Best Trip.

[Graham Payne]

This is a hard question I know, and as the saying goes ( the last ship was always the best )
but what was the best voyage you did ?
I thought long and hard about this, mine was " RFA Tidespring " July '66 til Dec '66, it had everything, interest in the job, exotic ports, plenty time ashore, good crew, plenty of beer and the lovely Ladies of Sydney & Freemantle not to mention Yokohama, Singapore, and Subic Bay ( especially after the American blokes had to be back on their base by midnight ) Happy Days.

[Keith Tindell]

Mine was Durham Trader, Oct62-Aug63, was supposed to be a six week trip to Cuba, we got within 200 miles of Cuba when the Cuban crisis took off, as we had shifting boards fitted for the sugar from Cuba, they diverted us to Durban for grain, then Japan, Oz, Japan again, Italy via the Suez, New Orleans , and home 10 months, but a great crew, happy days Keith Tindell

[Doc Vernon]

Well Graham
As said that is a hard one,but i can say that the last Trip i did by Sea was the best,as it was a trip on the old Athlone Castle as a DBS back to Cape Town ,and i had the run of the Ship so to speak,with plenty to do,and was allowed to Mingle with the passengers !
Sitting at Table being served on was the Highlight. Cheers

[happy daze john in oz]

So many good voyages, but the one thta really sticks out was the NZSC Paparoa. Scheduled for four weeks on the Oz coast, but the painters and dockers took a liking to us and just would not let us go. Close to four months there. Six o clock swill, oh waht bliss.

[Graham Payne]

Doc
as DBS you hit the bloody jackpot there mate Well done.

[Louis the Amigo]

hi shipmates, the best trip?? all or them but at the time I never knew.

[Terry Calpin]

Best trip I had was on the St Margaret in 19 54 up and down the South America coast, I thought I was in heaven, you cant turn the clock back i did'nt sign back on her, and got an awful ship up the West Coast of Africa, serves me right.
Terry Calpin

[Rocky]

Can you really say it was a trip i flew to Singapore then flew home from Singapore 6 months later where had i been only to Singapore that was when they did the cut and shut job on the kiwi star and added an extra hatch plenty of shore leave that trip

But serious i had left Manchester liners and was on my first star boat the Almeria back in 81 went to James st offices in Liverpool and was told fly out to Rotterdam for a 3 month trip paying off on the continent yea good 3 months try nearer to 7 but what a trip i still remember every place we went on that one and the order we hit them spider spinks as bosun and rest of deck crew all under 28

OK here is the run Rotterdam to teneriffe then back up to Rotterdam off to agadir Marseilles and dropped anchor at gib for the weekend of down to santos and then north again to canaveral and tampa through the panama and up to la away across the water to the land of the rising sun with a short stay in Tokyo and Yokohama then down to bluff to load lamb for the UK and dropped anchor for a week within sight of the Thames before going home that last week was a killer

[Ivan Cloherty]

Best trip I had was on the St Margaret in 19 54 up and down the South America coast, I thought I was in heaven, you cant turn the clock back i did'nt sign back on her, and got an awful ship up the West Coast of Africa, serves me right.
Terry Calpin

Got to concurr with that Terry, my first taste of Cuba and the West Coast of South America was in 1954, if ever a coast was needed to persuade a young man to stay at sea, then the WCSA was it. It was surprising what a young clean living, innocent looking boy could get for a bar of "Yardley's". Swopped so many of my cherries for bars of Yardleys in different bars I felt like a greengrocer .................. memories............... make you cry sometimes

[leratty]

Ah Ivan any sailor or later for me mining-civil engineer who did not love Sth America would have to have been odd! Those memories are still with I suggest all of us, am in hindsight amazed we got through some of the trips (: Valparaiso, B. A. & Monti, Santos, Recifie all just beyond belief. Similarly Baranquia, Cartigahana, Cuba, Mexico + many more. What an introduction to women & booze, surreal! I had the good fortune after leaving the sea & qualifying going back down there also Jamaica for a few years, so the party went on until my mid-late 20's (: Shock to the system came when I was posted to Baltimore office, man talk about conservative & non drinkers + church on Sundays too quite a change.