I might be a little too claustrophobic to go on a ride myself, although I have never tried. And I feel immense respect towards people that do serve onboard submarines. With all my claustrophobia, I have this positive prejudice that it must be amazingly cosy to sleep onboard: feeling slight motions as the submarine moves, hearing the engine hum, having a “sleepover” with people you trust with your life…
Do any of you have any experience sleeping in (why do I want to say “on”…) a submarine? What’s the actual feeling like? 😊
When I was in the Boy Scouts we took a weekend trip to the USS Lexington in Corpus Christi. We slept aboard in the births used by the sailors. I don’t know if I was below the water line but I imagine the sights and smells were similar to a sub. It smelled like fuel oil. The births were very small. Can’t remember how I felt but I don’t think I had a bad night. The most distinct thing I remember is that instead of turning off all the lights they turned some of the overhead lights off but others changed from white to red. For some reason I found that really cool.
When smart LED bulbs started coming out in the mid 2010s I bought a bunch to replicate the experience, in Philips Hue’s own app at first but now with Home Assistant. I have a scene called “submarine mode” that turns all the lights red. I do this an hour or so before bed and sometimes when I wake up but don’t want to get out of bed right away. My bathroom lights are motion activated (also via Home Assistant) and it’s great being able to see where I’m going without it being too bright.
Modern subs are almost all nuclear powered so less of the diesel smell (still some from lubricants) but nuclear subs can be underwater for weeks at a time so they have to scrub the air which is an imperfect process that leads to some funky smells
Wow! Thanks for sharing! How awesome that you replicated the environment to some extent! I too have some Philips Hue bulbs and without knowing anything about subs, I already had them turn red when I go to bed. Maybe tomorrow I’ll put an open container of heavy motor grease next to my bed for the full 4D experience. 😆 Thanks again!