Day 6 of #nanowrimo Goal is 10002 words, I have 5924. 4078 words behind.
Churbuck is different. He’s has a rebel attitude, he reads books. You hold his choice to join Regular Navy and serve four years active duty against him. He could’ve done like you and sign up as Navy Reserve and only serve two years active. He says he didn’t want to cheat himself of experiences and when he does something he does it all the way. He’s good natured about it, but thinks you are a pussy for only going half way into the Navy. You both have six year enlistments counting the two years Reserve time he’ll do after Active. You did your first year of Reserve time while you were in High School, now when you finish the two year active, you’ll have three more years to be in Reserves. You think it’s a better deal, one weekend a month or one night a week is better than fulltime all the time. You joined up because you didn’t want to wait to be drafted, you wanted a choice of when you go in. You look forward to having the complete military obligation over and be able to get on your life with no more bullshit required of you. Churbuck says he joined up for the experience and feels good about his choice, he has about eighteen months left.You both get copies of “Tropic of Cancer” because protests against it being banned in libraries are in the news and you decide to it would be good for you to know what the fuss is about. You both assume the book banners are prudes and the book is a masterpiece. Henry Miller’s extravagant writing is more philosophical than you expect, less pornographic than Churbuck had hoped. You talk about it and the conversations go on changing situations, continuing through the daily work, you sit together at mess, you go out in town together. You’re not legal to drink, Churbuck leaves you at a restaurant and goes to a bar. You head back to the ship, the next day, he tells you he spent the night with a girl. On a weekend pass, you take the train up to Fullerton, hitch hike to Downey, meet up with Bob instead of your family. He has had his own house since the middle of Senior year. His parents are a lot more accommodating than yours. He makes tea, talking about how English he feels now, also about how college life is good. He joined a fraternity, he doesn’t live in the frat house, but he goes to parties there. They invite girls from a nearby nursing school.“They jump on healthy bodies.” He explains, sounding more more like a typical jock, frat boy than you’ve ever heard him. Bob is smart, smaller than you, more hairy, not attractive to you, but you like the feeling that he likes you and he’s fun to talk to, you’ve been pals for a couple of years.“Can we do something with Carol and Cher? Are they still around?” you ask.You had a girlfriend, Carol, since ninth grade. She went to a different school. When you started liking her friend, Cher, more than her, she didn’t stop seeing you, see took up with Bob. The four of you went places together, movies, dances, beach parties. Cher had a pool. Her parents are not home, you swim naked. Carol got naked, but Cher, who is embarrassed of her thick thighs and big breasts, stayed dressed until Carol pulled clothes off her.
“Don’t look at me!” Cher screams, “look at Carol!” Carol was thin, long bony legs, a big bush and boy breasts. Cher’s breasts were full and big nippled. Carol poked them, Cher jumps with embarrassment and tries to cover up. Bob kept on his shorts.All of you laid poolside, you naked on your back in full sun. Cher worrying that her parents would come home or that neighbor boys were peaking through the fence laid beside you. From the other side, a fully naked Carol leaned over brushing your thighs with her long pony tail hair saying, “don’t move, I’m not going to touch you”.You respond to the whisper touch, getting hard, she pokes Cher, “Look what’s happening to your boyfriend! What are you going to do about it, girl?”“Carol, leave him alone!”“You going to suck it?” Carol was being mean.“No! You know I don’t do that. Stop being weird.” Cher hovers over my face, kissing you on the mouth, her breasts touching your chest. You roll to your side next to her, stick your dick between her thighs, against her panties.Carol slaps your butt and says in her mean-girl voice, “You going to fuck?”“No!” Cher shrieks. To you, she says, “Be nice.”“Come on Bobby” Carol says. Let’s show them how it’s done!”“Carol, no!” Cher pleads as Carol has her hands in Bob’s shorts, pulling out his crooked dick, briefly putting her mouth near it, then laying back, legs spread, “Come on, Bobby, stick it to me!”“Carol, no!” Cher’s adamant. “Don’t do that here!” “Go away, if you’re going to do that!”“So you can be alone to fuck your boyfriend?” Carol taunts her, as Bob comes down on her, Carol wiggles away and stands up, pulling Bob back up, his shorts around his ankles. “Come on, lover. Let’s leave them alone, let’s fuck in her bed.” Carol pulls Bob towards the house, Bob’s got a boner and he’s pulling up his shorts with his one free hand.“Don’t you funking dare, you cunt!” Cher gets up, holding her bra to her breasts.“Seriously.” Bob is reasonable. “We are NOT going to do that. Carol, stop teasing.” They’ve stopped at the patio. “Let’s go somewhere. Seal Beach? McDonald’s?”You slip in the pool, swim underwater for a length, swim the crawl back on the surface, lift yourself out the water and dry off with facing Carol and Bob who are already half-dressed.At sea, your normal job while on watch is on the writing in the log. You're in the pilot house with three guys from the deck crew, two Seamen to alternate on the wheel and a Boatswain's Mate Third Class to be in charge. You sit on a high stool at a chart desk in the pilot house, by the open hatch to the Bridge. When the Officer On Deck leans and shouts orders, you write it in pencil in a notebook marking the time. The record your keeping is the first draft of the Ship's Log that the Executive Officer maintains each day.Four hours on watch, eight hours off. There's meals and sleeping, but also other work, cleaning mostly, some chart correcting if the seas aren't tossing the ship too much.The ship is in General Quarters, when going in and out of harbors, refueling at sea, any maneuvers with other ships or engagement with real or imagined enemies. You stay on duty as long as GQ lasts. Your GQ job is the same, taking notes.The boss of Operations, the First Class Signalman, Murphy, takes the helm for GQ. He's taking rudder and compass orders from a harbor pilot who got onboard before the ship shoved off for your six month Western Pacific Cruise. Murphy grunts and wheezes as he whirls the wheel around back and forth putting on the rudder changes, you write down scores of orders like, "port 5 degree rudder", "stay on 041", "starboard 3 degrees". Each order, Murphy repeats and adds an "Aye, Sir", So it's constant call response."Starboard 10 degree."
"Starboard 10 degree, Aye, Sir."
"Steady on 358."
"Steady on 358, Aye Sir."Almost an hour of this to get to harbor mouth. The pilot leaves on a tug and the USS White passes Point Loma and heads out for a seven day steam across open ocean to Hawaii.You've often stood on the Pacific shore in California, searching the ocean horizon for signs of what lies beyond, feeling relief that the whole continent is behind you. Now you're going beyond, California is slipping from view behind you. You feel more excitement than dread for the long journey. The little ship plunges forward into the tossing waves under the sky dome.
The ship's motion is tiring, fully loaded and with four big landing boats on high davits, it rolls and pitches up, pauses, goes nose first into a few swells, some of them send shockwaves and shudders through the ship. Below decks, it's maddening, being bounced into hatches and bulkheads, grabbing pipes to keep your balance, hitting your head on them when you get bounced into zero gravity.Going through the chow line in all that motion is a chore, takes concentration, steam table water floats lightly loaded inserts, you keep from slipping on the wet floor as you take your chow. Eat while you hang on to your tray and the table braced for people falling into you.Below decks the motion gives you a headache, you feel close to nauseous all the time. Up on the open Bridge or even in the Pilot House with all its port holes you see the horizon, you see the swells, you are less surprised by the motion, much less nauseous. But it is still work just to stand holding grips and fittings. Your high stool for your log desk is often too dangerous and must be kept lashed under the desk.On your watches, when nothing's going on you're all just riding the motion together, the helm is the only guy working. He spins the heavy wheel with both hands, spin it to the right and he gets Starboard rudder, spin to the left and he gets Port rudder.Underway at sea, at cruising speed, the ship still needs to be actively steered. Watching a large compass in front of the wheel, the Helmsman keeps the ship headed in the correct direction by counteracting the wave motion - putting on Starboard rudder to reverse a swing to port and the reverse, continually spinning the wheel back and forth, calculating how much rudder, in which direction is needed at each moment to keep the ship close to the heading through the continual swinging motion.
“Don’t look at me!” Cher screams, “look at Carol!” Carol was thin, long bony legs, a big bush and boy breasts. Cher’s breasts were full and big nippled. Carol poked them, Cher jumps with embarrassment and tries to cover up. Bob kept on his shorts.All of you laid poolside, you naked on your back in full sun. Cher worrying that her parents would come home or that neighbor boys were peaking through the fence laid beside you. From the other side, a fully naked Carol leaned over brushing your thighs with her long pony tail hair saying, “don’t move, I’m not going to touch you”.You respond to the whisper touch, getting hard, she pokes Cher, “Look what’s happening to your boyfriend! What are you going to do about it, girl?”“Carol, leave him alone!”“You going to suck it?” Carol was being mean.“No! You know I don’t do that. Stop being weird.” Cher hovers over my face, kissing you on the mouth, her breasts touching your chest. You roll to your side next to her, stick your dick between her thighs, against her panties.Carol slaps your butt and says in her mean-girl voice, “You going to fuck?”“No!” Cher shrieks. To you, she says, “Be nice.”“Come on Bobby” Carol says. Let’s show them how it’s done!”“Carol, no!” Cher pleads as Carol has her hands in Bob’s shorts, pulling out his crooked dick, briefly putting her mouth near it, then laying back, legs spread, “Come on, Bobby, stick it to me!”“Carol, no!” Cher’s adamant. “Don’t do that here!” “Go away, if you’re going to do that!”“So you can be alone to fuck your boyfriend?” Carol taunts her, as Bob comes down on her, Carol wiggles away and stands up, pulling Bob back up, his shorts around his ankles. “Come on, lover. Let’s leave them alone, let’s fuck in her bed.” Carol pulls Bob towards the house, Bob’s got a boner and he’s pulling up his shorts with his one free hand.“Don’t you funking dare, you cunt!” Cher gets up, holding her bra to her breasts.“Seriously.” Bob is reasonable. “We are NOT going to do that. Carol, stop teasing.” They’ve stopped at the patio. “Let’s go somewhere. Seal Beach? McDonald’s?”You slip in the pool, swim underwater for a length, swim the crawl back on the surface, lift yourself out the water and dry off with facing Carol and Bob who are already half-dressed.At sea, your normal job while on watch is on the writing in the log. You're in the pilot house with three guys from the deck crew, two Seamen to alternate on the wheel and a Boatswain's Mate Third Class to be in charge. You sit on a high stool at a chart desk in the pilot house, by the open hatch to the Bridge. When the Officer On Deck leans and shouts orders, you write it in pencil in a notebook marking the time. The record your keeping is the first draft of the Ship's Log that the Executive Officer maintains each day.Four hours on watch, eight hours off. There's meals and sleeping, but also other work, cleaning mostly, some chart correcting if the seas aren't tossing the ship too much.The ship is in General Quarters, when going in and out of harbors, refueling at sea, any maneuvers with other ships or engagement with real or imagined enemies. You stay on duty as long as GQ lasts. Your GQ job is the same, taking notes.The boss of Operations, the First Class Signalman, Murphy, takes the helm for GQ. He's taking rudder and compass orders from a harbor pilot who got onboard before the ship shoved off for your six month Western Pacific Cruise. Murphy grunts and wheezes as he whirls the wheel around back and forth putting on the rudder changes, you write down scores of orders like, "port 5 degree rudder", "stay on 041", "starboard 3 degrees". Each order, Murphy repeats and adds an "Aye, Sir", So it's constant call response."Starboard 10 degree."
"Starboard 10 degree, Aye, Sir."
"Steady on 358."
"Steady on 358, Aye Sir."Almost an hour of this to get to harbor mouth. The pilot leaves on a tug and the USS White passes Point Loma and heads out for a seven day steam across open ocean to Hawaii.You've often stood on the Pacific shore in California, searching the ocean horizon for signs of what lies beyond, feeling relief that the whole continent is behind you. Now you're going beyond, California is slipping from view behind you. You feel more excitement than dread for the long journey. The little ship plunges forward into the tossing waves under the sky dome.
The ship's motion is tiring, fully loaded and with four big landing boats on high davits, it rolls and pitches up, pauses, goes nose first into a few swells, some of them send shockwaves and shudders through the ship. Below decks, it's maddening, being bounced into hatches and bulkheads, grabbing pipes to keep your balance, hitting your head on them when you get bounced into zero gravity.Going through the chow line in all that motion is a chore, takes concentration, steam table water floats lightly loaded inserts, you keep from slipping on the wet floor as you take your chow. Eat while you hang on to your tray and the table braced for people falling into you.Below decks the motion gives you a headache, you feel close to nauseous all the time. Up on the open Bridge or even in the Pilot House with all its port holes you see the horizon, you see the swells, you are less surprised by the motion, much less nauseous. But it is still work just to stand holding grips and fittings. Your high stool for your log desk is often too dangerous and must be kept lashed under the desk.On your watches, when nothing's going on you're all just riding the motion together, the helm is the only guy working. He spins the heavy wheel with both hands, spin it to the right and he gets Starboard rudder, spin to the left and he gets Port rudder.Underway at sea, at cruising speed, the ship still needs to be actively steered. Watching a large compass in front of the wheel, the Helmsman keeps the ship headed in the correct direction by counteracting the wave motion - putting on Starboard rudder to reverse a swing to port and the reverse, continually spinning the wheel back and forth, calculating how much rudder, in which direction is needed at each moment to keep the ship close to the heading through the continual swinging motion.
