[QUOTE=c.captain;69725]Got your first three except that I don’t have the barge across the Pacific but I do have hand steering a ship across the Pacific with a big brass telemotor yet that needed a diaper under it to soak up all the hydraulic oil that leaked from the damned thing! God, how those AB’s were beside themselves with near ecstasy when that old WWII vintage Sperry “Iron Mike” was repaired finally after a couple of weeks. Those things were like a Swiss watch inside…an electromechanical marvel that was something amazing to see taken apart and then reassembled.
I do also remember once running across a little old ex Army LT tug towing a big drydock eastbound across the Pacific. They were way out in the middle of nowhere making all of 3 knots all by themselves. I talked with the man on watch by VHF for a while and he told me that they were taking fuel off the DD when they needed it. I think he said they had been out there for 5 weeks by then and had 4 more ahead. Our normally creeping 12kts suddenly felt like a jet as we watched them disappear behind us. I kept thinking those poor pathetic sods…they must be living on canned beans, hash and Dinty Moore stew!.[/QUOTE]
Our trip wasn’t bad - we went Seattle to Korea. We went great circle with the barge in ballast except for one tank of DO for the tug. We stopped in Dutch to transfer the fuel from the barge. It was February but when we crossed the Gulf of Alaska it was flat ass calm for four days. A week after leaving Dutch we had about 4 days of 50 kts on the nose with tug and barge losing a dozen or so miles a day.
The crew was glad to get to Korea. Running coast wise in the Far East was better then the crossing.
K.C.