Good story, Steve. Now that my ship has been decommissioned and turned into
razor blades I can tell the dark stories of having fun under an XO who made
Bligh look like Alice in Wonderland. Meanwhile, as the owner of a sailboat I
never thought I would buy an autosteer device. Then someone gave me one in
exchange for a bill. Was it wonderful. It had two modes: heading and
relative to the wind.

Tom

"Steve" wrote in message
...
Sea Story:

In another life, as a crazy young enlisted sailor onboard the USS Sperry,
I
was assigned to work in an office that ran a'thwart ship for a distance of
about 40ft. The deck has some crown and while inport (most of the time) it
was always a problem to stay at a desk with chairs on wheels..

However it was an "amusement park" when under way.. Clear the deck and we
would have races across that 40ft as the ship would roll..

The port side of the office was an outboard bulkhead that had a WT door to
the weather deck. When we would reach that side of the office, we would
stick out our feet to kick off again against the close WT Door.

Some of you may have guessed it. And I'll tell you anyway. Our boss, the
Repair Officer, Commander Whonose, open the door just as my office mate
had
his feet and legs up to kick against the door. He landed straddle the
Commander and they both went across the weather deck and into the rail. We
both were properly reprimanded and assigned some extra duties. One of
which
was to rearrange the office desks to block the race track.

It's a wonder I lasted 23 years.

Steve
s/v Good Intentions