places maybe i should have gone to

[William Gardner]

this one that has been in my mind for years talking to ex merch lads we get round to whear have you been iwent all round the world but never went to india south africa went to oz acouple of times never got to newzelandplaces maybe i should have the world is abig place weird what you come up with talking over a few beers

[Captain Kong]

Hi William
I know what you mean. that is why I go away now every year to the places I missed when seafaring.

This trip I have just come back from, I have called at six places for the very first time, including ...
Puerto Limon, Costa Rica, Easter Island with those big statues, Pitcairns Island and met Fletcher Christian`s Great grt grt .. grandaughter, Jacqi.
Lautoka Fiji, Noumea and Kuta, Isle de Pines in New Caledonia.
Every year new places.
I am spending up. most of my mates are dead and did nothing and their kids are enjoying the money.
Get it spent.
Cheers
Brian

[Lou Barron]

Well William the places that you have not been to are places that I consider the best places I have been to also Canada but I think I picked the best place to live mind you it meeting my true love that made me stay here

[j.sabourn]

We will never be satisfied with our wanderings. There are numerous places I haven't been, and I was mainly on trampships. 3 score and 10 used to be the accepted life span in our younger days, as a lot of us now well exceed that and still have a lot to see and do, at least we think we do, a lifetime seems far too short. Yet looking back on all our great predessors of the arts and science, they accomplished things the likes of things we will never do. They must have sat by candlelight with quill and ink working out the wonders of the world. They also died at an earlier age. Although we now sit at a computer screen and get all our knowledge from same in the hope it is correct, our brains must be no way as sharp and efficient as our forefathers. We put all our learnings on reading and writing, they had to educate themselves first. By modern day standards he who has control of the news has control over the peoples minds. Just think if one person had complete control of the internet, you could brainwash the world. JS

[happy daze john in oz]

Hi William
---Cheers
Brian

There are also places you should not have gone to, like that bar in Las Palmas where the girls were giving out presents at the time.

[happy daze john in oz]

Like Kong I am now going on as many cruises as i can to see some of the spots we never visited, some of the South sea islands, Cambodia, Vietnam, hopefuly Alaska next year and also go back to a few like Panama to see the canal again.

[j.sabourn]

I must say for myself one of the most rewarding times latterly at sea which was indeed rare, was working in the Australian/Singapore/New Guinea areas. To those unaware most of the Australian Coastline is still not properly surveyed and charts in use sometimes go back to the Capt. Cook era. From working in the Cambridge Gulf area looking for diamonds, to going among reefs off the NW shelf and finding where they bottomed out, to bringing a ship from Port Moresby on a borrowed small scale chart from the harbour master for getting through the Torres Straits, never used a pilot in most ports including Singapore, you were expected to do it yourself. The only port I found this compulsory was Sydney. Unless of course heavy weather and would pick up pilot inside the Heads. Australia is still a young country but is changing rapidly with the influx of foreign nationals which I am not against as am one myself, but they should come in legally. Have been to places in Australia that born and bred Australians never been to and probably don't even know exists. I now look on Australia as home and wish I had been out here 20 years earlier to have further knowledge of this vast Island. Cheers John S.

[Doc Vernon]

There are also places you should not have gone to, like that bar in Las Palmas where the girls were giving out presents at the time.

Hi John
I think lots of us got many presents from the Girls in that place! LOL!
Oh the things we did as youngsters and still here to tell the tales!
Cheers

[Doc Vernon]

When her indoors decides she has had enough of the Work,(hoping it will be sooner than later) there are still quite a few places that I would like to see in my life!
I have been around a bit,even when not in the MN.
So yes lets hope the Health holds out and that we both will still have enough time to see the other side of the coin,so to speak!
But I believe that life is sort of planned out in a way,you can make your own most times,but that doesn't mean that they always work out!
So for now its just wait and see!!
Cheers

[Ivan Cloherty]

There will always be places we missed William, but I'm glad I decided to go tramping after finishing my time, during which I sailed with men who knew nothing but the West Indies and West Coast of South America. Even on my first trip I thought what's the point of that, perhaps influenced by my father's career in the MN and Army who talked of places that enthralled me, mind you he never talked about the crap places that he'd visited, but you live and learn! Tramping opened my eyes to the world and also enjoyed the unpredictability of it all, even the 22 month trip, could never understand the men who served their lives on one route, they missed so much, except perhaps seeing their families on a regular basis. Still think the tramps and tramp men were some of the best ships and carried the best seamen in all departments when adaptability was the name of the game and improvisation was a regular daily occurrence for all when the spares missed the ship, unlike a regular run where they were waiting on the quay for you. Then sailing off to Singapore or Hong Kong for orders (but Never Land's End LEFO). During my sea and shore career clocked up over 90 countries some more than once, and some had never heard of, regretfully never visited Brazil or Argentina in their heydays, but now with a total of now of 228 countries there is still a lot of scope, but alas the funds will not allow, but the memories will suffice and cannot be taken away except by that barsteward Mr Al Zheimer