Thanks for your comments, Ramius. It is true, "you have to have been there" to really understand.
I spent a year on Swift Boats, (12-months, not 4) and on our first solo patrol after taining we ran hard aground on an uncharted sand bar. I was a seaman at the time, but to make matters worse, we had to be pulled off by an 85-foot Coast Guard vessel...boy were we red-faced! but happy to see those guys. There was minor damage to one screw and shaft.
The whole crew had to go to Saigon for an inquiry that resembled the Cain Mutiny trial; you would have thought
we ran a carrier aground. Our boat commander, a Ltjg was not promoted in the year we were in Nam...The Navy takes groundings very seriously.
QM was a great rating...next week I am bareboat chartering a 36-foot twin-diesel boat in the San Juan Islands and am having a ball going over charts and pre-plotting courses and anchorages. It will just be captain Cuttnhorse and Admiral wifey on board.
Regards
Hah! Outstanding... I'm instantly jealous. You'll have a wonderful time, which perhaps you know if you've done it before. I practically grew up doing the San Juans in summers on the family boat. I bareboated a sailboat up there some years later too. I'm itching to go back. Hoping to have a new boat for such purpose before too long.
Have a great trip! :-)