When is the next sailing of Wanganella from the West Island?

I think you should ask E-S about that. He is on the Island to the West. But Wanganella? Is this some ailment of the social kind?

Not sure if she’s going anywhere soon.

She fared better than the Wahine after her tangle with Barrets Reef -
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/page/liner...d-barrett-reef
That photo that Malcy put up is when she was being used as a floating hostel for workers building the Manapouri Hydro Scheme.
YM, you'll have to organise another ship I'm afraid - Wanganella is long gone.

Oh well I suppose that I will just have to stay here then!:jester:

Well we made it to the Mediterranean. Need a good port with all amenities to lay up in for a while lads. any suggestions? we could be here till the Agent gets us a job

Valetta. Never been there but it sounds like a nice historic place to visit.

Never warmed to it.
My judgement is coloured by a horror of a Drydocking in 1977.

Grand Harbour? I just worry that one day they might load live ammo in the midday gun.
Perhaps Marsaxlokk would be better for you.
They fly a reverse St Andrew’s flag so Tweedie should feel ‘at home’.

I remember Phoenicia as an OK gaff. Might get ashore there for a dinner or two.

(Sister-in-law tells me on this week's Sunday sked that she has booked insanely cheap all in to Malta - from Harrow-in-the-hole - I must remember to ask the purser if he has been doing any business on his own account!)

If they do load the midday gun (probably 1300 to give them time to calculate noon and their 'rate') do we rate our chronometer by the bang or by observing fall of shot?

5 star hotel = OK gaff. So what do you call a mere 3 or 4 star hostelry?
The gun? I just note the muzzle flash, unless I intend the calculate range to correct elevation.
(Yes, I have worn the white lanyard, but not in full time soldiery.)

Field or Garrison ?

Ah! Someone who knows about long range snipers.
That would be Field then.
Drill - load dummies and everyone shout “Bang!”

Ok, Marsaxlokk, looks fine. I'll get my watercolours out. The flag looks nice, St Andrew, patron saint of fisherman.
ES - what happened in the drydock in '77? You didn't flush the heads did you? Or did the ship fall over?
Now you guys with your big cannons - keep hot things away from my touch hole - I might go off.

And here's me thinking Marsaxlokk was a cure for diarrhoea. I'm still not convinced it isn't.

Similar to rugby, a game played ( badly ) in NZ, what happens in drydock stays in drydock

Valetta it is then. we are to moor opposite the cruise terminal. I am told there are ''Hostelries a plenty there''

5 Star? It must have been Conoco that arranged that (joining and leaving C. Europe) Mimco would have chosen something a little more down market.

Only cure for a passing looseness is Capt. MacAllister's Much-Griping-belly-balm. 50/50 brandy and port (neither need to be of other than the cooking variety so keep off the Rochas). The pain goes and there is once more firmness in the fundament - his dose was short a drop or two. A 'wine glass'. Half a pint is more like it.

("Keep off the Rochas" is not a "bridge night order" but a warning that you'll lose your good character if I find you treating the aged Tawny and the XO as a nautical drench for jolly jack's gypie-tummy.

Not sure if also a specific for decomposing touched holes. A transplant might be more efficacious. Although finding a donor orifice might not be as much the problem as selecting one that might not reject the recipient).

I was hoping for a ripping yarn about Drydock '77. It's been a long time since then, so you whatever you did must be out of the statute of liabilities by now.
Rugby used to be a great game in NZ, back when the players played for national pride, for the fans and for each other. Now that they're paying these guys humungous salaries, it's all got very boring - team owners only want bums on seats and profit profit profit. The all blacks are half owned by an American consortium. The season for rugby used to be winter, but it's year round now and the players (many of them primadonnas) are getting injured playing on hard surfaces in the summer here (it's pre-season games at the moment) and often they're carrying injuries into winter with them. Sports betting affects a lot of games too.
I don't know where they tummy trots came from in this thread - someone thinking of bad seafood at Marsaxlokk? Anyone remember Askit Powders? That's what I got when I was a kid. Nowadays, I'm on so many painkillers all the time which bung up anything close to the runs.

Askit Powers
Beechams Powders
Mrs Cullens Powders
Keatings Powders

All before Big Pharma ruled the roost.

Woodward's Gripe water (better than town gas for settling the little ones down Nanny reckoned).
Propter's Nicodemus pills. (Sold by aged uncles the world over)
Potter's Catarrh pastils (Tunes may help you breath more easily, Potter's catarrh pastils make you do so).
Dollop.

Beecham - wasn't he the guy who stuffed up the trains? Nice to have good memories, but not bad ones.

At this point one should mention Dr John Collins Browne’s compound - Famously addictive in its original formula but somewhat toned down over the years.
Pertinent here is that he apparently designed emergency packs for lifeboats, which also contain Class C drugs, as I discovered when I had to lawfully dispose of the expired products and obtain replacements during annual survey.

on sick bay time again. need 4 lower front teeth pulled but Anaesthetic injections will not work due to nerve damage from years back. Dentists dont do GA,s anymore so looks like being a hospital job for GA. so peed off with the pain. been trying to get rid of them for many years and many dentists have tried. they just snap off when they try...painful!!

Jeez BB, far too much info.

Heading for bathroom to brush teeth.

Best of luck.

Some of that expired morphine from the lifeboat medipac would come in handy....

Teeth!!? I wouldn't wish teeth pain on anyone. Every time I go to the mouth mechanic he just wants to take teeth out. When I smile I look like a broken xylophone and it doesn't help that I'm cross-eyed with wonky glasses. God Bless All who took out medical insurance with the dental plan too, the Glitterati, for they have the smiles that light the way to happier times. I'll bring up the rear - we might need it one day.

Brings Pam Ayres to mind Sir W. Appalling 'luck'.

I don't know if Capt. MacAllister had a specific for a whole mouthful of trouble and Pa's solution (string, teeth, heavy door) would work if they keep snapping. Obviously an epidural would be no good (but it would prevent you from kicking the dentist while he is rotavating the gum line) so the best place for a GA is hospital as they are always built near the gas-works.

Don't know what happens when they phase out gas completely I have not heard of extractions being done electrically. Perhaps the air sourced heat pump will come equipped for such ancilliary work.

Pam Ayres, an English McGonagall but not as humorous.

True, but her humour is intended.

Seance time - Is there anybody there? Has the GD crew been struck dumb by Trumps awful handling of the reins of government? Right, as it rough weather, I'm going to paint the beam ends whilst they're out of the water.

Could you do the railing around my verandah while you are at it?

Just got $50 worth of free paint as a 'gift' to the YMs from the North Melbourne Football Club. No idea what she did to deserve it!

There is no such thing as a free lunch and free paint also has its costs in effort if nothing else.

Ok. At least the weather at your place will be nice and free paint is always good to apply - you don't have to worry about how much each brushful is costing.

Over the years I have often noted the curious coincidence of people painting their houses to match their working environment.
I have to go along with the coincidence - why else would my garage floor have been painted to match the vehicle decks on ferries? I just used what was best value and available…

#9630

In a word 'yes'.

Free paint - I wonder how one would calculate the tariff. Rather like the 'Free World' it comes at a price we have replaced Churchill's 'Jaw-Jaw' with 'haggle-haggle' perhaps we do not need Mr. Mandleson but a fish-wife.

Urgh! my head, my guts, what the heck was in that bottle?...tasted a bit like Diesel. says old geneva on the lable. thought it was wine! Errrrrich!!

To quote a hoary old chestnut from my Merchant Navy days;

Never trust a man who doesn't drink.

What about men who can't drink because of all the crap the doctors have them take? That's me. I'd love to still drink but I'd probably flip my wig (which I haven't got.) Someone get BB a nice bottle of 12 year old Glenfiddich - that normally takes away any other flavours and leaves the tongue numb so you can't taste anything for a while anyway.
Varley, what's a Mandelson? Some sort of ocean going musical instrument that produces water music?

Bad news from the Humber, after a major collision 36 mariners safe but one man still missing.

An allision rather than a collision. The tanker was apparently at anchor.

Point of order Malcolm, I thought a collision was when one ship hit another ship and an allision was when a ship hit a jetty or similar.

However our musings takes second place to the loss and turmoil in the Humber Anchorage. The MAIB is on-site and no stone will be left unturned.