Life at sea is fantastic. It really is. Jollyjacktar is absolutely right – Mother Nature is at her best at sea. I have seen the sun set (and not set) and the moon rise in 4 hemispheres. The aurora borealis and the Southern Cross. I’ve seen the sea go from flat calm to a wicked and terrifying storm in no time. Life at sea, from a mariner’s point of view, is sometimes a truly
Awesome experience. And I don’t consider myself a mariner.
Mind-numbing? Yeah..it can be, from time to time, when nothing is happening. Sometimes your mission is to simply…patrol. If everything is quiet on patrol, whatever type it may be, then things are going well. When things go well, everybody is happy. Sometimes things go well for days and weeks at a time. And you are stuck on a floating pop can that’s anywhere from 55 to 172 metres long with a whole bunch of your closest friends. That can be tough, especially for people who have trouble in small spaces. But when things go south, they do so quickly and without warning. It could be 0300 and you go from sound asleep to fully alert on your way to your Action Station or Rescue Station or a variety of other stations in the ship, depending on what has just happened. Maybe you are going to board another ship, or the engine just blew up or the helicopter just crashed. Who knows. My civilian friends can’t even wrap their brains around some of the truly crazy experiences you can have at sea. They work 9-5 in an office (says the guy who currently works 9-5 in an office
) Really – there is no life like it. I happen to love it.
Everyone tries to make day to day life as interesting as possible. There is a lot to be done – from training to operations; from the mundane to the unique. From cleaning the ship to fuelling at sea to giving a lecture to firing the guns to rescuing somebody – all before the sun sets. Seriously, every day
can be different from the one before, but it takes effort. Having a solid Ship’s Company is really key. A great mix of committed, energetic and involved people can make any deployment tolerable. Except for the weather. Yeah, a bad storm can wreck your day, regardless how large of a ship you are on. You deal with it. You think about what it must have been like for sailors before enclosed bridges and watertight seals. You
have to deal with it – if you are too far out at sea to anchor and ride it out, or too slow to outrun the weather, what are you going to do?
Leaving home and loved ones is always hard. That’s not unique to the Navy – we all do that. But like Ex-Dragoon said, knowing that you are going out to do some good in the world, no matter how small – that matters. My most memorable moments in my life have been at sea. I have rescued people from the sea – holy crap! Can you imagine what that’s like? I couldn’t until I did it. The first time, it happened to have been one of my previous instructors - a superior officer and mentor - after a bad, 18 hour storm – their boat was wrecked, their mast and communications shot – quite an emotional event for everyone. Will never forget that or the people I was with. Since then, 7 more people. Each time was important – to those people, certainly. That’s just my experience. Others on this board have contributed to the greater good in far more significant ways.
Port visits could be a thread all its own. I remember most of mine. Some are too long, some too short. For the most part, it is like the old saying goes – “see the world”. I saw a good chunk of it before by the time I was 20. Depends on where you stop and what you are doing. Maybe you have a curfew in that port, so yes, you “live” on the ship. Perhaps it is a short port visit, on the way out for a deployment, so maybe you work while the ship is in port. Maybe it is a more friendly port and you are there for rest and relaxation. Then yes, you get to see the world from a “tourist” point of view. We do our jobs at sea, so, generally speaking, you get
some time to “see the world”.
Well, you asked and I answered. That’s a snippet of one guy’s take on life at sea. Life in the
Navy is a whole lot more broad. Again, others here with a whole lot more experience than I have.
My question to you is: why the Navy in particular? I only ask because life in all three elements is vastly different, each with its own lifestyles, challenges and rewards. If there is something specific about the Navy that appeals to you, it will help others on this board structure their advice.
Cheers,
MARS
