Rock-tober 23, 2019

While I was at Auburn, I took classes on nautical navigation. I thoroughly enjoyed them as they were unlike any class I'd had before. The instructor was a Chief Quartermaster, making him eminently qualified on the subject. The Chief had us run an exercise in class that simulated the transit from the dock and into a main channel in some east coast harbor. On the day of the drill, we had our charts unrolled on the classroom's large, waist-high plotting tables. Our intended courses were marked out and all navigational aids were highlighted. We were ready - or so we thought.

The chief started the drill by hitting "play" on a tape deck with a bridge recording of the actual transit. Bearings to various navigational aids were called out with surprisingly brisk alacrity. I was still trying to plot our position when the next series was called out. Insidiously, the tempo increased, and a whispered, "Oh, shit", came from one of my classmates. By the end of the drill, we were literally all over the map. I was scratching my head looking at my chart, and Chief sauntered over with his coffee mug. He looked at my work and says, "Well, Mr. Capuyan, that final Lat and Long will put you just south of Bismark, North Dakota. 'A' for effort, though."

At least this instance of being somewhere unintended was a drill. There are the other times.

When I first came on board a previous contract of mine, they were in the middle of a nationwide equipment refresh. This involved assembling a drop shipment of gear, sending it to field locations, flying out to assemble everything, and bringing the site back online. The operational tempo was intense, and I found myself in a different city every week. Many times, waking up in my hotel, I found I'd lost track of where I was. I had to draw the curtains back or turn on the local news to get my bearings. As the weeks ran together, it all became a blur.

One evening back in Maryland, I prepped my travel bag like I had every week. The next morning I had Andrea drive me to the airport where I kissed her goodbye and told her I'd call when I landed. The flight was uneventful. We landed, I picked up my luggage and started making my way to the car rental counter. Just then my phone rang. It was my boss. "Hey, Wayne, are you coming in today?"

"What? I'm here already. I just landed, and I'll head to the work site after I pick up my rental."

"Hold up. You landed? Where are you?"

"Um. I'm looking at the Rockies as we speak."

"Dude. What the hell? That trip was canceled."

A whispered "Oh. Shit." crossed my lips. "Weellll. I guess I got a little lost on the way to the office." I could hear the facepalm through the phone and him yelling out to the rest of the guys in the shop.

"Hey! You guys won't believe this! Guess where Wayne is." The hooting and hollering I heard next told me they now knew about my navigational misstep.

One of my buddies yelled into the phone, "Hey, Wayne! I guess I'm covering your shift here at the shop! You now owe me 5 lunches, bro!"

I hopped the next flight back home and eventually cleared my lunch debt.