A first look...

So here I am fresh from a year in Gibraltar now just arrived at my next port of call - HMS Osprey, Portland.  This is were I was to meet and marry Sue (29 years on and going strong).

Many a happy night would be spent in the Flying Fish, Osprey's club - all establishments have something similar.

On this evening I was eyeing up the local talent on bop night- Weymouth's finest would often visit.

On this  particular evening I was making a fool of myself on the dance floor with a striking blonde bit.  OK, OK! It was the Babysham girl!  And - Yes!  It was a cardboard cut out - damn it I was desperate!

Well, a charming new baby wren, who I had not noticed, seemed to have found me interesting and, I later learnt, was a bit miffed I had ignored her charming self.  Poor deluded girl!  To cut a long story short.  I treated this poor deluded girl for an ingrowing toenail.  Wooed her at a party with a hidden bottle of Bailleys.

Many years later we are still happily married.  All I can think to explain this is that she must still be very deluded indeed!

A beach god!....

1978.

One last Catalan bay story.

I was, of course, a bit of a beach god - rippling muscles, golden tanned body - the works!  Um, well, not quite.

In reality I was a bit on the thin side - not an ounce of fat on me.  Being fair haired and fair skinned meant that the sun and I were not the best of bedfellows.  In fact, we had a pretty poor relationship truth be told.

So, a draft to Gibraltar for a year would pose a few sunny problems for me.

Obviously, one of the main attractions for most was the sun and beaches of the Rock.  My light skin did pose me difficulties - one look at a hot sun usually meant redness, pain, peeling and quickly back to a bright white finish again.

A strategy was called for.  For the first few weeks of hitting the beach I would lie for the most part completely covered in towels, occasionally breaking cover for a swim and a cool beer.  I could often be seen with the local seagulls standing on me, seemingly not bothered that the towelled rock was rising and falling with my breathing.

I was able to ditch the towels in favour of copious quantities of sun screen.  After a year on the rock, I returned home with a slight, very slight tan.  Impressive.

A Catalan Dip..

1978.

Another day at Catalan Bay.

I had just done a 12 hour night duty in the hospital, a quick dash to my flat, a fried breakfast and then off to spend the day dozing on the beach.  Never a wise approach whilst on nights...

So, having had a bottle of Rose, half a white, a few Calamaris and fries it was time for a quick doze in the sunshine.

One quick doze later - time for a dip.  Another bad idea.  Bottle and a half of wine and I'm in for a dip.  Of I merrily (literally) paddle.  Around the end of the bay, about 50 yards or so out, is a large rock.  About 20 feet below the surface is an archway in this rock.  Excellent.  Down, I go to swim through it.  Another bad idea.  I go into the arch and promptly rise with my back against the jagged top of the arch - a little bit stuck.  As I have mentioned before, one of my strengths is not holding my breathe, I'm bloody hopeless.

Could this be the end of Shiner (my naval nickname) then!  Not, bloody likely!  I manage to scramble out with a slightly cut up back for my troubles.  I get back to the surface and back to the beach.  It still remains a mystery to me, to this day, how I managed to get out of that little predicament.

However, a very good lesson learnt there - don't drink and dive!

A Catalan picnic...

1978.

Catalan bay is the main beach on Gibraltar - a very popular spot.  Particularly with the locals.

On a particularly warm, sunny afternoon I was sitting on the sea wall, surveying the scene below, drinking some Rose and munching through some Calamaris (squid) - still the best I have eaten.

I digress.  below me was a crowded Catalan bay beach - the locals were out in force.  Now these people could seriously picnic.  The beach was crowded with tables, chairs, families, all tucking in to impressive looking spreads of food.  A great day out.

To my surprise, I saw a fairly significant wave gathering, not quite a Tsunami but impressive nevertheless.  The wave swept in from one end of the beach and engulfed the happy campers - sweeping picnics and people before it. It was very funny indeed (nobody was hurt), the wave just decimated every picnic in sight!

I couldn't help but laugh from my perch above the beach - shame on me!

A Spanish hike...

1978.

Whilst in Gibraltar in 78 I shared a flat on Main St with my mate Pete Wright, another branch member serving at RNH Gib.

We had a weeks leave due, so we took of to hitch hike around Spain for a bit - armed with sleeping bags and a few squids!

We took the ferry across to Algeciras and thought we'd kip on the quayside for the night.  A couple of armed Gendarmes turned up and persuaded us that this was not a good idea - onwards then!

If my memory serves we followed a route that took us via Cadiz and back again.  During this time we managed to drink copious quantities of Sangria and slept in a variety of peculiar places under the stars.

I remember a bar in some small village where we drank Sangria out of pint glasses, having not been impressed with the jugs with glasses as was tradition.  As we got progressively drunker I am sure a couple senoritas were taking a positive interest in us.  To drunk and language challenged to respond, we made our way back to where we had decided to kip for the night.  We crawled into our sleeping bags in the pitch black site of our choosing.

A particularly uncomfortable night was brought to an abrupt end in the morning with some foul smelling vegetables landing on us, having been lobbed over a fence from the camp site on the other side.  My discomfort was due to having pitched my sleeping bag onto a mess of animal bones lying in the rubbish tip we had been sleeping in!

We also managed to sleep in a large pipe of some sort or other and under a hedge, I think, in Cadiz city centre.  Now that's what I call roughing it!

I'm sure if Pete ever sees this he'll put me straight on any facts dimmed over time!