Coronado is home to the U.S. Navy's BUD/S (basic underwater demolition/SEAL) training facility. Sailing on San Diego bay you soon get use to seeing the SEAL (sea,air,land) boats coming and going, however now that I'm living just across a small cove from their training facility I am getting a whole new insight on what these brave warriors face in their quest to become a Navy SEAL. I have know many SEAL's over the years, both as clients and as friends, they seem to have a few traits in common, they are in unbelievable physical condition, they have a VERY high level of integrity and they are extremely intelligent. One of the SEAL mottos is "the only easy day was yesterday", I'm beginning to see that first hand. Last week while in Glorietta Bay I was relaxing down below when all of a sudden I started feeling a lot of boat wake, which is unusual for Glorietta Bay, I popped my head out and saw about 4-5 SEAL boats filled with divers and a couple of waverunners with guys wearing cammies and helmets, I'm thinking to myself WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? when suddenly one of the instructors starts yelling "GO GO GO!!" in go the divers and up pop little buoys with small lights and numbers on them, it seems the SEAL's use a breathing system that does not produce bubbles (great idea)...so the instructors monitor the divers by watching the buoys. The little buoys began to slowly float past Si Bon (within feet) as the guys headed to some sort of target. Several hours later I saw the same boats coming back towards the SEAL base...still monitoring the little buoys...I'm thinking "holy shit how long do those guys stay down??"
The other night I was returning from the grocery store, loading my groceries into my dinghy when I saw the same group of boats/waverunners going up the middle of San Diego Bay, slowly following the little lighted buoys, several hours later I'm sitting on Si Bon watching the fog envelope downtown, when the SEAL boats came into sight moving along at a good clip, heading towards their base, I'm thinking to myself, thank God the guys get to come in a little early tonight (10:00), the boats suddenly came to a near stop just outside the mooring area and the now familiar "GO GO GO!!" rings out, Guess they don't go in early after all.
God bless these brave young men, both those that make a SEAL team and those that don't. Our enemies are screwed.