Posted on 09/07/2010 6:26:47 PM PDT by OldDeckHand
My grandfather was on the Cabot during Typhoon Cobra. He had some great stories.
Some 40-years later, I loaded my own family aboard the Lincoln in when Subic Bay was evacuated because of the looming Volcano. They were partially clipped by a typhoon on the way out, and in those very same waters. But, it was NOTHING like Cobra - just a bad squall, really.
I used to live in Subic Bay...:)
Did you have to evacuate because of Pinatubo? That must have been damned scary.
Yes. They completely evacuated Clark, and evacuated all non-essentials from Subic. The first day it erupted it wasn't any big deal. Just a huge cloud. Then about 16 hours later, the big eruption happened at a time when a typhoon was coincidentally striking the islands. What a mess. At high noon, the sun was completely obscured as to create a darkness that only happens during a new moon - if the new moon also extinguished the stars too. That, coupled with the 100mph winds, the falling ash (which is really more like beach sand) and the earthquakes, made for a memorable 12 hours.
If you were familiar with Subic and Cubi, the O-Club at Subic was completely destroyed. Many of the buildings at the Marine Base - forget it's name - were destroyed except for the Quonset huts, which were unscathed. And, the O-Club at Cubi, with 60 years worth of memorabilia - all those model ships and planes - were destroyed because the roofs collapsed under the weight of the ash and water. The funny part - actually there was nothing funny about it, many Filipinos lost their lives - was that they Philippine government was negotiating with the US on extending the lease of Clark. They were playing hardball. After Clark was destroyed - and it was destroyed - the US said, "No thanks, you keep it". It was sad, considering the history of those two bases.
I cruised the inside passage to Alaska twice for that very reason. Never outside of seeing land....the thought of any other cruise makes me ill....not a good swimmer...
I cruised the inside passage to Alaska twice for that very reason. Never outside of seeing land....the thought of any other cruise makes me ill....not a good swimmer...
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I can swim, but not in those conditions. I used to sail a lot, but after being in a storm I realized how much I love staying on terra firma (or however you spell it)i.e., ground!
It is amazing how not secured everything is on that ship. It’s as if the crew and captain have never been to sea before.
When I was 7 I rode with my parents on a converted-to-civilian-use wartime army transport across the Atlantic. I remember rocking and rolling like that but nothing moved. Everything was secured- bolted to the deck, tied down.
I rode a an old Mobile fishing schooner on, I think, the last sailing trip on the Gulf of Mexico in 1963, through those seas. It jumped up and down pretty bad and those of us who had to be on deck stayed tied to cleats and masts and stuff. The safety rails were no good because the wood they were fastened to was soft.
The inside passage gave me a false sense of security...:O)
I would much rather have been on something the size of that cruise ship.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Gear drift.
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