Another NNews Memory
Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2005 5:09 pm
Not long after I (and many others) got to the boat in late '79-early '80, boredom was really setting in. The boat was effectively gutted at the time, and there were quals to do, however imaginary they were. For a long time we were in 4 section duty, with basically nothing to do.
There were the usual spades, hearts, pinochle, etc. But these also became mundane. So people began looking for innovative ways to pass the time. One of the more memorable guys for this was Mark Okopny, a then-longtimer who, I think, brought the boat into the yard. Mark got on a kick of blowguns. He would work tirelessly at perfecting the perfect blowdart- geometry, weight, feather configuration. Everything. But each model and modification had to be field tested after "barge trials", so he would climb the big-ass pier cranes and attempt to kill pigeons. Don't know if he ever really killed any, or what he would have done with it if he had, or just how many darts he launched. I just remember him fearlessly scaling the cranes at night like spiderman just to check out his darts.
There were the usual spades, hearts, pinochle, etc. But these also became mundane. So people began looking for innovative ways to pass the time. One of the more memorable guys for this was Mark Okopny, a then-longtimer who, I think, brought the boat into the yard. Mark got on a kick of blowguns. He would work tirelessly at perfecting the perfect blowdart- geometry, weight, feather configuration. Everything. But each model and modification had to be field tested after "barge trials", so he would climb the big-ass pier cranes and attempt to kill pigeons. Don't know if he ever really killed any, or what he would have done with it if he had, or just how many darts he launched. I just remember him fearlessly scaling the cranes at night like spiderman just to check out his darts.