Cargoes

Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack,

Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,

With a cargo of Tyne coal,

Road-rails, pig-lead,

Firewood, iron-ware, and cheap tin trays.

-John Masefield

The Boat

Even the boat, which sails

Upon the pathless seas,

Where white waves toss their heads,

Finds a trusty guide in the breeze.

Fujiwara no Katsuomo

Disposing of things:

We collect so many things, possessions, objects of desire that we do not need and will probably never use. A perfect example was my childhood – which should end some time soon– when I was always on the lookout for some small, interesting and useless thing that I could carry in my pocket; a talisman of sorts. Do not ask why, it just seemed a rooly cool idea @ the time. Wanker!!

Late in 2008 when I realised that Mexico was going to be a reality I was faced with the awful choice of what to take, what to store, and what could find new homes. Everything I own – which is not much anyway except for the above mentioned thingo in my pocket – needed to be put into one of these three categories in such a manner that would not cause regret at some stage later in my life. There was the obvious, easy solution of storing everything thereby delaying the inevitable decisions, but I bit the bullet and started to cull. Heather on the other hand has taken the “store it” path mainly because there is not enough time left to sort through all her stuff.

The first group to face the axe were my books. This was relatively easy as I had already released numerous into the wild through BookCrossing, an on-line organisation that coordinates the free distribution of pre-loved books.

(Read, Recycle, Release with BookCrossing!

Welcome to BookCrossing, where books have adventures of their own. BookCrossing is earth-friendly, and gives you a way to share your books, clear your shelves, and conserve precious resources at the same time. Through our own unique method of recycling reads, BookCrossers give life to books. BookCrossing books are not stagnant dust collectors, but living entities travelling the world as true BookCrossing emissaries. Our books find new readers and introduce them to the wonders of BookCrossing.) Check it out – it is a great way to share your books.

I kept a small number, gave a few special ones to my children and released the rest at the Coffee Mamma van in Dean Street, Albury, to be found by the eclectic (eccentric, epileptic) crowd who get their daily fix there.

Pictures are different – I am keeping them all although the kids are helping by looking after some of them until we return. Impossible to part with them.

(OOOOPS!!! Heather has just read this and informed me that she has culled some of her things! She called me a wanker!)

If you want to make god laugh.....

The adventure begins in Melbourne when we join the French container ship CMA CGM Utrillo (1999-built, 30,508-dwt) for the twenty six day voyage to Savannah on the east coast of the southern United States.

As you may know I spent the early part of my working life at sea mucking around in boats. I loved it most of the time and never really managed to extract myself from it. I still get my fix of ships by wandering around ports and harbours when the opportunity arises and have even toyed with the idea of returning…but once I started taking my medication again I realized that it was an unrealistic and unworkable proposition, that is until the idea of going to Mexico by sea entered my fevered brain.

When initially investigating the possibility of traveling by sea in mid 2008 the total cost was $AU5,200, a bit steep when you consider that the return airfare was about $6,000. However we bit the bullet, made the booking and looked forward to a relaxing adventure on the high seas (lashings of food that we did not have to prepare, no domestic chores, free alcohol with lunch and dinner, wild weather, and pirates). This was before the world financial meltdown which saw the Australian dollar fall dramatically against the US dollar and the Euro but the extra surprise was the new pricing structure for the few available cabins which saw us with $11,440 to find instead of the initial $5,200. Whilst I was cautious Heather took the “bugger it” approach so our fates were sealed – we are off on the Utrillo.

The voyage takes us to Savannah in the US via Napier, Tauranga, the Panama Canal and Punta Manzanillo. We could have done it differently by going directly to the west coast of Mexico but the lure of transiting the Panama Canal was too strong: how many people do you know who have steamed through the canal on a cargo ship!?

That roaring you hear is not the rain on the roof but god pissing his boots at the audacity of these mere humans thinking that it will all work out!!

Apart from the obvious attractions of a sea voyage it will be fascinating to see how on-board life has changed over the last quarter century. My memories are of heavy drinking whenever one was off watch and even heavier when in port. This was particularly so in the days prior to containerisation when everything was loaded in slings that could move little more than 3 tons/lift - in some places it was carried on board one bag at a time - several days or weeks could be spent alongside while the vessel loaded/discharged her cargo giving all the crew ample time to drink. This would be done in the bar on board, where the booze was duty free on foreign going ships, or ashore. In retrospect it would seem that alcoholism was a major problem amongst the people I worked with including myself; it was not uncommon to drink a case of beer a day and present for watch still hung-over. Not unexpectedly this culture of excessive drinking led to accidents and, one would think, a breakdown in organizational structure as it was not atypical to find some officers almost permanently incapacitated for much of the trip. For further reading you can find an interesting PhD thesis written by Ian Shea at the University of Tasmania on the topic at http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1023/

It is interesting to note that my last ship, the ORV Franklin, (owned by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, managed by Associated Steamships) was dry but this did not stop some of the crew from drinking a litre bottle of spirits each during a short stop in Truk lagoon, a scuba diving paradise in the Federated States of Micronesia. Some habits die hard.

Other more mundane areas of change will revolve around the level of crewing on a modern vessel. The cabins that are used by the passengers are those now redundant as cost conscious shipping companies reduce the crew levels to the minimum; this is driven in part by financial constraints. Other factors effecting crew size are the high levels of automation in the shipping industry and the outsourcing of much of the maintenance to shore gangs. I am sure there are more which I will discover when I finally settle back into ship board life – is the rigid demarcation between officers and crew still in place? Are titles, uniforms and rank as important as they were 25 years ago? I cannot wait to find out!!

2008 - el comienzo mexicano de la odisea

Following is a (poorly) edited version of emails sent during our stay in Guanajuato in June/July 2008. (Where are u when we need you Angus?)

G'day mate! Buenos noches.

What a weekend!! We went on a trip organised by Escuela Mexicana to a couple of other centres in Central Mexico with six of our fellow suffers. We passed through some really poor villages and grotty cities but one of the highlights was a night on an island in the middle of a lake formed by volcanic activity. Yeah, I can hear youse all yawning from here but read on, it can only get better – I hope.

On Sunday we went for a walk on a lava field formed in 1943 when a nearby volcano exploded. The interesting thing about it was the church in the middle, which is 3/4 buried in lava with just the spires sticking out plus the altar area. It was fascinating to see that the local indigenous people still make offerings @ the altar. Unfortunately I managed to slip and twist my ankle and had to be taken back to the car by horse. How very uncool is that?! A bit of self-assessment showed that there were no fractures or serious ligament damage but the pain was pretty extreme (Ain´t I just the clever little shite!!) I think I did something almost illegal by Australian standards. There were 2 American girls - 12 and 14 yo - on the

trip who ended up staying in our cabin. Unfortunately the 12yo, Ariel, freaked out when she saw her room and wouldn’t sleep in it so Heather, ever the mum, said she could share the double bed with her. This left me with Terra in the same room as me but thank god there were 2 singles. Now they both call us Mom and Dad @ school in front of everyone. Kinda nice really. I think the whole thing was a way to make sure we didn´t do "it".

The rooly exciting thing to happen was getting stopped by the Policia Federal. These guys were armed to the teeth and backed up by soldiers who seemed to like pointing their automatic weapons at people. It turned out that they are part of the enormous crack down on drugs that is taking place here at the moment. We 3 guys had to provide ID while they searched the car but they didn´t bother with the women in our group. God only knows what they made of the Australian, German and US drivers licenses but they were pleasant and let us go without looking for bribes. Thank god I had put my stash in Heather’s bag.

Let me tell you a thing or three ‘bout Mexico:

Food: So far I have not found any Mexican food worth crossing the street for. I find this disappointing and frustrating as I was hoping to gorge on rooly tasty tucker but there is only so much soggy tortilla one can eat without screaming STOP. Some people have told us that there are no good Mexican restaurants in Guanajuarto but this is hard to believe in a city of 98,000 souls so I guess I will have to wait until we come back in 2009 and can investigate properly. Meanwhile it is back to El Midi, a French eatery next door to this computer cafe. The food there is delicious, cheap and plentiful. With beer and We have 4 more days of school before heading to Mexico city for a few days. Heather has been there before and loved it so, cost notwithstanding, I have agreed to go and experience a city of 25 million inhabitants. There are ancient pyramids nearby so it will be very interesting, expensive and tiring. At least I can sleep on the coach ride.

The long distance coaches are fantasitc. As you board you are handed a bag containing a drink, food and, most important, some candy....er, sorry, lollies. The seats are wide, come complete with leg rests and are much further apart than anything you see in Oz. It is like having a Jason recliner in a bus. Oh, don´t forget the video screen that pops down from the ceiling and the 2 dunnies. All this for a 5 hour ride @ $37 each.

Well, I hope I have y´all green with envy. We love it so the decision to move here for a couple of years is easy.

2 courses we would rarely spend more than $7 each on a meal, often less if we go the Mexican route where it would be closer to $4.

Beer: Corona @ $1.50! Other ones are even cheaper. Pity I don´t drink much anymore but Heather is more than making up for it. I have signed her up with Mexican AA which is also next door to El Midi. We can have lunch, a beer, send an email and attend a meeting all in the same area!

Police: They usually hunt in packs and carry more fire power than your average SAS soldier on a 3 month patrol in Afghanistan. Oh and don’t forget the bullet-proof vests. There are several layers of police here but most seem to carry some sort of automatic weapon. That Mullet idiot (secretary of the Vic police association) would love it! If they pull u up there is a little verbal dance that must be followed and a bribe paid at the end. Thankfully this only seems to happen to foreigners who are silly enough to drive here.

Weather: Brilliant. It is summer here at the moment, which is also the wet season. When it rains, as it does late most afternoons, it just buckets down and floods the streets. Because of the flat roofs quite a few houses have to clean up as well. Surprisingly it is not humid but just right. I think the winter is also warm sans the rain. A funny thing though - the Guanajuartanese don’t wear shorts. (maybe they all have legs like mine and don’t want to frighten the tourists away)

My spelling/grammar: I don’t care about it. You wouldn’t either if u had to learn Spanish grammar! And type on a Spanish keyboard that has a whole lot of different stuff

Utilities: Gaz y agua. Not many houses are connected to mains gas so everything is run on bottled gas. Every morning a guy roams the streets calling out "gaz" so u just yell back and he changes your bottles. The same applies to drinking water although the tap water is not too bad.

Viernes, 11 de julio de 2008.

Last day @ Escuela Mexicana. We finished la clases gramitica at 1100hrs then skipped vocabulario to finish off getting ready to hit the road in the morning. ´Twas a bit sad leaving the school especially leaving our new children Ariel and Terra behind but we gave then a little pewter roo and koala plus Australian flags. How gauche is that! I also "found" an American cousin in the shape of a kid, Cameron, from Nashville Tenn who was in our classes this week. Surrounded by f.....g kids - the things u see when u don’t have a gun!!! At least we can stop pretending to do homework.

We have loaded up with all sorts of things over the last couple of days!! Beautiful rugs x 2 (from a place I can´t spell which starts with O and has an X in it some where and ends with an A), exquisite pottery x lots from local artists (the shards should look lovely when I rearrange them after the flight), a painting (me come home without a painting? Never!!), Day of the Dead stuff, and tee shirts for me. Oh, I nearly forgot - Heather bought a 2nd hand velour dress. Ain´t she all class!!!!

Made quite a few contacts with expat Yanks to try and unravel the costs/availability of good rental properties, the cost of health care and what visa we will need to stay here for more than 6 months. Although every person has a different story there are certain threads coming through that lead us to believe that 1) rent is cheap as long as u don´t deal with agents, 2) good health care is easy to access for very little cost and 3) we need an FM2 visa (betcha didn’t know that !!). Everybody complains about the waiting times in the hospitals but coming from the Australian public health care system.....