Sitting around the table with seafarers you can expect to have conversations, lots of them. Also, there are many comments even laments to which one has to listen.........always.lots of listening! Take for example the story of an older cook from the Philippines, who has been at sea since 1980. He lamented that when he retires soon, his three children will not be home any more. All three have graduated from university. Two of them are working in Saudi Arabia and the third is also planning to leave the country. Here he is, having worked for more then 30 years aboard ship, hardly ever home, unable to see his children grow up, yet sacrificing many years to pay for their education and now they will be gone...................I could only listen..
On another occasion,, the chief officer of a container ship told me that they are days behind schedule due to 5 days of heavy fog in China. Fog and pollution, that is. Normally, he said, if that would happen you would increase your speed to maximum! But those days are over. Fuel is so expensive now that arriving on time is not an option anymore. How times have changed in such a short time!
