When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
Somewhere on the run back to Homer and Kachemack Bay from the Prince William Sound fishing grounds, I had an epiphany. I was going to find a nice safe sit-on-your-but job.
The US Navy is a fine organization, but driving a ship from one end of the Pacific to another involves endless hours of standing watch. Steer west compass heading 240 to Hawai'i for a week. Steer 260 to the Philippines for two weeks. If you're "lucky", the hours of watching the empty ocean may get interrupted by sailing right through the middle a big North Pacific storm, because somebody forgot to check the barometer, which had fallen almost to dead bottom, and weather satellites hadn't been invented, yet.
The Navy did provide planned excitement on occasion, though. For example, there was the morning we mined Haiphong Harbor. I will never forget Captain "Mad Dog" Walter Deal almost hopping up and down with glee as his ship attacked the Haiphong anti-aircraft batteries, taunting the North Vietnamese gunners who where shooting back at us: "You guys couldn't hit the broad side of a barn!" I was excited, too, but way less optimistic about our prospects.
A 20-year-old working as a deckhand on an Alaska fishing boat could make more money in a good year than anyplace else except Wall Street. It had its down sides, though. You're never bored, but no one could guarantee you'd always survive getting whipped across the deck the next time you grabbed a line you forgot to secure. Where would you spend all that money you were making and with who. You put into port for a weekend and the only people anywhere in sight were other fishermen (emphasis men). Is folamh fuar e teach gan bean.
The ride back to Homer made up my mind. I had the night watch, driving the boat alone while everyone else slept. Only the boat we were travelling with had radar, so I was just supposed to follow her stern light in the darkness. Every so often I'd lose track of the light. Which scared the crap out of me, because if we got lost in the dark out there transiting the sound we were really screwed. Please God, don't let me drive into a rock. Thank you God, there's the light again! I felt so good when the sun came up that I let the rest of the crew sleep and kept on driving for hours more.
My turn to sleep got rudely interrupted. Why the F... are you bothering me! I let you guys sleep. Go away! Calhoun wants you up on deck right now. F... off! Get up! So up I go and confront our fearless leader. What the F..., Calhoun! I let you guys sleep! Mac, didn't you feel us rolling around. NO, it's nice and warm down below. Mac, we nearly rolled over. I don't want you trapped below if we sink.
Yup, a nice sit-on-your-butt job's the life for me.
