Page 8
We began our final trip up the coast, again calling in at, Rosario,
where I experienced the size of a tide like no other I have ever witnessed.
It was here we went ashore on a gangplank from the quarterdeck, and returned
that night, to find it had been placed across to the bridge. I remember
it well, because I had a bottle?, in my Burberry, and that plank did swing
a bit as I crossed it.
Mar Del Plata, was our next stop, from there we went to Santos, where we
had a great run ashore.
It was a good bus run from Santos to the capital Sao
Paulo, there were many of us who done the trip, which took us up some mountain
on a duel carriageway, which was just spectacular to be on, if just for
the scenery going up there alone. Santos I will always remember because
of the nightclub we stopped at that night, on our way back to the ship.
It was a brilliant club, with many Latin entertainers, but it was the main
star that caught all our eyes. She was a dead wringer for one of tinsel
towns most famous glamour girls, and that was Jane Russell of the movie
The Outlaw, everything well proportioned if you know what I mean. She was
dancing round that floor, flirting with all the lads off the ship, and when
she finished her act, she came straight up to me and gave me such a kiss.
The lads just went bonkers when they seen this, but not as much as I did
when on departing, she went behind the curtains to say bwonus nochus or
good night, and off came this wig. It was a bloke all the time and none
of us had a clue it was a she/he, who was prancing all over the place. You
can imagine what I had to put up with, especially from the lads on my messdeck
when I got back on board.
Our last port of call was to the city of Recife in Brazil. It was a
great run ashore, but the only port where we had to go ashore, and come
back on board in threes. The reason for this was because of the German influence
ashore there, and the skipper thought in doing this we would be much safer
that way. For some reason, I got parted from my two companions, but did
get back to the ship safe and sound, and even before my time had expired.
On the following morning at Jimmy's report, my punishment for that little
episode, I was given fourteen days stoppage of leave and pay. Just about
the time it would take us to cross the Atlantic to Simonstown South Africa.