tales-of-a-cruise-ship-engineer

[tales-of-a-cruise-ship-engineer]

So. Once again my inability to keep a blog strikes. It’s now July 9th 2020. This is going to be a short but one hell of a post.

In January I finished my second and final contract on Oceana and headed down to New Zealand; where on January 19th my wife gave birth to a little girl. She’s called Grace.

Then COVID-19 hit the world, and I ended up staying in New Zealand for the next six months. Nothing hugely exciting to say there other than it was six months at home with the wife and baby, all while on furlough pay. It was actually quite nice. Team 5 million did a good job in fending off the nasty virus while the rest of the world failed miserably.

Yesterday I left New Zealand and headed up to the UK to begin a 14 day quarantine period on the cruise ship Britannia. In with us is Ventura, where Amber did her final few contracts before leaving sea.

[tales-of-a-cruise-ship-engineer]

Apparently I am terrible at keeping a blog going, I keep forgetting to update it! So, since my last update and now, I have done two contracts back at P&O Cruises, where I joined the Oceana (pictures at anchor off Santorini by me) for my first trip as second engineer. She’s a Sun Class cruise ship built originally as the Ocean Princess for Princess Cruises and Sue is a hell of a ship in the best possible way. She is really easy to operate and she’s the perfect size. Not enormous but big enough. In my trips on her I did a fly cruise season out of Malta then a Southampton season due to her Dubai season being cancelled.

On a personal note, I got married in between trips on Oceana, and I also requested a ship change. So my next trip will be out on Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth. She’s based out in the Pacific so a bit closer to the wife, and she’s the same class of ship as Arcadia so I’m hoping there won’t be too many differences for me to worry about.

[tales-of-a-cruise-ship-engineer]

Here is a collage of the ships I have worked on.

P&O Aurora (Taken by me in Palma in 2011)

P&O Azura (Taken by me in Grenada in 2013)

P&O Azura (Left) and P&O Ventura (Right) (Taken by me in St.Maarten in 2013)

P&O Arcadia (Taken by me in Cadiz in 2014)

Saga Pearl II (Taken by Tony Davis in Piraeus in 2019, credited below)

 Saga Sapphire (Taken by me in Funchal in 2018)

Out of all these ships I have memories of all of them. Mostly good. I have currently served the longest on Arcadia. The shortest time I’ve served is on Ventura. The worst contract I've had was on the Saga Sapphire. As for the best contract? It’s a tie between Arcadia and the Pearl II. I will miss the Pearl II when she gets scrapped in the future.

The original Saga Pearl II photo by Tony Davis can be found here: 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/50194818@N05/?fbclid=IwAR3lQdWrp8JylfTVIHDJjmjLp-5EXCfbL_2yQn8sWsdF1_OGiMXaelmBCk8

[tales-of-a-cruise-ship-engineer]

As I said in an earlier post, I managed to tick off an item from my very short bucket list. The bottom photo is my grandfather, on the Empire Orwell in the 1950s with Table Mountain in the background. It’s a photo I always remember and I told myself that one day I would try and recreate it. So in April 2019 I got my chance. There’s something like 65 years (I think, I can’t remember the exact date the photo of my grandfather was taken) that separate these photos. Sadly my grandfather passed away in 2011 and my grandmother passed away at the end of 2018 so neither of them got a chance to see this, but it did make my father, sister and I a bit emotional.

[tales-of-a-cruise-ship-engineer]

It’s been awhile...

So last time I posted on here was end of 2018, so it’s been almost 6 months since I last posted; and it’s been an eventful time! I went to New Zealand with my fiancée in January to meet her family and do more wedding planning. While I was there I found out I had passed my second engineers exams (finally), and I left Saga and got a new job. Well, when I say I left I was on fixed term contracts, so I told them I am unavailable for the foreseeable future, but wat a contract that last one was! 

It was a 54 night cruise from Portsmouth, round the Cape of Good Hope and back to Portsmouth again. Yes it was mostly sea days on a ship that was tiny, bit it gave me a chance to tick an item off my (all be it very short) bucket list. There was a photo of my grandfather from when he was at sea in the 1950′s with Table Mountain in the background, and I’ve wanted to try and recreate it. I’ve got both of them around here somewhere. I’ll do another post about it later on. I also went on my fiancées ship for a month while my paperwork processed so now I have my shiny, new, unlimited second engineer certificate; which also meant I had to fulfil a promise. 

I told my fiancée that once I had passed my exams I would reapply to my old company. So guess what I was doing while I was on her ship, relaxing after a contract away? Yep, you guessed it. I was applying for jobs. As I write this I’m sat in their hotel outside their seafarer simulator training centre doing a preparation course so I can join a ship as soon as possible. 

While it doesn’t look like a lot from writing it down, it’s been a good distance covered and a hell of a lot in a short space of time. If anyone is reading these and fancies the career of a lifetime full of memories and people they won’t forget then get yourself a cadetship and get yourself to sea.

[tales-of-a-cruise-ship-engineer]

Merry Christmas!

Another year draws to a close, and what a year 2018 has been for me.

I sailed on a “new” ship, I furthered plans for my wedding and I had another few goes at the written exams for senior engineer. Man, that doesn’t sound like a lot for a year but there’s a lot that happens at sea that you can’t really explain.

In my last post I’d just got off the Sapphire and was on my way home, so between then and now I went to college in Southampton, studied my backside off and came home again. Nothing very exciting. But being in Southampton for three months meant I could see my fiancée every time she was in port, which was nice; along with seeing the old Arcadia a fair few times, which was a nice wander down memory lane with a pint as she sailed out on another adventure. In a few weeks she will be off on another world cruise, and I hope everyone has a good time! I know I did when I was there.

That’s the thing with a world cruise, you see some amazing places. I don’t remember if I’ve already told this story, but a few years ago we were sailing from Brisbane to Manila and we were diverted by the Indonesian Navy because they were on anti-piracy operations, so we went all the way round Papa New Guinea and into Indonesia that way. I think the place we went to in Indonesia was called Bitung, and I can’t remember the name of the place in Papa New Guinea we went to, but neither of them were on the cruise schedule and the captain just stopped there. Anyway, we pulled into Bitung, we were the only cruise ship there and the locals had turned out in force. Turns out that this place hadn’t really seen a white person since the Americans left in 1946 and there we are in 2015 (I think) arriving on a big white ship with 2500 white people. Literally everyone wanted photos with us all. To some of the people there we were the first white skinned people they had ever seen. We had a few beers which were worth about 25p each when you converted the currency (I got a round of 8 beers in 1 litre bottles for something like $2) and had a wander around. It was totally different to anywhere we had been before or went to since and I think that’s why its stuck with me. Proper “third world” area. I’d never have seen it if I weren’t on the ship.

I digress. A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.

[tales-of-a-cruise-ship-engineer]

So, Where Am I Now?

Well, that’s a good question. I’m home from my most recent contract on the Sapphire and it has to be one of the worst contracts I’ve ever had. I was hammered by a crappy boss more times than I could count and I was called a liar on more than one occasion by the senior officers. All in all, it was one bad management thing after another on there. However, I have got off and I asked the agent to not send me back there. What did I learn from that trip? How not to be a dick of a manager that’s for sure.

So where do I stand now? Well, at the time of writing I have three potential job interviews and at least one potential offer on the table. I have places I can go to. As for the previous company? I would go back if the contract was right. I’ve got one lined up for the New Year but that’s quite some time away yet.

In the more recent future I am in Southampton studying once again, and the fiancée is arriving in less than 48 hours so there’s things to look froward to.

Wish me luck with everything. I think I’m going to need it.

[tales-of-a-cruise-ship-engineer]

The First Entry...

The ship I served on the longest; Arcadia; is a diesel electric ship with Azipod propulsion. Occasionally you have to do entries into them for routine inspections and maintenance. It’s never anything serious by we used to do an entry into both azipods every month, or an entry every 2 weeks.

These are classed as enclosed spaces so they need a lot of permits to work; including enclosed space permit and high voltage electrical isolation permit; then once it is safe and everyone is happy then people can go in and have a look.

The thing with an azipod, everything you takenin must come back out. If you accidentally leave something in there you could seriously damage the electrics inside the azipod and then damage the ships propulsion.

The first time I went into an azipod I was getting a handover from the guy who was currently doing the role. My god it was a tight fit. I’m not a small guy, not chlaustropbobic but I do have issues with tight spaces I can’t easily get out of and that is not an easy space to get out of; and with the only ventilation being the fan you’ve got at the top of the unit to keep you with good fresh air it gets hot. It might not have helped that we were in the Mediterranean in the middle of summer and the sea temperature was something like 28 degrees centigrade. It was not a very pleasant experience.

There is also the small thing where you have to climb down three decks in that space that’s only just as wide as you are. I’m not a major fan of heights in the first place but there were times where you’re suspended by just your arms with your legs hanging below you and your feet aren’t on anything; and there’s a load of sensors in there that if you break them you can’t use the azipod so lose propulsion.

However, it was fascinating. You see the prop shafts on a ship with conventional shafts and rudders and it’s all fairly large and easy to get to, but it’s amazing how much you can cut out just by suspending it all underneath the ship! Yes I wasn’t a fan of going in and out of them but by using azipods you get better manoevering and smaller machinery spaces.

I can’t even count how many times I’ve been in and out of those azipods now. I know I don’t like enclosed spaces I can’t easily get it of or heights but you know what? There have been times that I’ve actually missed doing the pod entries.

(Image taken from a Google search of “ABB Azipods”)

[tales-of-a-cruise-ship-engineer]

The Thoughts We Have... (Part 2)

Following on from Part 1, it brings me to a memory at the other end of the scale. A more sobering one that you don’t really think of when someone says “cruise ship”.

You see dear reader (who presumably has found this by accident since I’m not using hash tags to link these posts to anything), when I did my first trip all those years ago I met a man called Ian Fraser. He was a second engineer from Glasgow in Scotland and he was brilliant. He was short, had an incredible beard and was always full of energy and humour. He loved a good party and frequently started a few in the officers bar. He, along with two other engineers were known as the Three Musketeers. There was always hell being raised when those three were on board and, to me, they were the physical embodiment of cruise ships. They were smart, knew pretty much everything about the ship but knew how to have a good time. They were the guys when you saw them on the joiners list for the ship you knew there were some very good times ahead.

It came as a total shock to us all when he was diagnosed with cancer. This is where the plan came into motion. The other two members of the musketeers were sat in a workshop one coffee break and were talking of shaving their heads as a sign of solidarity before he started chemotherapy. One of the fitters walked in and heard them and asked them if a few of the guys could join them; so word spread and pretty soon there’s a significant portion of the technical team up by the ships’ pool getting their heads shaved, myself included. We sent the photos home to him and he posted a status update on Facebook about how happy he was that we did it.

He was 29 years old when he was diagnosed, and had only just gone 30 when he left us for the great party in the sky. I was on a 17 day filler contract on Azura when I got the news. I still haven’t been up to Glasgow to say a proper goodbye and he died in 2015.

Keep a cold one ready for me pal. I don’t plan on joining you for a good long while yet but if there isn’t a slack Becks waiting for me on the bar I’ll be disappointed. Miss you mate.

[tales-of-a-cruise-ship-engineer]

The Thoughts We Have... (Part 1)

Isn’t it strange, the thoughts that come to you at 1am? I remember a story from the Arcadia; the first Crossing The Line ceremony I did.

For those of you that don’t know what I’m talking about, “The Line” is the equator and it’s a ceremony you undertake as you cross it. It doesn’t matter if you’re heading from North to South or vice versa, there’s a ceremony. On cargo ships I hear it’s rather brutal but on cruise ships it’s a much more civilised affair. No head shaving and being submerged in a wheelie bin full of leftovers that’s been stood out on deck for a few days for a start!

When I first crossed the line, I was on the 4-8 watch as 3rd Engineer, we crossed the line at about 5:30am but the passengers were asleep then so the ceremony was held at midday.

We were sorted into two teams, Crew vs Pirates. 5 people per team.

I was sorted into the pirates team, partially because I had a rather marvellous, if totally unkempt, beard (another engineer and I were having a beard growing contest to see who could grow the best without trimming or cutting it) but also because the deck officers were the Crew team and the engineers were the Pirates. There were a series of challenges we had to do.

One was the “boiler suit swim”. This is where each team member had to do 2 lengths of the ships’ pool in a boiler suit, but there was only one boiler suit per team. Another was collecting “treasure” (which were small sized bits of scrap metal that the Chief Engineer had donated to the cause since it was getting offloaded in the next port). Then there was the “Bucket Fill”; where each team had to fill a bucket with a hand towel. The catch was the entire team was sat beside the pool, the towel had to be dunked by the person at the front of the queue, then pass it back to the person at the back of the queue, who had to wring the towel into the bucket then get to the front of the queue to repeat. The final challenge was to recover as many apples from a bucket as you could; think of Bobbing for Apples, and all while being pelted with custard, baked beans and any other mostly-liquid food that the galley has left over from lunch.

The crew team won, but only because if they didn’t win then Poseidon wouldn’t give the ship and all persons on board his blessing to cross the Equator. All in all though, we all seemed to have a good laugh and it was good fun. The passengers seemed to enjoy seeing the crew on deck making fools of themselves but I’ve always enjoyed the interaction with passengers.

I’ve crossed the line 5 times now but I only got my certificate on the 5th time; while I was on the Adonia recently. Of course, you could say “why didn’t you get one from the other four times?” Or “why didn’t you just make your own?” Well, the Master of the ship has to sign it and the other Masters didn’t get round to it. A cruise ship captain has a lot to do I imagine; a busy man indeed! Although, he was there at the Crossing the Line that day. He was one of the best Captains I’ve had the pleasure of sailing with. I’ve got a few tales that he told us all over a lunch or an Engine Room visit or two! But those are for another time I think.

[tales-of-a-cruise-ship-engineer]

And, More Recently?

I disembarked the Saga Pearl 2 on January 28th and went home for about a week and a half then went to the Caribbean to rejoin my girlfriend on Adonia. The sale of the ship had already been agreed and these were her final two cruises as Adonia under the P&O flag. As I said earlier she is currently sailing to Freeport in the Bahamas for a dry dock before Azamara; a part of the Royal Caribbean brand; takes possession. There was one notable event happen while I was on board.

I asked my girlfriend to marry me and she said yes.

I was so unprepared and had no real plan; we were sat in one of the ships bars at the forward end of the ship one formal night and I just looked at her. She was a vision of beauty, so I asked her “hypothetically”, so if I did ask her what would she say. She replied with “hypothetically, I’d say yes”. So I asked her for real and she said yes. We then went to the shops on board and looked for a ring, but we couldn’t find one! She found a cheap “placeholder” ring until we found a “real” one which we found a few days later.

So that’s me now an engaged man, and I couldn’t be happier. Well, I could be happier. I couldn’t be writing this from a train that’s waiting to leave Kings Cross and take me back to the North East of England when I could still be on ship with her.

I also was offered a contract to join the other Saga ship; Saga Sapphire; in a few weeks. So there’s me doing more paperwork when I get home... after 36 hours awake. At least I think it’s 36 hours. I never really sleep on flights unless I’m totally shattered.

[tales-of-a-cruise-ship-engineer]

So, Where Next?

I ended up joining Saga Cruises in October 2017, and sailing on the Saga Pearl 2. She was launched in 1981 in West Germany and Saga acquired her in 2009. She’s scheduled to be replaced in 2019 by a new build, the first in Saga’s history. She was a totally different experience to what I’d sailed on before. She’s direct drive, 4-stroke engines, twin shaft with controllable pitch propellers (two engines per shaft) with three, 9 cylinder 4-stroke auxiliary engines. She wasn’t a “high voltage” ship as she only made 440V and it was solo watches. I learned a hell of a lot about being a ships engineer in three months on her let me tell you!

Again, it’s an Instagram screenshot but she is a beautiful ship.

[tales-of-a-cruise-ship-engineer]

The Next 9 Months

These were an interesting 9 months once I’d left Arcadia for the final time. I went to study for my next CoC, I had a car crash, went to the USA, Cuba and the Dominican Republic in one trip, failed said written exams for my next CoC but passed the oral exam and got a new job.

It seems I couldn’t escape my former employer since my girlfriend still worked for them, so I took the opportunity to spend a month with her on the Adonia.

A minor aside for those of you that are interested (as I am); Adonia is a small ship originally built in 2001 in France (the same yard that built the Queen Mary 2) for Renaissance Cruises and was called the “R Eight”. There were 8 ships of the class and she was the last one. Alas a terrible incident in New York happened in September that year so they ended up going bust and sold their ships. The R Eight went to a line called Swan Hellenic and changed her name to the Minerva 2, before being transferred to Princess Cruises to be the Royal Princess. After a few years she was transferred to the P&O Fleet and called Adonia. At the time of writing this she is on her way to the Bahamas for a dry dock, where her new owners will take possession and call her the Azamara Pursuit.

Anyway; back to the story. I was joining the girlfriend on her ship in Miami; so while looking for cheap return flights to Miami dad suggested taking another cruise to get home; so I got a deal on Cunard’s Queen Mary 2. Flights out to New York then cruise back on The Mary. For the money I saved I got the train down to Miami and 2 nights right on South Beach the weekend before Gay Pride started. What an experience that was! Crossing all those state lines on the train (it took 28 hours) then Pride. Oh I’ll never forget it.

Adonia was sailing for a Carnival Corporation project called “Fathom”. Impact Tourism is how it was sold; basically sail to Cuba or the Dominican Republic and do good things. Adonia was the first ship to sail directly from the US mainland to Cuba since the Embargo so that was quite a spectacular thing, and I went to Havana. It was quite nice to find a port where there wasn’t a McDonalds right next to the ship, and the old American sports and muscle cars from the 1950s were in remarkable condition!

It isn’t a good photo of Adonia in her Fathom colours since it’s a screenshot from my Instagram page.

[tales-of-a-cruise-ship-engineer]

It was 24th March 2014 when I landed in Dubai, a place I’d never been before and I had a full day before I joined the ship; so I went for an explore. I don’t recall a lot about that day, as it was hot and I was tired but it was a fairly nice place. The following day I was on the shuttle bus heading to the ship after bailing out the new to ship doctor who couldn’t pay his hotel bill as they didn’t take credit cards. The first time I saw the ship I was excited but had a feeling of dread. It was my first trip with a CoC and I was worried I would break something g and lose it. The sum total of the last 10 years had brought me to this moment. The MV Arcadia. The ship I spent 3 years on. I could write a book on what happened on there! I did 2 world cruises on that ship and saw some incredible things, I met some amazing people and dated a few women, including the woman I love; all of which I will write about over the next few posts (once I’m caught up on the trip down memory lane!) I left her for the final time on 2nd January 2017; when I resigned and went to do my second engineer exam preparation course. There are many times that I miss that ship but I do have to remind myself that I do have to move on with the times. Do I regret leaving? Not at all. It was the right thing to do at the time and it gave me a chance to reflect on a great many things. They were the first company I worked for and the first real job I had; I’d never done the part time work thing; I didn’t have a job while I was at college and I focussed on studying; so leaving wasn’t a bad thing. It has made my relationship more difficult but we are working on that.

[tales-of-a-cruise-ship-engineer]

The Moment I’ve Been Waiting For...

After the major turnaround of opinion of being at sea after Azura and Ventura showed me what I’d be missing if I did give up I went into the final college phase full of enthusiasm. The end was nigh; in a few months I would be a qualified engineer, but a few exams stood in the way first.

The first were my academics; things like maths, mechanics, thermodynamics; that kind of thing. I did pass those with varying degrees of pass level. The second we’re the Engine Knowledge exams (the EKs) which I also passed... just. The third was a spoken exam in front of an MCA examiner. This takes as long as it takes; I did it and passed in an hour and a half, where another person passed after three hours and another passed after just 35 minutes.

The final phase pretty much revolved around these exams. The nights out were few and far between but we did have a 25 hour session once the last exams were all done. I haven’t been able to manage such a feat since and I doubt I ever will again.

I still recall the day I told th office that I’d passed everything and was applying for my Certificate of Competency (CoC). They congratulated me and handed me over to technical rotations. I expected it to be a few days before they got in touch with me.

Nope. It was 2 hours. I was at the pub.

They wanted to know if I was available to join a ship that afternoon, to which I said I wasn’t going anywhere without my CoC. They said that was fine and they’d check back with me in a week or so to see if it had arrived yet. They then phoned pretty much once a day, every day for almost three weeks until they said “call this number and ask the MCA how they’re getting on with it, and say we will pay for the overnight courier service”. The woman I spoke to said “I have your CoC in my hand right now, it’ll be with you next week” to which I replied “the company says there is an overnight courier service they will pay for”... so I paid for that; still waiting on that £10 back from the office that I doubt I’ll ever see again!

The next day I had the black book with “Certificate of Competency” written on it. I had time to take a photo of it and post it to Facebook and then it was straight into the car to head off to join my first ship as a qualified engineer; the MV Arcadia.

[tales-of-a-cruise-ship-engineer]

Back To It I Guess...

To say things were not good would be a huge understatement. This is the phase when I was ready to throw it all away and give up.

It’s 7th January 2013 and I’m joining the MV Azura, a P&O Cruise ship that’s about to head for the Caribbean for 3 months. Most of you would think “That’s incredible! I’m very jealous!” However it was not so amazing as you might think.

I had 3 months to complete the purple folder I was talking about (so I had 80% of that still to do) as well as having not a huge amount of time to do it in, I was still all over the place from my relationship ending and I had been home for over a year, so was rather homesick. All I saw was a mountain to climb that was as high as the ship and I didn’t see how I would be able to manage. But we hammered across the Atlantic and did figures of eight around the islands for 3 months and the mountain did decrease.

I did get some time ashore in the Caribbean, and I think doing repeat ports helped me get the training record book done as I didn’t get off all the time.

The partying was significantly reduced and I didn’t have as much of a good time on there as I did on Aurora but it was a very good and enjoyable trip. It did eventually help me get over the blues that being ashore had put me in with the break up and the death of my granddad. Mum and dad even came on board Azura for a week for the reposition back to the UK. They spent an extortionate amount of money on board the ship. The purser has linked their account to my crew number so they got crew discount and had managed to rack up a few thousand pounds on my crew account. The Chief Engineer came down the day before we arrived in Southampton and told me that my card had been declined and I’d better go and try and get it sorted. So I printed off my account bill and saw they’d booked a full spa treatment as well as other expensive things on there and went to see them. Mum was very apologetic and told me to link her card to my account, so I did... and I MAY have “forgotten” to un-link it again when they got off! Think of the Marks&Spencer points mum!

This trip taught me the value of hard graft and effective planning and tracking your progress. Form a plan, get your head down and get through it all and review to see how you’re doing. It almost worked too. Alas I still had some signatures left to get.

I disembarked Azura on 16th April and had 11 days at home before boarding her sister ship, the Ventura, on 27th April.

I had 4 weeks on there; from 27th April to 27th May. I got the last signatures done by the end of the first week, so I did 3 weeks as acting junior watchkeeper on the 12-4 watch and it was great! I loved it and couldn’t wait to get all my exams done and qualify so I could do it all myself!

What a difference a few months makes eh? Those two ships really turned me around; from wanting to end my brief fling at sea to wanting it to never end.

[tales-of-a-cruise-ship-engineer]

You Met Me At A Weird Time...

As you can imagine I didn’t have a very good leave before I started the second college phase. Going to and from hospital on a regular basis, granddad having us all round his bed saying he wanted to go home was a sign that it was only a matter of time. He didn’t want to die in hospital, but at home in his own bed with my grandma by his side. Dad and I went home and moved the bed downstairs. We didn’t say a word to each other. I think we were both only just holding our composure at this point. I went up to South Shields that night after dad said he wasn’t going to leave us tonight and he’d be here tomorrow.

He wasn’t.

2:45am on November 20th. That’s when the phone rang and dad told me he was gone. I don’t remember actually getting from the flat in South Shields back home but I do remember getting onto the A19 and not stopping for hell or high water. The MacMillan nurses were already there when I arrived (I don’t think they’d left) and they made us all tea and they did their best to help us through.

I will ALWAYS have the time of day for the MacMillan nurses. I regularly donate to them. I will also always have time for anyone that is going through the pain of a relative going through cancer.

The company were very considerate at this point. I phoned them in the morning and told them that I wasn’t at college that morning because this had happened. They were aware that this was all happening as I’d told them when I got off Aurora that granddad wasn’t well. The cadet manager actually remembered him as the man with the incredible sea stories so they told me to take my time and let them know when I was heading back to college. They checked in with me every week to see if there was anything I needed and how I was doing. It’s amazing how quickly a company can turn around when it wants to, but that’s a set of stories for a later post.

After the funeral I went back up to college as well as hitting a very low point in my life; as you can imagine! The head of the family was gone. The one that helped kick off my career at sea was gone. I also realised that outside of the family I was very much alone.

So the quest for a girlfriend began.

On reflection, it probably wasn’t the best time to be trying to get into a relationship to be honest as I was still a bit of an emotional wreck but hey ho! Online dating I go! That’s when I found a very attractive girl who I seemed to get along with rather well and she didn’t fall into the online dating profile of being a total creep (Yes it happens to guys as well! We do get total creeps messaging us, but more than likely nowhere near the extent that the women do). We met up a few times and dated for almost a year. The entire of the third college phase we were together. She was a student at a nearby university and it wasn’t too out of the way to spend time with her and I was feeling happy.

If you’ll forgive me, and allow me to indulge myself for a moment;

She was shorter than me; perfect hug height. My head rested perfectly on top of hers. She had a gorgeous smile and an infectious laugh. She dyed her hair red, like a bit darker than fire engine red, not ginger and her dress sense was quirky and interesting with big dresses and corsets and bright shoes. Oh she was pretty much everything I was looking for at the time. She was a total nerd; loved comics and Marvel, she read books, so many books! She could go through a book in a matter of days and it was nice to jist watch her read. You could tell she was really into books as her facial expressions would change with the story.

Anyway, that’s enough of that. Now, where was I? Oh yes!

We broke up just before Christmas 2012.

I’d got my joining instructions for my second ship and she didn’t want me to go back to sea.

The thing to remember though dear reader is the date. There was a ship called the Costa Concordia that sank in 2012. A big maritime disaster where people died and the ship I was scheduled to join was a similar size and class of ship to her; so I can see where the “don’t go back to sea” attitude came from.

We both knew this day was coming but she didn’t want me to. She played the “its this thing you want to do or me” card. Alas she evidently didn’t know me very well as when that decision comes up I’ll choose what I want to do first. The sea was there before her and if she didn’t want to accept that then that was her problem.

On reflection, phase 3 was a weird time in my life. I don’t remember anything about college at all; it all seemed to go smoothly and there weren’t any real issues there. It was all personal stuff that happened in that college phase.

Again, stay in school kids. This phase taught me that companionship is very important and it can be very hard work, but if you look too hard for the right person you may end up with the wrong one. My desire to have a girlfriend took me down a very odd path in my life. I wasn’t exactly emotionally stable when I got into a relationship and then I was made even worse when I left to go on my second ship.