Incoming Cat

[SeaCat]

This afternoon I was working hard at cleaning my trailer when a neighbor came over and started talking wth me. I was up on the ladder scrubbing away when his wife and kids came over to see what was going on. To say the kids were hyper would be like saying a Tsunami is a wave. It's correct but off by an order of magnitude. If these kids were to be held in place they would just vibrate into another dimension.

Now it's my fault, I should have climbed down and talked with them but I didn't. I kept working as we talked and the kids raced around. One of the kids slingshotted off the father and followed closely by his sister careened into the foot of the ladder. Can you see where this is going? Two overweight kids crashing into a ladder with me up top? (There's a reason I don't like ladders.)

The foot of the ladder went that a way and I'm heading for the ground on an angle. The scrub brush I'm using is on a nice parabolic arc as I'm seeing the ground coming up at me. I pushed away from the ladder and hit the ground on my feet but going sideways. I did as I was trained to do and went into a classic P.L.F.

When I sat up I could already feel it. I must be out of practice. My right hip was sore. Not my butt where I hit but the front of my hip. I struggled to my feet and stood there swaying for a bit as I moved my leg. Nothing seemed broken but it was a bit sore.

I finished cleaning the trailer.

This evening I sat down at the computer for a bit. When I went to get up I almost tipped over. Oh man does my hip smart. I at the least pulled something in there. Nothing feels broken but I did some damage. It supports my weight but if I move it wrong or put force on it at any angle other than straight on it smarts.

This should make it interesting tomorrow when I start painting the trailer.

Pain lets me know I'm alive. Tomorrow should be damned near existential.

Cat

 

[jomar]

...

Pain lets me know I'm alive. Tomorrow should be damned near existential.

Cat

Spoken like the Rogue Warrior.

 

[SeaCat]

Spoken like the Rogue Warrior.

I actually made it through two of his books. (I don't remember which ones.) The only things he said in those two books I agreed with or believed were his feelings about pain. They unfortunately mirror my own.

Oh he actually is in the Seal Museum. I saw the panel that mentions him.

Cat

 

[jomar]

...

Oh he actually is in the Seal Museum. I saw the panel that mentions him.

Cat

That's pretty cool.

 

[R. Richard]

I actually made it through two of his books. (I don't remember which ones.) The only things he said in those two books I agreed with or believed were his feelings about pain. They unfortunately mirror my own.

Oh he actually is in the Seal Museum. I saw the panel that mentions him.

Cat

I have actually had some interaction with Dick Marcinko. The concepts that he presents are his beliefs and real, for the most part. Much of his supposed personal life, as presented in the books is pure fiction.

 

[SeaCat]

I have actually had some interaction with Dick Marcinko. The concepts that he presents are his beliefs and real, for the most part. Much of his supposed personal life, as presented in the books is pure fiction.

Oh I figured that out with the first book of his that I read. Anyone who thinks a team of men can be dropped in bitterly cold water in the middle of a storm, swim more than a mile to an oil rig in high waves, then climb said Oil Rig and "Take it down" is a fool. (If you feel different try swimming more than one hundred yards in three to four foot seas.)

Cat

 

[R. Richard]

Oh I figured that out with the first book of his that I read. Anyone who thinks a team of men can be dropped in bitterly cold water in the middle of a storm, swim more than a mile to an oil rig in high waves, then climb said Oil Rig and "Take it down" is a fool. (If you feel different try swimming more than one hundred yards in three to four foot seas.)

Cat

I didn't read that book. However, I disagree with your conclusion. What I would do is equip my men with scuba gear, direction finders, a classifed device or two and make the swim underwater.

A good wetsuit takes care of the bitterly cold water. The structure of the oil rig calms the seas on the lee side. Most oil rigs have climbing access, for repairs.

JMNTHO.

 

[SeaCat]

I didn't read that book. However, I disagree with your conclusion. What I would do is equip my men with scuba gear, direction finders, a classifed device or two and make the swim underwater.

A good wetsuit takes care of the bitterly cold water. The structure of the oil rig calms the seas on the lee side. Most oil rigs have climbing access, for repairs.

JMNTHO.

Oh I agree it could be done, just not the way he stated in the book.

In the supposed ten foot seas he claims the swimmers would have to drop more than 30 feet underwater to get out of the worst of the surge.

Give them dry suits, (Not wetsuits for the North Sea believe me.) Swimmer assist vehicles, (Those funny little torpedo looking things that tow divers,) Compasses and Inertial Trackers, extra air tanks. Drop them up current from the rig and they might, maybe find it in the dark and stormy seas, if they are extremely lucky.

Never havng worked on an Oil Rig I can't comment on their accesibility from the water level. (The only rig I have seen in person was stripped before it was sunk in 135 feet of water off Boynton Beach.)

The diving though I do know a little bit about having been a diver for the past fifteen years. The water temperatures in the North Sea are roughly the same as those in the waters off Cape Cod where I learned to dive and did dive for several years. They average from 32-40° in the winter to 55-64° in the summer. I don't care tough and well trained you are. After more than half an hour in a 7mm wetsuit in 64°F water you are getting hypothermic. An hour in that and you're looking at getting into trouble.

Cat

 

[R. Richard]

Oh I agree it could be done, just not the way he stated in the book.

In the supposed ten foot seas he claims the swimmers would have to drop more than 30 feet underwater to get out of the worst of the surge.

Give them dry suits, (Not wetsuits for the North Sea believe me.) Swimmer assist vehicles, (Those funny little torpedo looking things that tow divers,) Compasses and Inertial Trackers, extra air tanks. Drop them up current from the rig and they might, maybe find it in the dark and stormy seas, if they are extremely lucky.

Never havng worked on an Oil Rig I can't comment on their accesibility from the water level. (The only rig I have seen in person was stripped before it was sunk in 135 feet of water off Boynton Beach.)

The diving though I do know a little bit about having been a diver for the past fifteen years. The water temperatures in the North Sea are roughly the same as those in the waters off Cape Cod where I learned to dive and did dive for several years. They average from 32-40° in the winter to 55-64° in the summer. I don't care tough and well trained you are. After more than half an hour in a 7mm wetsuit in 64°F water you are getting hypothermic. An hour in that and you're looking at getting into trouble.

Cat

I used a generic expression. Something like a Bearskin Semi-dry would do the trick.

Actually, what you would want is a swimmer delivery vehicle (SDV.) A well equipped SDV would get the SEALs to within an easy 50 meters of an oil rig, assuming that we're not dealing with pathological currents.

I spent about 20 minutes, clothed but without a wet suit, off Coast Guard Beach in what the weather people stated was 45 degree water. The immersion was to settle a bet as to the ability of a downed pilot to survive more than 15 minutes in that temperature water and I had a rope tied about my waist. The test wasn't fair, since I knew that I only had to survive for a bit past 15 minutes and I could burn a lot of glycogen to keep warm for what I knew would be a brief period of time. A SEAL team could attack an oil rig in 15 minutes or less and get out of the water before hypothermia set in. (In my case, I also had a bet on with a female Ensign as to my ability to go out, stay out and then swim in after at least 15 minutes. The bet wasn't for a cash reward for me and I was damned well determined to win. The things I will do to score pussy never cease to amaze me.)