A lot of people ask me how I got into cruising considering I was in debt collection before this. Well  I suppose you could say it's in my blood.


For those of you that don't know, my Dad was a Captain in the Merchant Navy. Unfortunately he was away for ten to twelve months of the year but, as he was Captain for one a month or more he was allowed to bring his young family on board. Nowadays I'm sure this would never happen, as Cargo ship's  tend to not have any safety railings or child gates and health and safety would have a field day.

I must have gone away with him three or four times, between the ages of six and nine. I still remember climbing down the ladders in the empty Cargo holds and playing football with my Dad, trying to kick the football out, I remember the wind being so strong, I couldn't even walk into it and the ship's engineers trying to make me a small boat out of old pieces of wood.

As you can imagine this was quite the experience, but that is not where the family association with the sea ends. My uncle was a specialist deep sea driver for the Navy and my grandfather was also in the Navy. Although it can be argued that my job is not quite as dangerous as the above, I can still safety say that I am carrying on with the family tradition.