General Problem with assumption: Why would players be 1 week in starport?

[Badenov]

I liked Pattaya Beach. We anchored out and put in a 1/3 watch schedule with a shore patrol office at the beach front hotel. The boat got rooms for us there but honestly, who sleeps in the "barracks".

The ride through the surf to the beach. The jump off the liberty boat with my shoes tied around my neck and my liberty bag held high felt like a very strange version of storming the beaches at Normandy. I pulled 4 straight days of liberty, followed by two days back on the boat running the nuke plant. At the end of day 6, we pulled a few hours early since a gator-freighter had pulled in and ruined the bar scene and the weather guessers were talking about a storm coming up into the Gulf of Thailand.

The run back out was at Full Speed Ahead with dynamic control on the stern planes to control the rolling. It still got ugly. I remember pulling 24 hours straight on watch 'cause the off duty watch standers were too sick to relieve us. The Engine Room Lower Level watch was wearing a trash bag around his chest to puke into. I kept bringing him liquids to pretend he was hydrated. We may have fudged the rules about food in the engineering spaces a little when the cook brought food aft to the folks who could still eat.

I still remember the relief when we got past the 100 fathom curve and could actually dive beneath that crap. I was off watch for 5 shifts before they woke me up again.

I went to Pattaya in a FFG, but I was TAD to the FFG and they never checked me into a duty section (and I followed the Never Again Volunteer Yourself rule). The rest of the crew was in 3-section duty. So I had 5 days in a hotel, with a check in to the shore det each day. I gained an appreciation for Thai whiskey there, which was very smooth. And I was prevailed upon to take a shipmate to a fancy restaurant (Italian, amusingly, and quite fancy, most of the locals were in shirt and tie), which he failed to retain. A good time was had by all. So yeah, there were upscale parts if you looked, but the overall mood was 'TL5, beer and people are inexpensive to rent.'

 

[DeepBrine]

"... people are inexpensive to rent..."

Story on that was one of the crew members was in the hotel, a bit drunk and dialed room service for services. They sent up three options. He looked at the three of them and kept them all. Bit of a bill but he was heard to say he could not bear to disappoint any of them.

Then there was the story about the crew member who discovered the "she was a he" problem.

I remember being a bit shocked at the British Family who was at the hotel. Mom, Dad and three daughters. Youngest was 15? Oldest was 19? Dad was determined to buy drinks non-stop for any sailor talking to his daughters. It took me a drink (maybe three) to figure out his approach was to put the sailors drunk on the floor before we could damage his daughters. I think he was successful.

Interesting times. 1987 or there abouts.

 

[Badenov]

Interesting times. 1987 or there abouts.

1994 was when I got there. Don't think it had changed much. I hear there's a pier now, though.

But back on topic, I think players should be in port for a week because that's how long it takes to blow a month's pay.