- Apr 14, 2002
- 20,603
- 6
- 52,915
The first I'll share is when I was in the United States Navy on board a destroyer at sea out in the Atlantic Ocean and we went right through a hurricane.
You feel like the point of a needle in the ocean anyway it is so vast, but when mother nature is at her state of fury, you understand just how small and insignificant you really are out there.
Keeping the ship pointed into the wind under power confronting 30' swells is like being on a Roller Coaster ride you cannot get off of.
Going down into the trough of the swell the bow plunges into the oncoming swell, and the mass of water breaks over the bow shaking the entire ship with every wave.
The fantail of the ship coming out of the water as the ship goes over the crest of the wave and the screws are heard chopping air, then you hear the screws bite back into the water, just before you are slammed by the oncoming crest, and this goes on over and over and over.
The fear level of the crew was so great it was like static tension in the air, no one was attempting to be Billy Badass, even the Old Timers that had long had their sea legs were sick and throwing up.
We were being tossed around inside the ship while trying to walk from one area to another like toys, if you weren't on watch you were strapped in your rack and every thing moveable was lashed down tight, or it would get loose and kill you.
Then it all just stopped!
And we all got up to see what was going on?
We were in the eye of the hurricane the water was calm, there was literally no wind, the sky was clear overhead, it was a weird eery feeling!
It did not last but about 30 minutes as we entered the other side of the storm and the Roller Coaster ride continued.
That was one of the most scary moments of my life, everyone was praying and hoping to God we would live through it, and Thankfully we did.
The second most helpless feeling I experienced 2 days ago when a Forest Fire was approaching our home, when the wind whipped into the trees the fire roared with an awesome sound and you could hear the power and devastation of the fire.
We all seemed so insignificant to it's power of death and destruction, but I thank God for the Firefighters that saved our home!
They had a Bulldozer with a massive ground plow to create a fire break around the property and that was one powerful machine, it dropped that plow into the ground and took off full speed and never even slowed down no matter what it ran into.
What was more impressive was the Firefighter driving it, he put himself in harms way to protect those that could not protect themselves, they are some awesome people!
My little water hose was not going to stop that fire but they did, I have nothing but respect for them.
I know there are many that have faced these same type fires and lost everything, and I would like to express my condolences to them and their families, we were very lucky and fortunate.
I just felt like sharing this with you all!
Thank You if you even read it! Ryan
You feel like the point of a needle in the ocean anyway it is so vast, but when mother nature is at her state of fury, you understand just how small and insignificant you really are out there.
Keeping the ship pointed into the wind under power confronting 30' swells is like being on a Roller Coaster ride you cannot get off of.
Going down into the trough of the swell the bow plunges into the oncoming swell, and the mass of water breaks over the bow shaking the entire ship with every wave.
The fantail of the ship coming out of the water as the ship goes over the crest of the wave and the screws are heard chopping air, then you hear the screws bite back into the water, just before you are slammed by the oncoming crest, and this goes on over and over and over.
The fear level of the crew was so great it was like static tension in the air, no one was attempting to be Billy Badass, even the Old Timers that had long had their sea legs were sick and throwing up.
We were being tossed around inside the ship while trying to walk from one area to another like toys, if you weren't on watch you were strapped in your rack and every thing moveable was lashed down tight, or it would get loose and kill you.
Then it all just stopped!
And we all got up to see what was going on?
We were in the eye of the hurricane the water was calm, there was literally no wind, the sky was clear overhead, it was a weird eery feeling!
It did not last but about 30 minutes as we entered the other side of the storm and the Roller Coaster ride continued.
That was one of the most scary moments of my life, everyone was praying and hoping to God we would live through it, and Thankfully we did.
The second most helpless feeling I experienced 2 days ago when a Forest Fire was approaching our home, when the wind whipped into the trees the fire roared with an awesome sound and you could hear the power and devastation of the fire.
We all seemed so insignificant to it's power of death and destruction, but I thank God for the Firefighters that saved our home!
They had a Bulldozer with a massive ground plow to create a fire break around the property and that was one powerful machine, it dropped that plow into the ground and took off full speed and never even slowed down no matter what it ran into.
What was more impressive was the Firefighter driving it, he put himself in harms way to protect those that could not protect themselves, they are some awesome people!
My little water hose was not going to stop that fire but they did, I have nothing but respect for them.
I know there are many that have faced these same type fires and lost everything, and I would like to express my condolences to them and their families, we were very lucky and fortunate.
I just felt like sharing this with you all!
Thank You if you even read it! Ryan
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