Tomorrow (Monday) we board our cruise ship the ‘Pacific Jewel’, older than the other cruise ships in which we’ve sailed, so it’ll be an education. She might be ‘old’ (launched 1989), but she does look more like a ship than a block of flats. Maureen & I sail, with our daughter, son in law and three grandchildren, for a family […]

Majestic Princess Reg. London, 144,216 gt, 3,560 passengers maximum. (will it feel crowded?) There comes a time when winter is all too much as one grows older . . . and older. A few months ago I started to check where to go or what to do, for part of our Sydney winter. Being a wimp, I […]

Sunrise over Aqaba In the distance Israel, behind us Saudi Arabia, and further to the left of Israel is Egypt as we came alongside Aqaba. Aqaba is in the Kingdom of Jordon, and Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein is their King, having become King on the death of his father, King Hussein, in 1999. Princess Cruises offered a number of shore […]

It’s Always You Bing Crosby sang it to Dorothy Lamour, in Zanzibar of course . . . Christmas Day 1964 – we arrived off Mombasa and berthed alongside the Chakla, another Company ship. Also, in port was a BI passenger ship named ‘Karanja’ and this name had a family link for me. My father was […]

Flag of Wales The Eisteddfod can be traced back to Cardigan Castle in 1176, when the House of Dinefwr, which was a royal house of Wales, supported the eisteddfod. The House of Dinefwr can be traced back to King of Gwynedd in 844. The above is the flag of Dinefwr. The Eisteddfod had it ups […]

The old and the new – Golden Princess can be seen with a sailing ship along side. We berthed close to the town, which allowed for a short walk to many places of interest. A touch of yesteryear where ever we looked. Many of the streets and homes reminded me of New Zealand, quiet and […]

Welcome to an early morning arrival in Melbourne on Good Friday. Had a feel of the Enterprise from Star Treck. Rain and drizzle on a very dull day. with The Sprit of Tasmania ferry boat along side the next wharf. The beach started at the passenger ship wharf, but even this gave the place a […]

In 1788 Thomas Gilbert was the Captain of the Charlotte, which had sailed to Australia as part of the first fleet carrying convicts. After discharging his convict passengers Captain Gilbert sailed for China and passed through a group of islands that we now know as The Gilbert Islands. He made sketches of the islands and […]

A ‘painted’ picture of the waters around Airlie Beach. Ship’s tender boat A shuttle service from / to the ship was constant and local fast tourist boats were used in support of the ship’s tender boats.                                       […]

Working for an airline sometimes (very occasionally) we were offered cheap trips on a particular route if the airline was doing a ‘promo’ to encourage people to fly to a particular destination. Air France in the early 1970’s offered a round trip ticket to Paris via their  Caravelle service for £7, (£100 today or US […]

In mid 1962, after two years at HMS Conway, I graduated. British India Steam Navigation Company, also known simply as BI, accepted me in August, as an indentured cadet (apprentice). House flag and funnel Once I’d been accepted I applied for a British Seaman’s Card and a Discharge Book I had the paperwork to prove that I […]

When we visited Hoi An this hotel was just called the Hoi An Hotel, I am not sure when it became ‘historic’, although we did enjoy staying there at the time. Hoi An had the feeling that the town was just beginning to attract foreign tourists. The main attraction at the time seemed to be […]

The last night of the cruise – don’t know how many balloons they go through in a year, because there is a big ‘bash’ at the end of every cruise. We’d left Akita and headed north east through the night and the following day, which was a sea day. During the night of the sea […]

While in Lisbon we had a day out to Estoril, a beautiful area on the Atlantic coast, which is a forty-minute local train ride from Lisbon. This was my second visit having been to Estoril in 1965, and I was keen to see any changes. I didn’t, the overall feel of the place was just as […]