What did you do on leave?

Summer 1983
So there we were on the USS Simon Bolivar (SSBN641) at the end of maneuvering watch heading out on patrol from Kings Bay, GA and the Quartermaster turns to me and says "Petty Officer NAVET what did you do while on leave this past off-crew?".

My response was, in a matter of fact voice, "I went sailing in Newport." The Navigator thought it was the funniest thing and laughed out loud, having just heard what a great leave the QM had. Guess he thought I was making fun of my paper and parallels counterpart's story, with a one up story of my own.

Sailors do love to spin stories, sea stories at home and stories of home while at sea, with a goal of one upping someone elses story.

I was serious about the sailing having spent a week crisscrossing Narragansett Bay on my neighbor's 35' sloop. If you're like me and had grown up in Rhode Island half way between Newport, RI and Groton CT. you're bound to have done three things; seen a submarine, gone stripier fishing and been sailing in Newport.

Summer sailing is usually a bit tamer than this, but the video brings back the urge to be "underway under wind power".




That love of wind speed had me windsurfing the 4' to 6' swells off one of my favorate spots, The University Of Rhode Island Bay Campus where the Oceanographic research ship RV Endeavor tires up. I do love it here in the Ocean State....