I didn't as much came ashore as reduced times at sea. Deep sea for 10 years 5months away at times. 10 years in North Sea 6 weeks on. Dredgers UK coast 2 weeks away then 1 week. Finally a Pilot home every day until retirement. 42 years loved every minute and was home most of the time to see my family grow up.

I've heard it said many times that on retirement some folk go into a sort of funk and can't adjust to not being at work. Not something that happened to me. I strolled out of the door on my last day and have never looked back. My only regret was that when I retired I was working ashore, something that had never appealed to me, I would much rather have retired from working at sea, trouble is if I had then that retirement funk probably would have affected me! Hmm!