Watch your step out there, sir
November 18th, 2009 | Foreign navies Life at Sea Maritime operations The Middle East | Posted by Phil Ewing
Climbing up or down a Jacob's ladder can be a tricky job, as when this Mexican sailor boarded a German warship this spring during an exercise // Coast Guard
Quick sea anecdote: One time Scoop Deck was standing in the upper vehicle stowage bay of the amphibious assault ship Makin Island, at sea in the Gulf of Mexico, waiting to climb down a Jacob’s ladder into a boat moored alongside. It was clear and sunny, but the sea was choppy enough that people were nervous about reporters not being able to get on the boat without taking a bath.
One chief boatswain’s mate counseled not to step down the ladder below the gunwale of the launch, because it would catch your leg and mangle it against the amphib’s hull. (”That’ll ruin your whole day,” he said.) But don’t step from the ladder to the launch when it’s at the peak of a wave, because as it starts to fall, he said, so will you. Scoop Deck stepped off at the peak, did a few semi-splits and cartwheels around the slippery deck, got covered with sea slime, but at least stayed aboard.
The presence of this story, hopefully, won’t make it sound too mean to point out these hilarious photographs of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had some trouble climbing from an inflatable boat to a Jacob’s ladder this week. “Trouble,” as in, he fell into some poor sailor’s lap.
Netanyahu wanted to congratulate the crew of an Israeli warship for interdicting a load of weapons bound for Hezbollah, but from the looks of it, the sailors probably congratulated him for not swimming in the Mediterranean.
Have you ever acquitted yourself less than gracefully when climbing on or off a small boat?
