seafaring stories

[Captain Kong]

Fantastic Tony, I like your style.
That is what retirement is all about. Best of luck with the next adventure. And wish you many more.
Cheers
Brian

[happy daze john in oz]

I have a very good friend here who will not take a holiday. He works part time driving the school bus for disabled children. He tells me he is saving for his retirement in four years time. His wife has a very good position and earns a fortune. She takes no notice of him and goes on holiday with their youngest son who has a growing deficiency problem. She says it will be no good to me when I retire if I am sick or not fit to enjoy it. She tells my friend that he could end up a very rich invalid and why wait forever for something you may never get. Captain Kong you have the right approach to it all, spend the lot before the tax man and the government death duties get it.


Ferrets sleep for almost 20 hours a day.
Not many people know that.

[Michael Lawrence]

Can't fault you lads reckon you've the right idea. My bank give me free European insurance for the next 2 years(75) but when I told them I ski they put £35.00 on top, then they found I was getting over a cancer op and had A.F. they managed to put it up to £135.00 (funny free insurance) they won't insure the W.R. as she's had 3 heart attacks. The thing that puzzles me is it's mostly the youngsters who have the trouble. Have a few drinks and try and balcony hop or down a couple of bottles of vodka and finish up dead witth inhaled vomit. I see 'em on the piste during the day and their still on the p**s in the evening. I reckon I'm just jealous especialy when I see them in the sauna!!!!!!!

[Captain Gordon Whittaker]

We have a sticker on the car,"Retired and spending the kids' inheritance." We are off soon on cruise number 6 and looking forward to visiting some ports of my youth. (Expect a few changes there, then!). My best mate died recently at 64 years of age and left a fortune for his widow. He never got to spend a single penny of his carefully hoarded investments. He worked and saved all his life and keeled over without ever having a holiday. My old Granny used to tell me, "You are a long time dead, enjoy today and ignore tomorrow." That is our outlook now, and we have great fun enjoying a little bit of pampering.

[happy daze john in oz]

I think the insurance system varies between countries. My brother in law in London cannot get insurance on his wife now as she is over 80 so no more flying to Spain. But he tells me he can still go by train or drive.
Here in Oz all the travel agents and others try to sell you insurance but it is not compulsory here. It is left up to tje individual as to how they cover themselves. We egt cover with our credit card, with a few limitations, but it does work. My wife had a cracked hire car windscreen in Ireland for which whe was charged 1400 euros to fix by the hire car company. But we got all but the first $100 back.

[Dennis McGuckin]

Don't ever go to the U.S.A. without health insurance.
Some horror stories about people who did and became ill.
Had to sell their home to pay the medical bill.
At my age [74] the cost of medical insurance from Canada, works out to about $10 per day.
Expensive, but better than the alternative.
Den.

[Neville Roberts]

My old Dad used too come over to the states nearly every year when he was in his seventies , one time he got peumonia and was in hospital for 4 days with all kinds of tests , cost him $0 .and about a month after he got home the insurance sent him a check for 400 pounds the remainder of what they owed him . I dont know how that worked but he kept it any way , we in the states are covered for travel with our medicare ,at least thats what my HMO tells me .

[Rodney Mills]

Neville.

The Medicair programs in the U.S.A. are in two parts. Original Medicair and Medicair Advantage Plans (Part C). Original Medicair Parts Part B, covers foreign travel medical emergencies only under minor conditions, i.e. cruise ship travel when vessel is in U.S. territorial waters, travel in Canada only when traveling the most direct, shortest route between Alaska and a U.S. State plus a couple of simlilar events. Medicair Advantage (which I assume you have re. your mention of Health Maintenance Organizations (H.M.O.)), may cover foreign travel depending on an individual plan, as you know all plans are different. Usually with H.M.Os, one has to go to doctors and hospitals that participate within the system. I doubt foreign countries are into reciprocal or acceptance arrangements with U.S. H.M.Os. Your plan may be an exception to the rule, but mate, I suggest you ask, and have some conformation in hand, if you are into foreign travel. Best not to take a chance, what with todays cost of medical. In general, U.S. retirees, relying on Medicair are not covered outside of the U.S.A., and must purchase private medical coverage.

Cheers Rodney.

[happy daze john in oz]

As a young lad at school our teacher, a Miss Buchanan from Queensland, spoke to us about the dreaded mosquito and the ravages of malaria telling us the only cure was to take Quinine.
I discovered early in the piece that tonic water contained quinine and being very afraid of contracting the deadly malaria took to drinking large quantities of it. It is not the most exciting drink on it's own so I spiced it up with some of Dr. Gordon's elixir. This as many of you may recall was known as the G&T antimalarial.
Port Elizabeth outward bound can be a bit quiet, a time to recover after a Thursday night in Cape Town.
At the time in question I was serving as officers steward with accommodation on the boat deck. Mick, my best mate, and later to be best man at my wifes wedding, was an assistant cook in charge of the roast and soup corner of the main galley. His accommodation, an inboard cabin was way down on a lower deck.
Mindful of the danger of mosquito's in Durban, where we would be on Tuesday, I decided to visit him in his cabin and have just a couple of antimalarials with him.Taking with me a large bottle of Dr. Gordon's elixir and a large bottle of tonic water.
On arrival I found him writing to his fiancé in Southampton but he agreed with me that we should take all precautions to avoid contracting malaria so a couple of shots of antimalarials was in order.
That was where the trouble began, on opening the bottle of Dr. Gordon's the top slid from my grasp landing on the cabin deck. However try as I may I could not locate it.
We sat for some time drinking the medicine and talking when suddenly I noticed the level of the elixir had dropped dramatically.
Mick I yelled, we have a problem the elixir is evaporating, if this continues we will be in serious trouble. If the fumes get into the air conditioning system half the ships crew could be effected by them. We had visions of half the crew rolling around drunk from the fumes.
Mick suggested that maybe we should have another glass each, at least that would reduce the amount of evaporation taking place. Of course I agreed, what a sensible solution.
But not long after I realized it must still be evaporating as over half the bottle was now gone.
What do we do Mick, I asked, how can we prevent a further draft of evaporated elixir getting into the air conditioning?
This calls for some drastic action replied Mick, we must be strong and take just a little drop more each. Again I realized Mick was talking sense but now realized we had a second problem. The bottle of elixir was only a quarter full but we had no tonic. If we drank the elixir without the quinine laced tonic water would it still act as an antimalarial?
We thought for a few moments but realized that we had a duty to the rest of the crew not allow any more fumes into the aircondtioning system. Nothing for it, we had to be brave and finish the elixir neat.
With the bottle now empty we felt much better, we had saved most of the crew from a death worse than fate, would we be hero's I wondered.
Time to go, but as I stood I realized the tonic water had gone straight to my legs, to make matters worse the ship was lurching all over the place. Must be some heavy waters in port tonight.
I made it back to my bunk some time later and slept the rest of the just.
It was some weeks later back in Southampton getting ready for our next voyage, I was in the Bargate with Mick and his fiancé. She told me of the letter she had received from Mick. It appeared as if it had been written by an incoherent drunk she told me. It was many years later that I told her the truth of how Mick and I had saved the ships crew from a disaster. Her only comment, it was you two the disaster not the ship!
Females can be so cruel and ungrateful at times.



Reindeer milk is 52% fat. Not many people know that.

[Glan Phillips]

Den, your dead right. I'm stuck here until I can sort this place out and sell up. I got scammed by the U.S. social security system, hence I have no social security or medicare and have no health insurance whatsoever. I am 7 years ahead of you and just hoping that I can make it back home this year.
They reckon there are over 48 million without health insurance in the USA......great.....even Cuba has a good system for ALL its people.

Cheers....Glan