When you started this I thought you were going to describe a scenario like I’ve seen a few on deadliest catch with those crabbers in 30ft waves in the Bering Sea.
Yours sounds at least equally scary though. Glad everyone made it out safe.
brought back memories - not good ones. Spent a very long night with 2 anchors down in the lee of St. Matthew Island in the Bearing Sea on the USCGC Sherman - I have been in hurricanes - this was much worse. We probably would have been ok to try and ride out underway - but it was not a certainty at all.
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Yeah apparently the Bering Sea with the Black Hole, the entrance to St Paul Harbor and some of the straits when you pass islands and get full in the wind again are very treacherous.
If you would have did that, or even a lot less like just showing up below 60 degrees south you would have been given a medal. You or a supervisor would need to ask the DoD for it though. It’s one of a couple of medals that the DoD awards to non-military citizens.
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Grrrr… don’t remind me. We were two days short in 2003. Personally, I don’t need a medal, but it would have made my mother’s side of the family a tad excited… you see, her maiden name was Palmer, and she grew up around Stonington, CT.
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We’re all supposed to be macho tough guys & not care about the medals, silly certificates & challenge coins. But I’m so macho I can say I enjoy having mine without feeling insecure about it. Best part was the 8-10 minutes a few years ago cleaning house when my kids where curious about polywogs, emerald shellbacks, golden dragons, rednoses & challenge coins. They were proud of me & I had them in awe describing on a globe what each one meant & what I had to do to get them. Those were a nice 8-10 minutes. Maybe I’ll have grandkids one day to be able to show them off again?
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I feel as though the list should read
-Four Floors
-The Elbow Room
-Front Passenger seat of a Stella Maris van
-The ShopRite in Paulsboro NJ.
-A pee curl urinal in Amsterdam
-Southern Exposure at McMurdo station.
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Uhhh you’re forgetting Sailor Town in Sasebo!
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If we are putting complete dives on the mariners bucket list add any establishment on Texas Street & Papa Joe’s for the oil field sailors who had the unfortunate pleasure of visiting Port Harcourt. I quit bragging about visiting most of these places over a decade ago. Too raunchy… I don’t tell any of my after midnight Waffle House stories either.
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Closed.
Beers at Peter Cafe Sport 
Port Harcourt You say !!!
Then You must know “ Toby Bar “ & “ Friends” clubs
Toby Bar reminded me of the famous Star Wars bar where all bad characters from the galaxy gathered to share gossip and news.
And Friends . … well it was the only place where you had to forcefully negotiate through the WALL of lovely firm black tits and pressing from all points of the compass nipples. 1995- 1999. I was a yo- yo capt switching between. Maersk Conakry and CMBT Antarctica. Sweet memories still remain. 
I visited a few places there but only remember the name of one I mentioned because it was close to the boat & was notorious with my TDW shipmates. Several years later I was talking with a former co-worker & he said he called the place Papa Docs but I don’t remember that either. I didn’t like going to town there. Too hot, too dirty & beer was too warm. If they had it on ice it was okay but the refrigeration sucked. After I went to town a few times, and discovered it was easier to get beer from the beer boats that hung along side at night I stayed onboard. I delivered a half dozen boats to Nigeria & Angola for Tidewater & usually stayed a month or 2 afterwards. The only boat I ever worked there, going back to on a semi regular schedule was the Solar Tide II in '04-'05. When it went to Escravos I told them to find someone else. Too much in country traveling for me, the Chevron plane crashed to often & that base got overran too much. It was supposedly safer to take a 2 minute flight from the base to the bigger airport compared to a 20 minute cab ride?? Escravos didn’t have beer boats either. I did get an Emerald Shellback cert going off course “due to weather of course” deliverying a boat to Angola.
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I’ll toss in the current/former watering holes in the Lakes:
Wheat’s Bar (Esky)
Anchor Bar (Superior)
Lamplighter [Lumplifter] (Superior)
Wooden Nickel (Marquette)
On Deck (Thunder Bay)
Joe’s (Alpena)
Dry Dock (Alpena)
Greka’s (Rogers City)
…and whatever place you choose in Sturgeon Bay at lay-up when the townie’s are out looking for a quick fling!
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from my world
Lyndia’s in Chriqui Grande
The Apache in Baytown TX
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Yeah, but guys, the FRONT passenger seat in the Stella Maris van. I mean, there’s glory for you.
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Blue nose in '81 on USNS Wyman. Crossed the Atlantic from the Med to Norfolk also in '81 on USNS Rigel. Shellback in the Indian Ocean in '85 on USNS Wilkes. Panama Canal on USNS Truckee in '92. Sewage Canal on USNS John Lenthall in '91. Good Hope East to West in 2003 with a great overnight stopover in Cape Town. I have since done all of them except Good Hope more than once. A great career coming to a close in another 19 months.
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Then of course you have “The Floating Bar” near NigerDock in Lagos (just a quick okada ride from the gate), and the bush bar in Onne. We were told in no uncertain terms that the bush bar was off limits, but that didn’t stop many folks.
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I think there is a Texas Bar in just about every port in the oil path, and maybe the vast majority of ports worldwide 
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