I got into navigation back in my mid-20s. I had a buddy who'd been Chief of the Boat on a 688 and originally started on Gato Class. A bunch of us would show up at my place and I had a room outfitted with all the fixings. In those days Apple had a Gato class sub simulator. It was primitive. If you didn't want to just play by the seat of your pants, you had to figure all the navigation problems the hard way.
I had chart paper, a glass window and grease pens, a couple K&E slipsticks with the right scales and all the dividers and such. Pat, my sub buddy would kibbitz and we'd run attack simulations using the info off the Apple.
I was good enough, when I was on the charts, to take simulated sightings on a convoy doing zig zags and plot the base course and then do an end-around that put me 1000 yards on their port quarter 6 hours later at last light. For Pat, it was like Old Home Week.
Pat's claim to fame was as a young LT on a Nautilus class exercising off the continental shelf off the Bahamas. He saw something on the chart that he didn't like, and started refiguring the position. All of a sudden, he yelled for a hard left turn that set everyone on their ear. There was a kerfuffle, and he had to do some fast talking. Bottom line: at a depth and speed that in the mid-80's he was still not able too disclose, his boat was less than a mile from running into the Continental shelf. After he proved his navigation to the chief and the captain, nothing more was ever said.
Pat is now in a home. I miss him at our parties tremendously. After his last gig on the 688s he became a Montesorri teacher.
Last edited by shaman; 07/28/22.
