One minute of Longitude--at your Latitude?
 

Edgar wrote:
You are right about the nostalgia Ravi! We went right around the Indian
Ocean, Mauritius, Seychelles. East Africa, Persian gulf as far as Basra,
'showing the flag'. Kuwait was a small walled city in those days and half
the population turned out to see us. Then Karachi, Bombay, Colombo Madras,
Rangoon, Singapore and back to Trincomalee. Didn't see much of Singapore as
we went into dry dock and most of my time was spent on the bottom of the
dock, checking propellers and underwater parts.
But I really liked Trincomalee. We were moored in line with the entrance
channel where there were 5 or six flashing buoys more or less in a line.
They all flashed different periods and as we slept on our camp beds on the
quarterdeck you could watch them and after 5/10 minutes there would come a
time when all the flashes came at the same instant. then the pattern broke
up and if you could stay awake you could wait another 10 mins for the next
time they synchronised.
We would take the ships whaler and go for a weekend picnic on 'Sober Island'
which was uninhabited at the time.
Our white tropical kit went to a local laundry and if you went into 'town'
you passed a small lake where you could see your shirts being bashed against
a rock to clean them. We had wondered why the shoulders always wore out
first...
There was a guy in the town who was selling a fine pair of ebony elephants
about 2' high. Every time I passed him i asked the price and it was always
lower. Just as they were becoming affordable to a young officer we were
called away at short notice so i never got them . Still have a smaller set
however. Shame such a lovely place is a war zone now.
Spent some time in Colombo later on selling engines to the railways, but
never got back to Trincomalee.
Maybe one day...
Edgar
Hi Edgar,

If you were to visit some of these locations now, you will likely be
amazed. How much things have changed and amazingly how somethings
haven't changed at all! In parts of India (and possibly Sri Lanka)
clothes are still washed in the same manner. We call them the dhobhi
ghats. And the washermen and women the dhobhis. But individuals in
homes seldom use their services any longer. All have gotten used to
the washing machine. Now its, the bulk users like hotels, hospitals,
railways are the ones who keep these dhobhis still in business.

Yes, I can well imagine how that flashing pattern of buoys could have
been mesmerising! If its a still and silent night I try to listen to
the clanging pattern a train makes as it chugs along to try and
identify whether its an 15 or 20 coach one, at what speed its
travelling at and so on. Long after the train has moved on the noise
pattern stays in my head.

With warm regards,
Ravi