Twelve days after Graduation, I made the excellent move of marrying my love, my sweetheart, Brenda. I was scheduled to go to a ship and wanted to spend a bit of time before "shipping out", so I volunteered to teach sailing that summer at the Academy. It was great. I captained a 44-foot Luder's Yawl, and sailed around the Chesapeake Bay.
But, all good things must come to an end, and so in Sept, 1972, our ship departed from Charleston Naval Base, bound for Commander MidEast Forces, Bahrain, Bahrain. We made a trip down by Puerto Rico, then down to Recife, BZ, where we fueled up for the long Atlantic crossing to Angola. From Angola we rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and refueled again in Mozambique. Around the southern tip of Africa, we encountered the roughest seas I have ever seen anywhere, and yes I have thrown-up in every ocean of the world, except the Arctic.
We stopped for a port call (prolonged time in port) in Mombasa, Kenya, where we made a little safari into Tsavo Park. from there we went to what was then called, The French Territory of the Afars and Isass, now called Djibouti. From there it was the Seychelles Islands, then Ethiopia, in what is now Eritrea. from there we went to the Maldive Islands where we had a beach party for the ships crew on a very hot, beautiful beach, with NOTHING to drink but beer. Naturally, there was some misbehavior, that got some sailors in trouble- illustrating the poor leadership of not taking care of our troops.
From the Maldives we went into the Persian Gulf... and we will pick up there next blog.
But, all good things must come to an end, and so in Sept, 1972, our ship departed from Charleston Naval Base, bound for Commander MidEast Forces, Bahrain, Bahrain. We made a trip down by Puerto Rico, then down to Recife, BZ, where we fueled up for the long Atlantic crossing to Angola. From Angola we rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and refueled again in Mozambique. Around the southern tip of Africa, we encountered the roughest seas I have ever seen anywhere, and yes I have thrown-up in every ocean of the world, except the Arctic.
We stopped for a port call (prolonged time in port) in Mombasa, Kenya, where we made a little safari into Tsavo Park. from there we went to what was then called, The French Territory of the Afars and Isass, now called Djibouti. From there it was the Seychelles Islands, then Ethiopia, in what is now Eritrea. from there we went to the Maldive Islands where we had a beach party for the ships crew on a very hot, beautiful beach, with NOTHING to drink but beer. Naturally, there was some misbehavior, that got some sailors in trouble- illustrating the poor leadership of not taking care of our troops.
From the Maldives we went into the Persian Gulf... and we will pick up there next blog.
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