When stationed on board a ship the beach is any place off your ship. It does not have to be a sandy strip of land next to the ocean, it is any place that is dry. You will hear sailors planning for an up coming port visit by saying what they will do when they hit the beach.

What is sort of funny is that most sailors avoid any true beaches when they are on the beach. When we stopped in Barbados a group of friends did take a short stroll down a local beach, but we didn’t stay too long. I guess all the time on the ocean makes you want to avoid it for a while, even when you are on an island.

We did have a group that was scuba divers. They loved when we stopped at a place that had nice places to dive. One had the great pleasure of unwrapping one of our lines from one of our shafts. But after he was done he did get to hit the beach and enjoy the local flavors.

Activities when on the beach run from sight seeing, to drinking, to looking for a companion. Most of the time while I was on shore I would try to see everything of interest in a certain area I could. It was no telling if you would ever be back to the same port again during your Naval career so it was better to check things out to make sure you saw what you wanted while you had the time.

Some sailors only care about spending as much as they can on drinking. I did this at one port visit and found out that it was pretty much a waste. I still had a drink now and again, but always found the time to take a look around.