The boats were unloaded on the Atlantic side and after routining the torpedos in the Sub Base Torpedo Shop we were on our way through the Canal to Taboga, Panama and the Pacific where various exercises were executed. A bit of wisdom gleaned from making "runs" on an aircraft carrier was don't cross their wake at an angle, any where near their stern. it do make for a side hill ride , rough too!

One of my favorite memories of Panama while on the Atlantic side was the shore leaves from the sub base in the company of , amongst others, Ray Flynn TM of the 186 boat. Ray was a devout consumer of Scotch but in Panama the scotch bottles quite often poured rum, which just so happened to be to MA Phillips Tm of the 182 and my liking, so we would graciously consume the mistakes and let Ray re-order and fume, in that order.

But all good things must end, so once more we reloaded the boats and shipped for Noumea, New Caledonia. Each boat stood watches all the way, 12 boats, 12 sets of eyes scouring the seas at nite, course the duty officer had to check each boat and one evening when the Duty officer went to check Haimi's boat he was met by Haimi at the head of the ladder, bayonnet fixed and demanding the password, needless to say in the startlement and ensuing actions, the password was either forgotten or Haimi rejected it and booted the ladder off the boat, resulting in the Officer of the Watch landing ignominiously on the deck. If memory serves me right, there were lots of 4 on and 4 off for Haimi, until we got to Noumea, and I'm fairly certian he never made leave there.

We unloaded the boats at Noumea and PT Boats 177, 182, 185 and 186 were designated the RON 11-2 and sent to Funafuti in the Ellice Islands releaving the RON 3-2.