The post below, "Memories of Weed in VietNam" by Smokin Moose reminded me of my own story, in the summer of 1971.
I am younger than Smokin, about ten years I guess. I was just out of high school, working part time nowhere jobs, wondering what I was going to do. I had my draft number and, it wasn't good. I was guaranteed to be the first lot to go when I turned 19.
A high school buddy's dad had a real nice boat moored in the San Francisco Bay, East Bay. It was a commercial boat so it was well equipped and seaworthy. We used to party there in high school, LoL, another story. Many stories.
He calls one day and "Let's go fishing, the salmon are hot ..." I'm there.
Me and him and another high school friend go out the next day at sun up. The fishing was great. We limited by noon. In fact had one too many so we made fillets and cooked it right there. Ate fresh salmon, drank some beer, cleaned some fish, smoked some rag.
Time to go back. We'd noticed a lot of air activity. A small plane, a helicopter (and we were a ways out there - near the Farallon Islands.) Saw a Coast Guard cutter about a mile away to the north, not unusual and good to see actually. No mind, we high and happy with our catches.
So, we cruise for about an hour heading east for the coast. It's about 4pm, high clouds. the sea was relatively calm with four foot swells and no waves. My buddy says, "There's something big in the water over there" pointing. I don't see it. He slows the boat and makes a slight turn. I see it now. Looks like a box about three by four by five feet.
As it rolls near the side of the boat I can see that it is wrapped in rope or heavy cord. The other guy gets a hook on it, and looks at me like 'help' and I scramble down to the deck to help him haul it in. The whole time I'm thinking, "Why am I doing this?"
Lots of grunting and cussing and it's on the deck, dripping. The package is wrapped in very heavy black plastic. I mean the gauge of plastic that lines a pool. Every edge is taped down with a very heavy black cloth duct tape. And that is wrapped and tied with a medium gauge white cord.
There we are; bobbing in the middle of the ocean. Not within sight of land. No other ship or boat or plane. Standing around this 'box' with our mouths half open. What now?
I get a bait knife and go to work on the cords. Somebody else had a pocket knife and started sawing at the black duct tape on the black rubber covering.
We finally got it open and it was full of weed. Not just weed; but as it turned out over 6 kilos of Accopolco Gold, and 10 kilos of Thai that was soooo sticky it was hard to keep lit.
The only thing that I can think of is that a plane was flying off the coast of Cali and dropping packages in the water for a smaller boat to pick up. Instead, we picked it up. So, how many ways did we almost ... if the smugglers had caught us, we'd be dead and lost at sea; if the Coast Guard caught us, we'd be getting out of prison right about now.
How did I get as old as I am?
But, we made it back to port and loaded everything up in the truck and went home to count it up.
We swore that we'd never sell any of it.
We swore that we'd never tell anyone about it.
And, until this day, that promise was kept - and I break it now because the other two guys are dead.
So, screw em.
I am younger than Smokin, about ten years I guess. I was just out of high school, working part time nowhere jobs, wondering what I was going to do. I had my draft number and, it wasn't good. I was guaranteed to be the first lot to go when I turned 19.
A high school buddy's dad had a real nice boat moored in the San Francisco Bay, East Bay. It was a commercial boat so it was well equipped and seaworthy. We used to party there in high school, LoL, another story. Many stories.
He calls one day and "Let's go fishing, the salmon are hot ..." I'm there.
Me and him and another high school friend go out the next day at sun up. The fishing was great. We limited by noon. In fact had one too many so we made fillets and cooked it right there. Ate fresh salmon, drank some beer, cleaned some fish, smoked some rag.
Time to go back. We'd noticed a lot of air activity. A small plane, a helicopter (and we were a ways out there - near the Farallon Islands.) Saw a Coast Guard cutter about a mile away to the north, not unusual and good to see actually. No mind, we high and happy with our catches.
So, we cruise for about an hour heading east for the coast. It's about 4pm, high clouds. the sea was relatively calm with four foot swells and no waves. My buddy says, "There's something big in the water over there" pointing. I don't see it. He slows the boat and makes a slight turn. I see it now. Looks like a box about three by four by five feet.
As it rolls near the side of the boat I can see that it is wrapped in rope or heavy cord. The other guy gets a hook on it, and looks at me like 'help' and I scramble down to the deck to help him haul it in. The whole time I'm thinking, "Why am I doing this?"
Lots of grunting and cussing and it's on the deck, dripping. The package is wrapped in very heavy black plastic. I mean the gauge of plastic that lines a pool. Every edge is taped down with a very heavy black cloth duct tape. And that is wrapped and tied with a medium gauge white cord.
There we are; bobbing in the middle of the ocean. Not within sight of land. No other ship or boat or plane. Standing around this 'box' with our mouths half open. What now?
I get a bait knife and go to work on the cords. Somebody else had a pocket knife and started sawing at the black duct tape on the black rubber covering.
We finally got it open and it was full of weed. Not just weed; but as it turned out over 6 kilos of Accopolco Gold, and 10 kilos of Thai that was soooo sticky it was hard to keep lit.
The only thing that I can think of is that a plane was flying off the coast of Cali and dropping packages in the water for a smaller boat to pick up. Instead, we picked it up. So, how many ways did we almost ... if the smugglers had caught us, we'd be dead and lost at sea; if the Coast Guard caught us, we'd be getting out of prison right about now.
How did I get as old as I am?
But, we made it back to port and loaded everything up in the truck and went home to count it up.
We swore that we'd never sell any of it.
We swore that we'd never tell anyone about it.
And, until this day, that promise was kept - and I break it now because the other two guys are dead.
So, screw em.
