunlines to LAN to get a noon fix, but I guess you can get an fairly accurate longitude using the averaging shots method. That’s a neat trick, one which I hadn’t seen or used. I have crossed the Atlantic several times back in the pre-GPS days when no sights were available due to weather, we were DR’ing the whole way until we got into Decca coverage. Great that he has confidence in his sextant abilities, but does every ship carry sight reduction tables, nautical almanacs, spare batteries for Tamaya/Nav calculators? I applaud keeping your celestial skills current, but don’t agree with ignoring or worse yet, discarding “newer” technology.
Mmmm, came in this conversation late but methinks Mr. Carr may also have served as an NTSB investigator as well if I recall correctly from a past temp life in DC? Did he throw a Loran A over; if it was pre-1980 the answer is yes and Loran A’s were being phased out, may explain his supposed “heroics”
Yes could be but the fact remains that you can may be throw a smartphone with a bow in the water but not a Loran A. The old A types were also rather bulky…
The type A LORAN was the only type of LORAN that I ever had any experience in using and I doubt if two people could have picked it up never mind throwing it.
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I sailed with a RCA Loran A, still fully “tuberized”. These were bulky equipments to handle. With two A/B’s I estimate you could swing throw it 50 cm, at most.
I was referring to only average sized blokes not large Dutchmen.
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The first Loran A’s I saw were on shrimp trawlers and snapper boats in the mid '60s. They were Army Airforce surplus. They were 2x2x2 ft and weighed about 50 lbs. The CRT was about 3 inches in diameter. The aviation electronics back in the 40s, 50s, and early 60s were 28VDC to power the dynamotor. There was a company in Brownsville Tx that converted them to operate on 24vdc or 32vdc that was common on shrimp boats. Technology has advanced somewhat…
Sounds like the one on board the 42-footer (Alden Caravelle, owned by a Philadelphia stockbroker) that I got a berth on for the '69 Annapolis-Newport race. I was fascinated with it. Turning the crank to match pips on a cathode ray tube – how cool is that?! (Well I thought so anyway.)
Couple days later after all the big boats had romped home and the wind died leaving the smaller ones bobbing around going nowhere, it told us how fast we were being set backwards off Fire Island. Skipper almost pulled the plug at that point, but decided to keep on.
When we finally got in to Newport on the Thursday the yacht club people had all gone home. They left a logbook on the table for late finishers to log themselves in. I think we finished 138th out of 168, and eighteen-year-old me was the only sober man on board when we crossed the finish line. I have a notion it was the longest Annapolis-Newport race in history at that point.
They liked me so I got to help bring her back to the Chesapeake in September.
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