Seadog Reunions

Date:	4th-11th March 2008
Venue:	Various locations around Perth and Fremantle
Attendees:	Alan Conlin, Andy Jackson, Bob Eden and Valeria Neuendorff, Charles & Liz Oxley, Cliff & Jan Merwood, Dave Coleman, Dave Jewkes, Dave Oakes, Fred & Pam Blackmore, Garry & Di Stewart, John Atkinson, John Forde & partner, Ken Worsfold, Kevin & Lois Timms, Mark & Veronica Sawyer, Martin & Tish Thomas, Mike Jack, Paul & Gill Robinson, Steve & Jen Borrill, Steve & Gill Musson, Willie & Kathleen Henry.

Day 1 (Tuesday 4th March)

The legendary Dave Oakes arrived from Cape Town and the above picture was taken in my hallway within an hour of him arriving just moments before jumping into a taxi to take us down to my local, The breakwater Tavern at Sorrento Quay. We decided we may as well start as we meant to go on!

On our return we continued the quest in my bar with Rum & Cokes. Dave is now the Estimating Superintendent for a shipyard in Cape Town.

We continued that evening at the palatial home of Mark & Veronica Sawyer for a scrumptious formal feast. Delicious prawn cocktails for starters, yummy!

Some after dinner quaffing ... as you do! Mark in now the Business Development Manager for Ausclad group of Companies Ltd who supply total engineering solutions including fabrication, structural & mechanical installation and maintenance across a variety of industries.

Day 2 (Wednesday 5th March)

Oakesy and I did a bit of tourist stuff and here's the obligatory shot of Perth taken from Kings Park with the main North/South freeway in the foreground.

This is was taken exactly 31 years, 9 months, 18 days, 3 hours and 32 minutes since I last saw Dave in 1976.

Ditto with the War Memorial in the background. We then had a seafood basket and chips for lunch that neither of us could finish, amazing for $11 and even more amazing because of the size of us. On the way back we drove around to Fremantle to get a quick glimpse of the QE2 which was moored at Victoria Quay and then on to the OBH for a few pints which refused to go down because of the massive lunch we'd just eaten. Undeterred, that night we went to my favourite restaurant in Perth, the Royal India, for a magnificent Vindaloo.

Day 3 (Thursday 6th March)

The boys start to arrive. Here's Blue, Ken, TT and Jacko in front of the rather strange bell tower at the Barrack St jetty.

Oakesy and I spent a quiet day going through and scanning all the photos he'd brought and looking at mine and Kevin Timms' movies which Dave hadn't seen on the website. Later that afternoon we met up with Ken Worsfold, Blue, Cornish and Jacko at their hotel then went to the best Irish pub in town called Fenians Bar. That's where I left them all (after 1 pint and a lot of laughs) to go and pick up Mike Jack & Dave Jewkes from the Airport and then drop Jewkesy at his hotel in Fremantle.

Day 4 (Friday 7th March)

After lunch on Friday Mike Jack & I picked up Jewkesy from his hotel and we all came back to my place for an afternoon session before the big night. As you can see I was starting to look a bit worse for wear but thankfully I summoned the necessary stamina for later.

Jewkesy thought you might like to see the nerve centre of Seadogs-Reunited where all the hard work is done. From that seat I can see everything that comes and goes in our street and my neighbours see me as a permanent fixture there hence my local nickname is "The Fat Controller".

Here we all are scrubbed up and ready to go! As you're probably aware Dave Jewkes is still at sea and at the top of his field as Chief Engineer, now known as Chief Technical Officer (CTO) and he was rejoining the new Oriana the next day in Fremantle. Mike Jack lives in New Zealand and is a Machinery Inspector and was travelling to Mumbai, India on the Sunday on business.

The first couple I saw at the reunion was this very handsome pair and I boldly thrust my hand out to introduce myself thinking I didn't know them but when the completely unchanged broad scouse accent came back saying "Steve Musson, pleased to meet you" I absolutely fell over backwards. The fiery ginger hair colour has mellowed slightly and with no mo he had me for sure but it took just seconds to be chatting like I'd seen him only last week and it was delight to meet his lovely wife Gill. I knew then this was going to be some night ... and it was.

This is Garry Stewart "aka Aussie Jock" and his lovely wife Di with my old chook, Jen, in the middle. Garry came to Perth as a 2 year old and has been here the whole 32 years I've been here and we spent a lot of time together in the early days and even though we've always lived only 5 minutes away from each other we did lose touch for a while but I'm very honoured to call Garry a close mate. He's now retired after a long career teaching Refrigeration and Air Conditioning at a local Technical College.

Center shot is my old mate Kevin Timms with his stunningly gorgeous partner Lois. Mike Jack is displaying his trademark photo grimace which is featured a few times in this section. Kevin lives in Brisbane, he's the IT Manager for ACL Gaskets and recently he and Lois started a brand new online business called Story Weavers where they create treasured family memories by turning photos, video and memorabilia into an enduring presentations on DVD.

Here's Jewkesy with another lovely couple. Cliff Merwood is a really genuine guy and his wife Jan is simply a beautiful person in all ways. Cliff is a senior engineer at a power station in Pinjarra and they live in Mandurah.

What can you say about Andy Jackson. A true gentleman with an amazing sense of humour. He and Oakesy were like a double act the whole time reducing the rest of us to tears with laughter. Andy is now retired from paying work but selflessly works long and tiring hours as a carer for his nonagenarian Mother who's suffering dementia. He travelled the furthest under his own steam to be here and made the whole event more special than I could ever have imagined.

On the left is the lovely Kathleen and partner Willie Henry. Willie is a great guy. I never had the pleasure of sailing with him but have really enjoyed his company on the more recent seadog get-togethers since Willy joined the group. He's currently an engineer for Woodside Petroleum. What about Oakesy in the suit eh? Very dashing indeed. On the right is the amazing Alan Conlin aka TT.

That's better we can now see who TT is talking to, Aussie jock of course. The two of them were inseparable at sea and are still great mates today. TT has not changed one iota. He looks and sounds exactly the same as the last day I saw him 32 years ago and he's still one of the nicest guys you're ever likely to meet. He took time away from looking after his very sick daughter to be here for just one full day and two nights and we were all the better for him being here.

That's me on the left with Jen in the middle and our old mate Garry on the end. I often give Jen a bit of a raw deal when writing these screeds but deep down she is an amazing person if not only for putting up with me for 32 years. Having said that she's always had a soft spot for old Aussie Jock so I've had to keep my eye on them over the years :)

We formed this group because we all had the same coloured ties on. Only joking. Steve Musson was warmer and more friendly than I ever remember him at sea. Don't take that the wrong way he was always great at sea but there was a deeper warmth and affection that I truly admired about him. What a lovely man. I have to say something about Jewkesy too, he is the true unsung hero of the seadogs website. He has been an advocate of the site since it's inception and has gone out of his way to pass the word to a lot of past and present P&O people and the rate of growth of this site is certainly down to Dave Jewkes. Thanks David.

What a great photo of Kevin and Lois. My God just look at those sexy eyes ... and Lois' aren't bad either :)

Wow, Val & Bob Eden. What amazing people. Talk about free spirits. Bob was a fiver on my first ship Nevasa and he had a compelling magnetic personality. He was the consummate entertainer and brought every cabin piss up to life with his fantastic voice and 12 string acoustic guitar. A pretty good engineer as it happens too. He's been living on the Whitsundays working the clippers and he's recently gained his skipper's ticket and they call him Captain Bob now. I know you all thought he was Billy Connolly but Bob's far more important than Billy and I was wrapped to see him again. Val is simply a stunning lady full stop. Oh Bob, you lucky Dog!

Front table clockwise is TT, Dave Coleman aka Cornish, Mike Jack, Andy Jackson aka Jacko, Paul Robinson aka Blue, Dave Oakes aka Oakesy and Cliff Merwood. That's Ken Worsfold standing at the back purveying the scene.

The gentleman nearest the left is John Atkinson aka Geordie John, then Jewkesy, Willie Henry, Kathleen, Gill and Paul Robinson. For some reason I don't have a good photo of Paul & Gill yet but I have to say that he has not lost his sense of fun. He hasn't changed a bit in that way, always coming up with the funny one liners and still a razor sharp wit. Gill is delightful, a really lovely and interesting person and they're quite obviously absolutely devoted to each other. An absolute pleasure to be around. Paul is responsible for persuading all these amazing people to travel so far to be together on this day which was a monumental effort. Thanks Paul.

Oakesy, Cliff and Jan Merwood and none other than the legend himself, Ken Worsfold. Ken was a 3rd engineer during my time on Oriana and had the unique ability to be one of the boys and maintain 100% respect at the same time. Hasn't lost it either. Probably one of the best engineers I ever sailed with and ever ready to pass on his considerable knowledge but he didn't suffer fools lightly and if he thought you were a tosser he'd tell you so. God certainly broke the mould when they made Ken Worsfold. He's now a refinery technician for Caltex Petroleum in Sydney.

The mighty Bean and Kevin displaying the usual Queensland greeting and Charles Oxley at the back. The ladies are Veronica Sawyer (blonde) next to Liz Oxley and Di Stewart behind Kevin.

That's a better shot of Veronica, Liz & Charles. Charles is currently working as a Design Draughtsman for Colrol who manufacture roll forming machines and special purpose machine lines for a wide range of products.

What a great shot of David Coleman aka Cornish, Alan Conlin aka TT, Ken Worsfold and Steve Musson. I never sailed with Cornish but after meeting him this week I have to say that was my loss. What a fantastic guy and I felt a bond as close to any of them having just been a part of our beloved Oriana albeit another era. Amazing people.

Talking about feeling bonded with complete strangers. Next to Jen there is Martin Thomas and his gorgeous wife Trish. Trish was a WAP and as most of you know I was quite fond of WAPs, and Nurses, and Jokers 7s but more so WAPs :) Martin is a fascinating guy and I hope to get to know him better in the future.

That's Fred & Pam Blackmore talking to Dave Jewkes, Pam was also an ex WAP. Unfortunately it was so noisy I couldn't hear any of the conversation on the other side of the table and sadly didn't get around to talking with either of them all night. Something I hope to rectify at our next meeting.

This is Kevin Timms of course. Unfortunately this is the start of things going wrong with my brand new camera. Somehow during the course of the night the auto setting got changed to one without flash and as it got darker outside my photos got worse. I tried to work out what the problem was but the beer had got the better of me by then so I just had to go with it.

TT and Cornish ... brilliant. This picture was clipped from the start of the first of Mike Jack's movies taken on his digital camera which are excellent.

Val & Bob Eden. Bob actually gave me a CD of his music and I haven't been able to stop playing it for the last 2 days. Listening to his voice transports me back to the start of this journey on the ss Nevasa in 1974. Thank you so much for coming Bob, your ideology of life has changed mine from this point on. Oh how I wish Duncan could have been with us.

You'll have to excuse my wife Jen. Mike gave her his camera but forgot it was still set to movie and Jen thought she was taken stills. It's still worth keeping.

And what a fitting end to Day 4, Jacko left waiting for a taxi sitting forlornly on the wall outside the magnificent venue, The Mount Lawley Gold Club thanks to members Garry & Di Stewart for arranging the venue.

Day 5 (Saturday 8th March)

Kevin took this early in the day while Oriana was berthed at Victoria Quay. Jewkesy was already on board finding a few more problems than he'd anticipated.

Saturday was spent severely hung over but after the prescribed hair of the dog around midday we pressed on regardless. Above is Mike Jack and my wife Jen waiting along the North Mole at Fremantle for the Oriana to sail. She was about 40 minutes late sailing but you can just see her emerging around the corner behind Mike.

Here she comes almost level with us. Dave Jewkes had promised to get the Captain to let go with all she had on the ship's whistles and she most certainly did just about at this point.

She was still tooting at this point too. I had a compressed air canister horn and bled it dry in reply while Jen blasted my car horn in unison. I have to say that between me Mike and Jen there wasn't a dry eye between us.

The hotelies spent the afternoon in our favourite Irish pub ... again! As they were wondering how they were going to get to East Perth for Reunion No 2 Ken suddenly disappeared across the road to talk to a Limo driver.

Arrived safely in East Perth. The driver had to make two trips and below is the start of trip 2.

Cornish too ... Jacko falling out after being at Fenians Irish Pub all afternoon.

Mark Sawyer came up with the idea that there's no way one night was going to be enough so he booked for us all to go to this place. The restaurant is part of a new pub called the Royal in the new East Perth development complex and the area is amazing. Yuppie Ville for sure but a great venue.

Oakesy putting rabbit ears on the pair of them, a particular favourite of Blue's as I recall :) Blue now runs his own business building robotic machines for all kinds of processes called Roboserv.

Mike Jack with his famous photo grimace again and Ken & Mark in deep conversation.

Dave Coleman aka Cornish really enjoyed himself and we really enjoyed his company. As I said before we never sailed together but I still felt a bond that I put down to the amazing P&O selection criteria which successfully brought together very like minded people who most got on like a house on fire and the fire's still burning for some of us.

That's Liz Oxley applying some serious suction to that drink and I think Garry has fallen asleep listening to Jen ... mmm better not go there!

Jacko, Jan and Cliff. You may notice the photos are getting blurrier as the night goes on ... can't work that one out!

that was a brilliant surf & turf after some discussion with the Chef about the original offering.

Jacko getting down to the real job ... chatting up the talent, it's good to see life still in the old dog.

This is where the song sheets came out and we entertained the rest of the pub with load vocals swearwords an' all.

Simply brilliant night ... just look at that beer keg of mine, cost close to $90,000 that did.

Jacko and Oakesy in the wee small hours of the night on the lawn outside the pub having a spot of trouble staying vertical.

Jacko making an attempt to get up but Oakesy deciding that this may be a good spot to sleep the night.

All good things have to come to an end and here's the boys ready to go to the airport.

Blue had another day here but Jacko was off back to the UK with a short stop over at his house in Indonesia to have some dental work done I believe.

Cliff & Jan kindly took them all out to the airport. Ken had 2 more days in paradise.

For me Sunday was spent at the airport from about 10:00am to 2:00pm seeing off Mike Jack, Dave Oakes and Andy Jackson. I believe Cornish was leaving earlier than Mike but unfortunately we missed him. Cliff and Jan Merwood joined us and they stayed with Jacko all afternoon as his flight wasn't til about 06:30pm. The rest of the day for me was in full recovery chill out mode with just a few beers to calm the nerves.

Monday for me was spent working on the website all day but I believe the remaining out of towners were all entertained by Charles and Liz Oxley spending the afternoon at Sorrento Quay and a BBQ back at Charlie's place in the evening. I hope some photos come from that.

Day 8 (Tuesday 11th March)

Tuesday was back to work for me but it wasn't all over yet. Kevin and Lois Timms had spent a couple of days in Dunsborough and intended killing time that evening before their midnight horror flight to Brisbane so we decided to invite them for a BBQ at my place and we were joined by Garry & Di Stewart and Mark & Veronica Sawyer which was a fitting end as the week had started with dinner at the Sawyer's place the Tuesday before.

I heard a rumour that night that Aussie Jock has been enticed out of retirement and is rejoining the workforce. Good luck with that Garry.

It still blows me away how neither of these guys have changed one iota in 30 years.

Oronsay Reunion Sydney, 9th March 2008

Date:	9th March 2008
Venue:	"The Oaks" pub in Neutral Bay in Sydney
Attendees:	Sheila Tattershall and husband Michael, Linda "Lovelace" Tattershall, Kevin "Morg" Morgan, Ian & Anne McLeod, Toby & Helen Tompkins and Keith Radford with wife Lynne and sister-in-law Vicki.

This was a very hastily convened and impromptu reunion, held at "The Oaks" pub in Neutral Bay in Sydney. The date was the evening of Sunday 9th March and attendees were Sheila Knox (formerly Tattershall) and husband Michael, Linda "Lovelace" Tattershall, Kevin "Morg" Morgan, Ian & Anne McLeod, Toby & Helen Tompkins and Keith Radford with wife Lynne and sister-in-law Vicki. Sadly John Sullivan was working on the harbour in his position of Chief Engineer of Captain Cook Cruises flagship "Sydney 2000" but we did take a call from him later in the evening, and Linda's partner Peter was working nightshift as an ambulance driver. I originally had a message left on my mobile from Sheila explaining that she and Michael were in Sydney for a few days, staying with Linda and her partner Peter. They had been walking tracks in New Zealand and were making their way back to the U.K. Sheila expressed a wish to get together with as many old shipmates as was possible in the short time that she had in Sydney. The Oaks reunion was the result.