Most of my ward emails end up facing the icy fate of outer darkness via my spam filter. Every now and then, one is rescued from spirit prison and shows up in my inbox.

Subject line: "Interesting!"

Body: Kimball comparing sexual purity to naval manovering. My NeverMo DW is still shocked by the 'Crypt Keeper' voice.

https://youtu.be/9_MNkGwy9vo



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2022 03:56PM by levantlurker.

levantlurker Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Most of my ward emails end up facing the icy fate
> of outer darkness via my spam filter. Every now
> and then, one is rescued from spirit prison and
> shows up in my inbox.

Clever wording!


> naval manovering.

Is that akin to navel gazing?

(That's where my mind went until I noticed the 'a' in naval). :)


How old is this talk? He refers to the day when ships will be equipped with radar. So, before the early '40s?


I think the "watery graves" analogy is wince-y, especially when also referencing disasters at sea.


I made it to 2:07 of the talk. No way could I last for the entire 33:56. I agree with your wife about the voice/delivery. Not the most dynamic speaker.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2022 04:26PM by Nightingale.

is when you're aiming for something else but hit the navel by mistake. Darned bifocals!

Hula hoop with a nail or needle pointed inward: Navel Destroyer...

I couldn't bring myself to watch that talk. I imagine it's full of inaccuracies in both sexual "purity" and sailing. And how dare they try to use disasters at sea to scare and shame people for having sexual desires! I was a sailor, so it's a bit personal. Even with radar, lights, and the Mark 1 eyeball, there are still disasters at sea. And, in case you didn't pay attention in science class, humans are land dwelling mammals. The ocean's no place to end up stranded. If drowning and sharks don't get you, dehydration will. To use this to shame folks is sickening.

I will add one other thing about being out at sea: you learn about your place in the universe. On a clear night, days out from port, the entire night's sky is filled with stars. And the curve of the earth is faintly visible on the horizon. Maybe because I grew up landlocked, I was stunned by the scope of it all when I saw it. Days of seeing nothing but water and stars millions of miles away, I got some idea of how small I was compared to it all. And at the same time, it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.

I agree with everything you described in your second paragraph but would add that it's an amazing experience to enter and leave a port as well. You get to see the industrial and shipping heart of a city and then the opening to the ocean and its stunning expanses.

I remember once leaving Berlin and making my way to one of the ports up north--Rostock, IIRC--for a midnight departure for Stockholm. The industrial facilities were working at full speed at night, with the floodlights illuminating with an almost LED clarity the derricks and ships and container fields. It was unworldly, exquisite, and somewhat redolent of the USO scene in Apocalypse Now but much brighter and naturally more efficient.

The same was true in a very different way of the departure from Cairo, the land trip and then voyage up through the delta to what I believe was Port Said. That port is much poorer than northern Germany, of course, but the scenery says so much about the country and its economy and is beautiful in its own way even before the dropping of the pilot and the entry into the Mediterranean and its boundless open waters.

IMO, there are few things better than being on deck to see the entries and exits to harbors or ports and the setting and rising of the sun over the ocean.

I don't share all the enthusiasm of entering and leaving ports. I was a deckhand; entering and leaving port meant I was one of the folks hauling line (rope for the landlubbers) when the ship docked or cast off. It's hard work and dangerous. Rings and watches can get snagged in line fibers, the line could surge and throw you overboard, or the line could stretch and snap. Modern ship lines are usually synthetic and strong, but elastic and can snap. When it snaps, the end of the line moves at about 700 feet per second. There have been sailors cut right in half by line snapping.

I'm sure what you say is true. But I do hope you can one day have the experience as a passenger rather than a deck hand.

I also manned the helm at sea, so being a deckhand wasn't all bad.

when I was in the shipping biz, some of my captain friends let me helm (steer) Sanko tankers (no names!)

the Norwegian officers got my respect.

I was also on a Russian ship into seattle, I forget the details (late 70's) on that one.