Thursday, August 7, 2008

Sickness in Motion!



Ah - the vessel of my 2-4 hour flu! The Barbara was my Uncle Selly's pride and joy - it was his "baby". But to me... the damn thing meant only one thing - sea sickness! Hence my appreciation for dry crackers, ginger ale and DRY LAND! To this day when I am near a boat that "icky" feeling comes over me!

She was about 30 feet long stem to stern (did I say that right?). There were sleeping accommodations for 6-8 people, a galley and much more. I loved looking at her from the pier, but when forced (and I do mean forced) to get aboard, everyone knew they better not stand directly in front of me.

The rest of my family relished their time on this boat, however and took every opportunity to sail.

The photo above is the older of the two - maybe late 1940's when she was still white with mahogany railings.

The one below was taken a few years later when she was painted dark green with a tan trim. These were also the colors of the Fallen Arches cottage if memory serves (Fallen Arches Cottage was where my Aunt Bobby and Uncle Selly lived). You can see photos of the cottage in older posts.

3 comments:

USNA Ancient said...

Or to sit next to in the cockpit !!!
We'd always try to keep you topside, because below in the cabin is worse ... two times in my life I've been seasick -once aboard "Barbara" returning from a weekend cruise; we ran into a "black squall" for which the Bay is infamous and [at 6] I was told to go below to get out of the weather. That lasted all of 5 minutes and I was never told to go below again.

First Class Cruise in the Med aboard a destroyer running ASW barrier exercises between Sicily and the N. African Coast [harassing and keeping tabs on USSR subs] we hit a storm coming off the Saraha and it got really rough ... we were taking seas and breakers over the bridge, maybe 35-40' above the main deck. I hung out with the Commodore's Staff, a Lt., a Lt., j.g., and a Chief Signalman named DiSangro [more about him another time] ... I also was the Commodore's [Capt. Spar] bridge [cards] partner almost every night I didn't have the watch and his personal translator when we hit Spain and Portugal ... anyhow, about the third day of this storm [mind you I and two or three others were the only ones who did not miss a meal in the wardroom [officer's mess] Disangro and I were on the signal bridge and three ROTC Mids on cruise with us came up ... all carrying galvanized buckets and saltines and sick as hell for three days. In between dry heaves, while DiSangro and I ate sandwiches sent up from the wardroom, they asked him what they could do for seasickness ... Disangro [who was about 6'3" or 6'4" and weighed over 300 #] kind of pondered and finally said "Well, Sir, There is no cure I've heard of in 35 years in the Navy; however, that being said, I have heard it's best to eat tomatoes and green peppers."

Will that cure it ?" they asked almost in unison.

"No", Disangro replied, "Nothing cures it that I know of ! But, it looks a whole lot more colorful coming back up !!" And, back to eating our sandwiches while they headed for the nearedt rail !!
In the '46 pic [top] the doghouse [the part of the cabin above the deck] and all of the trim was also stained and upkeep on stain/varnish on a boat is a royal ... oh, hell ... BITCH. Maybe that's one reason they're always referred to as "she".

Mason Fleske said...

It makes me ill looking at it as well...and I have never actually been on it! I love the photos...keep them coming!

USNA Ancient said...

Close ... Fallen Arches was white with green trim !