Poco Loco wrote:
On Fri, 13 Jan 2017 16:45:59 -0600, Califbill wrote:

Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 1/13/2017 1:54 PM, Califbill wrote:
Poco Loco wrote:
On Thu, 12 Jan 2017 21:30:37 -0600, Califbill wrote:

Poco Loco wrote:
On Thu, 12 Jan 2017 16:24:47 -0500 (EST), justan wrote:

Poco Loco Wrote in message:
On Thu, 12 Jan 2017 15:17:12 -0500 (EST), justan wrote:

Poco Loco Wrote in message:
The Bluegrass Cruise aboard the Royal Carribean ship 'Brilliance of
the Seas' was a super
experience. The bands were great and the food was almost as good as
on Disney cruises. Most
everything else was superfluous.

Weather got rough on the way back from Cozumel. Ship travelling about
20 knots almost directly into
30-40mph winds made for a rolling, bumpy ride. They closed the
'walking deck' for the entire trip
back, so there was no way to walk off the blubber that got added
from the fine dining.

Altogether, I'd do it again, and may do so next year - but on the Bahama's run.


Glad you had a good time. RC is a nice cruise line. We did a Greek
islands tour on Splendor Of The Seas several years ago. Nice
older ship. Nice, younger, pursors and hospitality crew.
:-)

I was impressed. I thought nothing could compare to the Disney cruises.
RC compares very favorably
and is much less expensive. Of course, RC doesn't have Castaway Cay!


A Disney cruise would be too rich for my blood. I can barely
afford Ft. Wilderness.

They ain't cheap!


Too many people too many kids. I am tired after 4 days with the grandkids.

Luckily, there are many places which are 'adults only' including swimming
pools, coffee shops, etc.
During the day most of the kids are participating in kids' activities and
aren't seen. If they are
out then they're probably in the big swimming pool. That's the place to avoid.


We have been on a couple cruises. Just not our thing. We can go to Europe
or the South Pacific for a month plus and are happy.



I've been on enough cruises to last me, courtesy of Uncle Sam.


I like boats and water. But spending lots of time at sea never appealed to
me. Could have gone to the California Maritime Academy, but did not want
to spend a life at sea. Found out later was not necessary.

With the reserve unit, we would have been at sea no more than two weeks.
I could handle that I
think.


I enjoy 7-8 day long range tuna trips out of San Diego. Boat I like is
Www.independencesportfishing.com

On Fri, 13 Jan 2017 14:01:54 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

I've been on enough cruises to last me, courtesy of Uncle Sam.

It is not quite the same but I understand the sentiment. When Judy was
in the AC biz, cruises seemed to be the sales prize of choice and she
won a bunch of them.

On Fri, 13 Jan 2017 16:12:58 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

Oh, it's lots of fun. I remember my first "underway". It was in the
North Atlantic in January. In those days tradition called for a little
"initiation" for all newbies and I was called up to the bridge for
something having to do with it. I stood horrified as I looked out the
bridge windows at the mountainous waves we were plowing through. They
caused the ship to feel as if it was going near vertical, then the bow
came down ... and down ... and down ... until it was completely
underwater. The whole ship shuddered as the bow slowly rose again out
of the water, shaking all the water off. Oh yes, great fun.

When the galley opened for chow time, the crew lined up along the side
of the ship (outside) waiting to go through the chow line. In rough
seas it was almost like watching the spectator "wave" at football or
baseball games. Everyone in line held onto an overhead rail and pulled
themselves up off the deck when the "greenies" broke over the sides and
flooded where we stood. I think the scariest experience was taking a 56
degree roll. Even the old timer Chiefs paid attention.

The Russians used to stalk us, taking pictures of the special gear we
had and occasionally pulled right up alongside trying to disrupt what we
were doing. In the time honored spirit of American Navy diplomacy, we'd
all man the rail and give them a one fingered salute.

We used to shadow the old russian diesel boats but they wouldn't let
us shoot at them. ;-)
My favorite spot was up in the 5" mount. If the blue water wasn't
breaking over that high, running the mount captain chair all the way
up and riding with your head and shoulders out of the hatch was really
cool. It was also a great place to find a quiet to read or do
correspondence courses. That was one reason I did so many. In addition
to FT I also did GM 3&2 and AO 3&2 was most of the way through DC 3 by
the time we got back to Norfolk on the Bravo patrol.

On Fri, 13 Jan 2017 17:59:50 -0600, Califbill
wrote:


I enjoy 7-8 day long range tuna trips out of San Diego. Boat I like is
Www.independencesportfishing.com

When we had the flower store I had a chance to go out on a shrimp boat
but I couldn't get the time off work (IBM) it was the best part of a
month tho.

wrote:
On Fri, 13 Jan 2017 17:59:50 -0600, Califbill
wrote:


I enjoy 7-8 day long range tuna trips out of San Diego. Boat I like is
Www.independencesportfishing.com

When we had the flower store I had a chance to go out on a shrimp boat
but I couldn't get the time off work (IBM) it was the best part of a
month tho.


Only real regret in life was when I was 17 had a chance to go on a tuna
boat for the summer. Fishing from the racks. Would have missed the first
2 weeks of my senior year, so did not go. Later a teacher whose daughter I
dated told me fool, we do not do anything the first 2 weeks anyway.

On 1/14/2017 12:27 PM, wrote:
On Fri, 13 Jan 2017 14:01:54 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

I've been on enough cruises to last me, courtesy of Uncle Sam.

It is not quite the same but I understand the sentiment. When Judy was
in the AC biz, cruises seemed to be the sales prize of choice and she
won a bunch of them.



True. The only time I had an authorized drink aboard ship was when the
Captain ordered "Splice the mainbrace" following an arduous underway
replenishment and refueling in the middle of the winter.

On Sat, 14 Jan 2017 13:34:48 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 1/14/2017 12:27 PM, wrote:
On Fri, 13 Jan 2017 14:01:54 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

I've been on enough cruises to last me, courtesy of Uncle Sam.

It is not quite the same but I understand the sentiment. When Judy was
in the AC biz, cruises seemed to be the sales prize of choice and she
won a bunch of them.



True. The only time I had an authorized drink aboard ship was when the
Captain ordered "Splice the mainbrace" following an arduous underway
replenishment and refueling in the middle of the winter.

On the CG ocean stations they roll out a keg of beer on "hump day" the
middle of a 4 week patrol. It ends up being just about enough for
everyone to get one of those big navy coffee mugs full.

On 1/14/2017 7:54 PM, wrote:
On Sat, 14 Jan 2017 13:34:48 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 1/14/2017 12:27 PM, wrote:
On Fri, 13 Jan 2017 14:01:54 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

I've been on enough cruises to last me, courtesy of Uncle Sam.

It is not quite the same but I understand the sentiment. When Judy was
in the AC biz, cruises seemed to be the sales prize of choice and she
won a bunch of them.



True. The only time I had an authorized drink aboard ship was when the
Captain ordered "Splice the mainbrace" following an arduous underway
replenishment and refueling in the middle of the winter.

On the CG ocean stations they roll out a keg of beer on "hump day" the
middle of a 4 week patrol. It ends up being just about enough for
everyone to get one of those big navy coffee mugs full.



The cutter my grandson is assigned to just returned from a drug
interdiction patrol during which they seized 90 million dollars worth of
cocaine. The drugs were confiscated from four, high speed outboard
powered boats. They launch a helicopter from the flight deck that goes
out and fires on the outboard engines, disabling them and then an armed
boarding team takes over.

On Sat, 14 Jan 2017 21:33:31 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 1/14/2017 7:54 PM, wrote:
On Sat, 14 Jan 2017 13:34:48 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 1/14/2017 12:27 PM, wrote:
On Fri, 13 Jan 2017 14:01:54 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

I've been on enough cruises to last me, courtesy of Uncle Sam.

It is not quite the same but I understand the sentiment. When Judy was
in the AC biz, cruises seemed to be the sales prize of choice and she
won a bunch of them.



True. The only time I had an authorized drink aboard ship was when the
Captain ordered "Splice the mainbrace" following an arduous underway
replenishment and refueling in the middle of the winter.

On the CG ocean stations they roll out a keg of beer on "hump day" the
middle of a 4 week patrol. It ends up being just about enough for
everyone to get one of those big navy coffee mugs full.



The cutter my grandson is assigned to just returned from a drug
interdiction patrol during which they seized 90 million dollars worth of
cocaine. The drugs were confiscated from four, high speed outboard
powered boats. They launch a helicopter from the flight deck that goes
out and fires on the outboard engines, disabling them and then an armed
boarding team takes over.


Yup the CG is back to being policemen now. That was not in our scope
of work when I was there.
They were originally the revenue cutter service, catching smugglers
(circa 1790) and that continued up until the end of prohibition. At
the end of WWII they were back to lifesaving and a small contingent of
"weather cutters" that also doubled as sub hunters once the Soviets
started getting frisky in the North Atlantic. By the mid 60s we had
"weather men" who never seemed to look at the weather much and they
lived and worked with the Sonar Men in separate quarters. They were
certainly not part of the ordinance department or the RM/ET gang.
Guys on the "white ones" were basically in the navy.
I got back to the small boats in the DC reserve unit. We had a 40
footer that we rode around but politics kept us from actually
"patrolling".
The CG regulars were afraid if we started doing their job the might
end up in SE Asia and the DC cops didn't want anyone but them north of
the Wilson Bridge. There are lots of turf wars in DC. If the chiefs
had not negotiated the boats themselves we would have never got them.
We were still working on a virtual zero budget but 2 of the guys
worked at International Harvester, fixing the same 6-71s the 40 footer
had. They managed to come up with all the parts we needed and get the
engines going. There were several handy guys around to fix the rest of
the broken stuff. I got my "ride" by rewiring the boat.

On Sat, 14 Jan 2017 21:33:31 -0500, "Mr. Luddite" wrote:

On 1/14/2017 7:54 PM, wrote:
On Sat, 14 Jan 2017 13:34:48 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 1/14/2017 12:27 PM, wrote:
On Fri, 13 Jan 2017 14:01:54 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

I've been on enough cruises to last me, courtesy of Uncle Sam.

It is not quite the same but I understand the sentiment. When Judy was
in the AC biz, cruises seemed to be the sales prize of choice and she
won a bunch of them.



True. The only time I had an authorized drink aboard ship was when the
Captain ordered "Splice the mainbrace" following an arduous underway
replenishment and refueling in the middle of the winter.

On the CG ocean stations they roll out a keg of beer on "hump day" the
middle of a 4 week patrol. It ends up being just about enough for
everyone to get one of those big navy coffee mugs full.



The cutter my grandson is assigned to just returned from a drug
interdiction patrol during which they seized 90 million dollars worth of
cocaine. The drugs were confiscated from four, high speed outboard
powered boats. They launch a helicopter from the flight deck that goes
out and fires on the outboard engines, disabling them and then an armed
boarding team takes over.


Isn't disabling engines considered police brutality yet? Just wait 'til the liberals find out what's
going on.