So there I was a mid level tech on my second sea command which happened to be one of the US Navy's smaller fighting ships. We had just received our blue nose which is an experience for the most junior enlisted member and most junior officer on board. Those two guys might have been suffering from hypothermia when they came back in their skivvies after throwing the bucket of blue paint in front of the bow of the ship. It was frakking cold out there! Needless to say they were splatted with blue paint also. Back to the story...
As we came back south of the Arctic Circle there was a hurricane and the captain volunteered to attempt to take us through the eye. It got pretty rough and it was hard to sleep. The sonar dome was right in front of our berthing area and when we were going up the wave it made funny noises and engine and props doing a chuga chuga. However when we crested the wave and started down you could hear the props spin freely as they left the water for a moment then we would surge ahead towards the trough between the waves. At which time the sonar dome would make a noise like someone with their mouth open, cheeks loose, head shaking back a forth, while making a monotone tone. Very disturbing! I had to hold on to my towel rack so I wouldn't go flying out of my rack while attempting to sleep. Fortunately I had had the foresight to choose a top rack and if you've ever been around a lot of sea sick people you'd understand why.
Not much work was getting done during the day because we were all strapped to stanchions and the like in the shop. I was checking the supply logs while sitting on the floor and watching guys turn green. Strangely I was enjoying the experience so long as no one threw up in front of me. Which is why our chief who we had nick-named D-Day, if you knew his last name you'd understand, volunteered me for the job he had. I was to go up to the bridge and check out the radar repeater. For those of you that don't know what a radar repeater is it's the scope that displays radar contacts like other ships, planes, land, and the like.
Well I said roger that and was off walking on the deck and walls as the ship rolled. Going up the ladder wells was tough when the ship went up but I literally flew up them if I waited for the ship to go down underneath me. Which is how I arrived on the bridge. I went over to the ailing radar repeater and was checking it out when suddenly the ship rolled again. As I felt my feet start going out from underneath me I looked up and saw a heavy line above my head. I grabbed it for dear life!!! I found out later that line goes all the way across the bridge just for the that purpose. As my feet left the deck I looked down to see the far side of the bridges bulkheads and even worse a open hatch to the bridge wing directly below. There was a lot of icy cold blue water down there in between my feet.
When the ship leveled out and my feet hit the deck I was outa' there. I got back to the shop in no time and informed chief D-Day there was no frakking way I was looking at that repeater while we were bouncing around like we were. The chief called the bridge and politely informed the captain that we could not perform any troubleshooting due to it being to unsafe for his technicians but we would be more than willing if he'd please take us to calmer waters.
That water was awfully blue!
*****CHUCKLE*****
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