My life turned around a point in a storm beating up the coast toward Kerkyra, the first time I was ever entrusted with the operation of a ship. We had come to a point where we absolutely had to shift our course 90 degrees to st'bd to make the approach to the channel, but the sea was so high it looked possible that doing so would broach us. When we couldn't avoid the decision any longer I took over the helm and timed the turn myself, figuring it would be unfair to load the helmsman with such possibly overwhelming consequence.

In the actual event, the ship stood the test and made it into the channel with only a couple of unnerving rolls to and fro, good thing that she was. But looking back afterwards, I was amazed to realize that I had been through a personal crisis, as wlel as a marine one, and seemed to have passed that okay as well.

Just one of those memories that informs many points in your later life, like a litmus test.

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