skimmer114/124
Lantern Swinger
Left in '76, some memories still stick. No wars just the mundane,
Stern lookout 2 am, totally clear sky millions of stars pitch black sea and the wake climbing up level with the toe rail then vanishing into the distance, nothing else anywhere, fcuk we are all truly irrelevant.
Different night, different ocean (Indian) Sleeping on the fo'c'sle with head under the guard rail watching the phosphoresce in the bow wave.
Taking a taxi into the jungle outside Singapore after offer of really good movies! Ended up God knows where in a bamboo hut watching 18++. There were insurgents who could have topped the lot of us and no one would have had a clue.
Lying nearly prone against the port side of the bridge looking up past the oow clinging to the binnacle on to the signalman suspended from the guard rail inside the starboard door and simultaneously listening to everything go to ratshit down the cabin flat access, wondering how much further before the forward mounting sheer bolts give up and how long it would take to release the handwheel nuts on the 'quick release' forward window.
On a banyan, barbeque and booze, in the Virgin Isles taking turns to blatt the Gemini up and down the beach, someone calls 'Shark' about 10 of us pile in (we are all p....ed) and find the shark in the shallows placing the boat right beside it. Killick stoker grabs a paddle and stabs down into oggin crying 'have at you you 'ba....d. Immediate thought-'we are in a fcucking rubber boat' followed by can i swim quicker than every other b'sterd?
Why was it always cold and raining leaving Portland ?
Stern lookout 2 am, totally clear sky millions of stars pitch black sea and the wake climbing up level with the toe rail then vanishing into the distance, nothing else anywhere, fcuk we are all truly irrelevant.
Different night, different ocean (Indian) Sleeping on the fo'c'sle with head under the guard rail watching the phosphoresce in the bow wave.
Taking a taxi into the jungle outside Singapore after offer of really good movies! Ended up God knows where in a bamboo hut watching 18++. There were insurgents who could have topped the lot of us and no one would have had a clue.
Lying nearly prone against the port side of the bridge looking up past the oow clinging to the binnacle on to the signalman suspended from the guard rail inside the starboard door and simultaneously listening to everything go to ratshit down the cabin flat access, wondering how much further before the forward mounting sheer bolts give up and how long it would take to release the handwheel nuts on the 'quick release' forward window.
On a banyan, barbeque and booze, in the Virgin Isles taking turns to blatt the Gemini up and down the beach, someone calls 'Shark' about 10 of us pile in (we are all p....ed) and find the shark in the shallows placing the boat right beside it. Killick stoker grabs a paddle and stabs down into oggin crying 'have at you you 'ba....d. Immediate thought-'we are in a fcucking rubber boat' followed by can i swim quicker than every other b'sterd?
Why was it always cold and raining leaving Portland ?