Aboard Ship for the first time

From Morehead City, NC to the Rock of Gibraltar is about 4000 miles. We were about 11-12days reaching the Rock. In the mean time life on the ship is constant cleaning, rifles and equipment.  Daily lessons of cultures and ports of the Med. What not to do in port to insult the locals, etc.

(The rock is British, 30,000 people live on less than 3 sq miles.  John & Yoko were married here) 

It was an education to me, to say the least. Learning shipboard life was an adventure. There was still guard duty.  I had never thought of it, but we had a lot of money aboard the ship. At that time the military paid in cash, so we were carrying enough money to pay everyone for 6 weeks.

(Same ocean, different ship, many years later on my 2nd or 3rd crossing.)

One of our guard posts was with the safes. They took no chances, the hatch was locked on the outside and I locked it on the inside. Just like your security on the internet, we required passwords, to open for the Officer of the day or the relief. The funny thing about the ‘Hold’ the safes were in, there were two jeeps. so you could sit in a jeep, doze or write letters. That was very unusual guard duty.

I loved the weather decks at night and  learned the thrill of seeing another ship’s lights miles away as we passed in the night. It is a strange feeling of camaraderie (or fellowship)and you have no idea if it is a cargo or passenger ship. It didn’t happen every night, but when it did it caused a smile.

I don’t know if I am different or not, but when I saw those ships I would always wonder where is She headed. Who is aboard? Why are they going?  Shucks I do that when I am near an airport and see the planes in the sky, heck, I do that on the road.  I am just curious.

Oh man, the water was beautiful and the more I commented I finally said that to someone who was an ‘Old Salt’ (who had sailed a lot), “You ain’t seen nothing yet, there is nothing in the world as pretty as the water in the Mediterranean.”  So I was anxious to pass the Rock of Gibraltar. 

What a beautiful sight seeing the big rock of Gibraltar the first sign of land in two weeks. Oh yes, the water in the Med is VERY beautiful.

We who had never seen a foreign port were thrilled to be thinking of hitting our first foreign port.  We were scheduled to pull into Toronto, Italy and  pick up supplies, Fresh Fruit and Veggies. We never picked up milk or eggs, those were all powered and not so pretty good. I learned to put a lot of ketchup on the powdered eggs and they were okay. LOL

Nite Shipslog

PS:

The only disappointment from the beautiful water in the med was the ports, the water in the ports was filled with trash and flotsam. I hope they have cleaned up the waters there, it was filthy & stunk.

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I know the bottom one is a Fiat, 1957.

Mostly Italian cars with one French.