Voyage from Brazil to Australia.

The dangerous journey from Brazil to Australia.

We had recently unloaded a cargo shipment from Japan, in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest port city when we were told to go to Sao Francisco do Sur for loading.

It was a small port town then, in 1965, but now an important resort in the Catarina district located in the south part of Brazil and next to the district of Rio Grande del Sur (Porto Alegre) which is located a bit more south and bordered by Uruguay. To our great surprise, we were to load logs! Specifically, Brazilian Redwood which is now forbidden to sell unless it comes from registered farms. It is the tallest tree in the country, can grow up to 40 meters in height and originates from the primeval forest. This cargo was destined for Australia!

After the short sailing from Sao Paulo, we now slowly slid into a bay called, Bahia da Babitonga, which means Bat Bay. We passed Sao Francisco do Sur to find our way to a completely insignificant village with a single loading dock where the timber cargo was expecting us. This place reminded me of the Bauxite emanating port of Br. Guyana, but this was even with smaller population. The wooden quay was long and stretched all the way into the deep green nearby forest.

M/s Broland docks at the port

Most of the crew who were given the day off went to Sao Francisco do Sur to enjoy themself. I, on the other hand, had guard duty and could not leave the port area. I went ashore to explore what was nearby when I discovered an unpainted wooden house in the area, which resembled a bar and decided to examine the building. Indeed, inside the door was a small simple bar, where a man with his two daughters welcomed me in.

The man presented himself as Raul and offered me a local beer that he had stored in a plastic barrel filled with ice. The beer was not exactly the best I ever had, but it was freezing cold. As I stood and studied the simple décor and seeped the icy beer, I heard a giggle from Raul’s daughters, whose age was 10 and 6 years. They probably had not seen so many blond sailors in this harbor, I thought. They were curious and tried to question me about where I came from and where we were going, in a mix of Portuguese and Spanish.

Rauls daughters and my 1 Cruzeiro note.

When we talked for a while, I saw a One Cruzeiro banknote attached to the wall and asked Raul if he wanted to sell it. He was initially reluctant when he said that the kind of banknote was unusual but had no economic value. At that time, it was only worth according to the exchange rate, 0.0003 U.S. dollars! When I showed Raul an American one dollar banknote and offering him a trade, he accepted with a smile and said that the beer was offered by the house. I became good friends with Raul and visited him several times during the short time it took to load our ship, M/s Broland. I still have after all these years the banknote preserved as a good memory.

Brazilian Redwood.

Loading was done with old high squeaking cranes, but still very effective. The logs were huge and red where they were sawn off, I was used to Swedish spruce forest, so it was a great experience in itself. When the holds were filled, they also began to fill the entire afterdeck with logs, as high as other decks. Broland was now fully loaded.

We left the dock at sunset and steered out to sea again, Raul and the girls stood on the quay and waved. Now we had a long and dangerous journey ahead of us towards a new continent, Australia.

We took a south course towards Cape Horn on the southern tip of the South American continent. Leaving the the Bahia behind us, during this journey we passed the famous Sand Dunes, that streches several km. long and at many places more then 30 meters high. They seemed to last forever. When we finally passed this amazing coast, we were now passing Uruguay, but now further away from the coast. Later we saw the long coast of Argentina before reaching the point where Argentina and Chile meets.

We were now entering a well-known dangerous journey.

The Magellan straits .

We approached now, “Tierra del Fuego”, were suddenly a fog bank turns up forward the ship! Visibility was zero and did not seem to get any better. Our captain explained the weather phenomenon that occurs during weather changes between the Atlantic, Artic and Pacific Oceans. In addition, where the tree seas meet at Cape Horn there are several meters of difference in sea level, hence a very troubled area arises.

We therefore changed the planned route to go around the southern tip and instead sought us into the Magellan strait, which divides the south of Argentina and Chile. It is a shorter but slower route but at the same time safer. When we fund the conclusion to the strait using the navigation equipment on board the fog bank lifted up. We were now sailing into a straight just 2 km wide. It was a magical sight, with high forested mountains on both sides of our ship and the water was deep green and almost mirror polished.

The Strait was discovered in the year 1520, by Ferdinand Magellan who was Portuguese and the Captain of the sailing ship La Trinidad. They, too, had sought refuge from a bad weather and discovered the strait of a pure event.

Magellan strait is almost 600 km long and has a maximum width of 30 km. We had a journey of about 26 hours ahead of us, at a speed of 12 knot, before we reached out to the Pacific Ocean. When we had made half the distance, we got into what is named Patagonia.

Here the green forests were transformed into snow and ice-covered mountains, another worth seeing! We now saw a lot of porpoises as well as killer whales around the ship and were so close, so if we were not so high up, we could almost certainly be able to touch them!

At last we were out on the Pacific Ocean, but now we were steering the route southeast to go closer to the South Artic Sea! It will be the straightest route to our ultimate destination Australia After a day, a powerful storm suddenly hit us with waves up to 20 meters and an icy strong wind from Antarctica, we really rolled! The waves were broken by the strong wind and swung all over the ship, we closed all openings and secured all the belongings. We also received a Iceberg warning on the radar!

Without warning, an enormous wave hit us and crashed all over the entire ship and the load tire began to move. M/s Broland had now a list of 30º.

My first thought was; Now we will be going under, I even brought out my diving equipment that I kept in the cabin, I was afraid! The alarm on board started to sound and from the speaker system onboard we heard our Captain giving the order to release the entire load, as well as appointed some men to perform it. I was one of those guys!!

We had to work as a team and formed a human chain. The first man was the Turner, with his welding equipment, to cut off the big chains that held the timber load together. We all crawled up on the now slippery logs equipped with ice picks to pull us forward to the chain to be cut. The salty icy water swung over us and we got soaked at the first few meters, but we had 20 left to crawl.

After almost 1 hour, our first man, Turner reached out and lit the welding flame to start the cutting attempt. It took a long time to heat the rough chain with the icy water that was constantly gushing over the flame. After a few long minutes, Turner raised his arm as a signal that now it was only a few seconds left.

I heard a hard bang and finally the chain broke, the wood started to fall overboard! In the same second, we pulled each other back to safety. It was a strange sight to see these huge logs being thrown around in the air as if they were matches, and later with a roar to be devoured by the sea.

Finally we entered the ship where we were cordially received from the rest of our crew.. Our quality work had saved an 18,000 Dwt cargo ship, with all 36 crew members on board.

It had been one of my most dangerous #Timezones, in my life. Later, I was happy to step on solid Australian soil…… We had arrived at the town of Brisbane.

Thanks for now, I will be back with more…..#Timezones .

#Windmush / #curtbergsten

Power Your Time-Zone: It is about your time in life (English Edition) eBook : Bergstén, Curt Arne: Amazon.es: Tienda Kindle

The year 1963 was marked by devastation in the Caribbean due to a hurricane and a virus outbreak.

Sailing to Caribbean 1963.

I had signed on at M/s Trubadur in the port of Gothenburg in September 1963. This was my first time that I left home, at the age of 15. It was going to be a big change in my life, from farm working to become a sailor in the merchant navy.

Trubadur was a refrigerated vessel built in 1957 and with 3500 tdw, owned by the Shipping Company, Salén. The main shipping cargo was Bananas from West India. This was a fast running vessel with a cruise speed of 25 knots.

My first trip, Gothenburg-Jamaica-Gothenburg, was smoothly and fast. Our first port in Jamaica was Kingston Town and what a difference from the Swedish landscape! Wow! All this colorful painted wooden houses and palm tree gardens reaching all the way down to the quay. The Banana trees, tropical flowers and the white sand beaches were breathtaking sight for me at that time as a young lad.

The second run, begun in October and should have been the same route, but the weather had changed!  When we passed The Azores islands in the middle of the Atlantic, we were hit by a hurricane! Our M/s Trubadur was moving like a nutshell on top on the high waves, it was terrifying!    I had never experienced anything like this in my life, but my ship mates told me not to worry, as they were used to storms like this!

Our Capitan informed us that it was going to be worse! The hurricane was named Flora and was ahead of us on its way to the Caribbean islands with a wind speed around 230 km /hr. We had to slow down our speed, to not catch up with the with the category 4 hurricane Flora!

After crossing the last part of the Atlantic Ocean and entering the Caribbean Sea, the waves were growing into enormous rolling surfs. A heavy rain had started with winds falling to about 150 km/hr. Our ship was rolling and shaking in this very ruff sea.

Caribbean islands

Arriving at the port of Miragoane in the northern part of Haiti, we discovered the disaster that had occurred. Large building and houses were totally destroyed by the hurricane Flora. Palm trees and electric poles were lying on the ground blocking the roads with people trying to save the rest of their homes. But the worst sight was dead children, in the arms of their crying parents, a truly sad experience!

The Shipping agent from United Fruits came onboard, just to tell us that we had to leave as soon as we had bunkered fuel. There were no Bananas to load; all had been swept away by the storm! We were told to visit some ports on the southern part of Haiti/ Dominican Republic.

After entering 8 different ports, we only had a half shipload with Bananas. The ports of Jamaica were all closed, so we had to go to Colombia.

We were now heading to Santa Marta, situated on the north coast of Colombia. It was early morning when we sight the coast shore with deep green high mountains in the background and sandy white beaches in front. The port was formed like a Bay and was situated on the west side of the Town of Santa Marta, with a population of about 70.000, in 1963 (Year 2020 over 400.000!). The quay were we docked was very close to centre of the town, that luckily had been saved from the storm. The city was divided in two parts, one rich and one poor, it was easy to see the different. On the western part the streets were full of banks and shops, but at the east side a slum town full with wooden shacks and dirt roads.

I was strolling around in the” nice” part for a while, but did not find very much of interest for me. I asked a waiter in a coffee bar, where I could find the “real life” in town and was advised to a hillside on the eastern part. Walking up the hill, an old Black woman told me to be very careful to enter the top of this hill. I asked why? Then she shook her head and told me that all the bars and action up there was dangerous!

It was a devils place, she said and left me. This gave me the curiosity to continue…After a while I saw people sitting along the road, I thought they were beggars, but looking closer I saw that some of them had a half arm or leg and miss formed parts of the body. This was all very sick people hit by a disease, visions that I never had seen before in my life. It was similar to the Leprosy, but worse!! They called it “Chanquer”, but never found out what it really was. Later I was informed that it was a deadly virus that had killed over thousands of people….. I kept walking up the hill, but made sure to be in the middle of the road, to not make contact with anyone.

Up on top, I found some friends from the ship and I joined them for a while. Later I took a Taxi down to the quay, for the sake of safety!

Next day the cargo train entered the port, full loaded with Banana stocks. It was later hand loaded onboard to our ship and then down in the cold rooms under deck. It was all young local guys that formed a human chain to pass the banana stocks to each other. It was an impressing sight when they were singing and working with a Latin rhythmic style. Onboard I asked one of the workers, how much one of this banana stocks was worth, he told me “give me 1USD” and so I did. The Bananas had still a green color, so I saved it in my cabin, to moisture.

This last weeks had been a lifetime experience that I never will forget!

With now a full load of Bananas, we turned now to go back to the port of Gothenburg again for unloading and later to repeat the voyage back to the Caribbean islands. Finally this did not happened; our shipping agent informed us during the trip that an after storm had hit the islands again and made it impossible to get a full load. The shipping company now ordered the Capitan to change course to Halifax in Canada to load brand new Cars!

Arriving to Canada.

It was now in the end of December and in Canada it was winter! I was vey disappointed about this change, but also the chance to see another country. When we finally arrived to the port of Halifax, Nova Scotia, the night had fallen and we could only see the lights at shore. Next morning when I looked out from the porthole in my cabin, it was snowing! The quay were we had docked was far away from the city center and all buildings had a dull and dark color. What a different to the West Indian islands! It was now the 23rd of December; we had arrived to stay over Christmas in Halifax, Canada. I had to spend my first Christmas outside Sweden in another ice cold country; I was disappointed to not be in Jamaica or another warm place. Halifax to me was a boring town and hardly anything opened during our stay at port. We finally loaded the ship with Studebaker cars, made by Packard motors in Ontario; this shipload was to be delivered to Southampton, UK.

Later I came back to my favorite place The Caribbean Islands, with nice sunny weather and with sand beaches, where I got time to practice scuba diving. My first experience as a sailor had been with mixed emotions.

Thank you for reading, I will be back soon!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_hurricanes_on_Caribbean_history#:~:text=Most%20notably%20The%20Great%20Hurricane,peaks%20from%20August%20to%20October.

2020, Covid 19 a new Time Zone

The world will enter in a new “Time Zone”, after Covid 19.

We will find that the so called economic “Globalization”, did not have its way as planned. Free world trade with products and currencies will never be the same again. The growing economy in the Asian countries, like China and India has been overvalued. The enormous logistic with trade between the continents in the world will change, all for the reason of Covid 19.  Why ? The lack of essential emergency stock in many countries has sparked a new way to handle the difficulty to supply the whole world with imported products, from far away countries. Minor company has found that with the new technology to develop 3D printing and produce products that are needed in the local market will stall the import and export. Companies will produce what is needed for the moment. Much of the expensive logistic system by sea and air has to change and be handling by short transports.

All this will in long term have a positive effect on the global climate, with less pollution.

A negative effect will be the economy over all. The stock market will not reach its high for long time ahead. Short time investors will have a hard time, with ups and downs. Real estate market in its whole, may recover sooner?

The tourist trade will also change by travelers new and shorter destinations.

This are some of the effects that a virus called Covid 19, that we all have to face for the next years or decades to come.

Author: Curt Bergsten, #Windmush.

COVID-19: efectos a largo plazo – Mayo Clinic

My Time Zone in Buenos Aires.

A photo from Buenos Aires street, taken 1966, by me.

Arriving to Buenos Aries.

We had been in Mendoza, Argentina, for a few days and now another long trip on train was ahead of us. We were going to the capital Buenos Aires, more than 1000km away.

The train left early morning on a nice and sunny day and the train porter told us that it will take at least 14 hours to arrive to Buenos Aries. The journey went past the town of St. Luis and arriving to Junin, a small town, it started to be dark.

When we finally arrived to the Grand railway station of Buenos Aires, it was almost 11 a clock at night but the streets were still very busy with traffic and crowds of people moving around, very different to Mendoza… We asked a taxi driver to bring us to an economic hotel, but with good location. Arriving at the hotel, the driver told us that this was very close to the famous Plaza de Mayo, but also next to a busy street with bars and restaurants. It sounded good to, so we checked in and went to a close bar to have a nightcap.

In the morning, after having breakfast at the hotel, we started to discover the area and found that we were only 5 minutes away from this huge Plaza de Mayo, but also not so far from the port. One of my friends was determent to see what kind of vessels were at the quay, so we went to have a look. The port was very close to the city center. We had no problem to pass the custom gate with our seamen ID.

One of the first cargo vessels at the quay was a Norwegian, Fred Olsen liner, we asked permission to board. It so happened that my friend knew a few mates on this vessel and they told him that a vacancy just appeared. My friend, who was a ship electrician, accepted the job and was told to sign on the day after! I was not so happy about him leaving that soon, but it was his decision. Later that day we celebrated his departure and we wished him all the best on his new job. My other mate told me later next day, that he also liked to find a new job on a Swedish vessel on next occasion. It only took him two day, before he was offered a place on Johnson Liner, M/s Chile as a deckhand.

The famous Obelisco in 1966.

I was alone, in the big city of the Argentine capital, my adventure had just started!    My plan was not to find a job on a ship at this moment, there were so much to explore in Buenos Aries and liked to stay 2-3 month.

The first night alone, I returned to the bar that we had visited when arriving, it was crowded with people and many of them were seamen. After a while, sitting at the bar, a fight between 4 guys started with loud voices and pushing. I heard that they spoke in Scandinavian language so I approached the group, to try to calm things down. This resulted that I almost got involved in the brawl, but as by nature my strength was diplomatic, I finally managed to sort out their differences and was later invited to join them for a beer.

They were Swedes, Danes and Norwegian sailors and finally I knew them as a nice group of guys. After some time of hangout, they left and I was alone, the barman called me and told me that the big boss liked to have a talk with me. I was surprised and started to worry if I had done something wrong.

I was shown into a room at the back where a little fat man sat with his feet up on the desk in front of him. He told me that he had seen how well I managed to sort out the trouble with the Scandinavians and offered me a job as a doorman, 3-4 nights per week. I was flattered by his offer and accepted, as I mainly liked to see the surrounding by daytime.

The day after I went to visit Plaza de Mayo, it was huge and in the far end of the park was the President palace, Casa Rosa. I met some people that told me the story about when it had been bombed under a revolution just some years back and that the political situation still was fragile. The president Arturo Illia was having problem with the opposition leader Juan Perón. I was not very interested in politics at that time and did not think much about it.

During the coming days I was strolling around at the main streets and found that in the busy shopping areas the street names was written in Spanish and German! How weird I thought, but was later told at the hotel that this was because of the millions of rich Germans that had fled from the Second World War and settled in Argentine.

It was first in the end the month of June, when I realized the problem with the political situation. I was working at the bar when the news came regarding a military coup to take the power of the Casa Rosa! This happen the 26th, it was some high rank military that stormed the President Palace, but was soon defeated buy the security force of Arturu Illia. The next morning, a heavy military vehicle was moving on the street just outside the hotel. The receptionist called me to come down to the lobby immediately. In the hall a group of military halted me and asked me to show my room and documents. My hotel room was searched, but with luck nothing was found of their interest. They told me that I was cleared and pot a blue ribbon on my arm!

The same night a large demonstration with thousands of people was gathered on the street. It was later called,” La Noche de los Bastones Largo” and 400-500 people were beaten and arrested. It seemed to have been organized by the movement Peronistas. The street of Buenos Aries was like a warzone, with barricades and Tanks in every street corner.  I tried to keep up the good mode and not to be involved in any problems. Many people were arrested, just because of kissing on the street! It was forbidden!

Things calmed down after two weeks and the life on the streets was back to normal.  The military was still present, but now more friendly, the patrol that who was in control of the street where I worked stopped many times and talked to me. One day they invited me to join for dinner! The restaurant was not so big, but it had a very nice patio in the centre and well known as one of the best Steakhouse in the area.

I still remembered my meal in Mendoza at the Ranch, but this was even better. The steak covered the whole plate and about 3 cm thick; it was so tender that I could almost cut it with my fork. We had a great time together, with red wine from Mendoza wine yards and the meat from The Pampas. This place became my favorite restaurant!

My new friends, the military, taught me a “legal” way to make some extra money when they heard that I was changing US dollars into Peso. They told me to take the ferry to Montevideo, Uruguay, that was less than 1 hour’s trip. As I had Swedish passport and seamen card, I was able to travel freely between the two countries.

One morning I took the ferry to Montevideo and started to discover the capital of Uruguay. It was different to Buenos Aries the people were more relaxed and very friendly. I went to a bar that I´ve been recommended, the owner was American and told me that he been living in Montevideo for over ten years.

When I asked him who could change my US $ to Pesos, he lowered his voice and told me to come to a back room. This is a “black market” he told me and asked me to not tell anybody about this.

Uruguay Peso was floating on the exchange market, at that moment he was willing to pay me 70 Pesos per Dollar. Official rate was only 12 Peso! I changed 100 USD and traveled back to Argentina. Later I went to a bank office, to change my 7000 U.Pesos to A.Pesos and gave me an official exchange rate, less the costs to recive it in cash.

Totally I gained almost 300% on my change route! This was a good deal, so I repeated the trip several times until one day it was not worth it, because the Uruguay central bank froze the rate.

My planned 3 month stay went quickly, but I had enjoyed every day with lots of new experience. I decided to go down to the port and put my name on the vacancy list. Three days later the Swedish Johnson Liner, M/s Chile  entered at the quay, it was the same vessel as my friend took. I asked where it was heading. And when I was told that the Ms Chile was going back to Gothenburg, Sweden I decided to sign on. She was an old “Lady” from 1950, but it did not matter.

I had not been back to Sweden for almost 3 years and my family was waiting to meet me, the trip was going to take about 3 weeks, direct from Buenos Aires to Gothenburg.

The homesickness grew within me!

Thank you for reading my Windmush #reality history, I will soon be back!

Noche de los Bastones Largos – Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre

My Time Zone, in a secret cave.

After visiting the, “Cueva de los Tayos” in Ecuador 1966, I got Malaria.

In the port of Guayaquil, Ecuador, I was told by a young lad that he knew a secret place. As this young kid, 10-11 years old, was so exited about his secret my first thought was that he only tried to receive some money for this information. When he told me that he will take me to this place for free, but also told me that if what I will see is worth some USD he will accept!

I told two of my friends about this and we decided to rent a jeep to find this secret place.

Pablo, the kid, came with us. He showed us the way up to Morona- Santiago heading right into the rain forest. When we asked Pablo about the distance to this secret place, he just smiled   told us, it’s a long journey.

The so-called roads where crossing small rivers and heading up into the deepest rainforest I ever seen, we had now been driving for over 4 hours. This was really an adventure for us, and Pablo just enjoyed the ride.

Finally, he told us to park the jeep at the roadside, to start walking up a steep hill. This was real jungle, with screaming monkeys and the high sound of all kind of birds, it was a fascinating place. I almost forgot about our destiny looking at all this deep green rain forest with its wildlife.

I looked at the face of Pablo, when he stopped and pointed up a rocky mountain that suddenly was ahead of us, he was all smiling! This is my secret, he screamed!

He showed us the entrance to a cave. Later I found the name, Cueva de los Tayos and situated 540 meter above sea level. First, I was disappointed to se this secret of Pablo, but when he showed us what was behind the entrance, I changed my mind. After a while a square cut tunnel appeared and going down by about 30% slope, the walls and ceiling were so perfect and smooth as it was cut by a laser. I don’t remember so well for how long we walked down, it was so exiting, but suddenly a large cave was ahead of us and Pablo stopped us! Don’t walk into the cave, he orders. What we sew ahead of us, was a huge rock hanging freely in the air in the center of the cave! How is this possible? We were stunned! Pablo entered in the cave and demonstrated that nothing was under or above the rock, but was telling us not to touch it, something terrible could happened he said.

When we finally came out it was late afternoon and we had to hurry back before the fall of the dark night. We payed Pablo 10 USD for his “secret “and he was more than thankful for this and gave us all a big hug.

It was now very warm and the humidity high, we were swarmed by flies and mosquitos. Before reaching the Jeep, I was stung several times. We traveled the same way back to Guayaquil and arrived almost at midnight, I felt dizzy and just wanted to go onboard the ship to sleep in my cabin. I was laying in my bed and were thinking about what I had seen and could hardly believe it all. This was what the last thing I remembered before waking up in a sickbed at San Jose, Puerto Rico!!

I was told by a nurse that I had been in coma for 4 days, the time it took our ship to sail from Ecuador and made an emergency halt in Juan Jose to send me by helicopter to the city hospital, before leaving to USA.

I had Malaria!! My body was all wet by sweat and had no strength left, I felt like dying…!

When I first met the doctor, he told me not to worry, I had been treated for malaria and everything was looking good. But I was also told that I was going to have a few difficult years ahead of me. The malaria attacks will come back every 3-4 month for some time. This was so true, I lived with this sudden coming fever for years ahead, but I had survived!

My toughs always came back to the cave and the hanging rock. I was seeking information in books and found out later that just after our visit, the Ecuador government had sealed the entrance to the cave, for security reasons. I also found some scientific articles regarding possible antimaterial, but this was never confirmed!

After 2 weeks at hospital, I was sent by airline direct to Los Angeles, as my ship M/s Broland was in the port of San Pedro. Back onboard I was welcomed by our Captain and all my mates.

I found years later some interesting reading about our experience in La Cueva de Los Tayos, as you can find below.

By for now,

Windmush will be back soon!

http://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-42104844

https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2017/11/17/nota/6483373/nuevo-documental-sobre-misterio-cueva-tayos

Traveling by train across the “Los Andes” in 1965.

Leaving the town of Los Caracoles.

My Time Zone, at high attitude!

After signing of my duties at M/s Broland with 2 of my mates, after 26 months of working without any days off, we put our feet’s at the Chile soil in the port of Valparaiso.

It all started with a horrible experience! We were jailed by the Carabineers (Chilean military police), under charge of the Senator Alliende. This happened when we were passing the border control in the port. We were accused for smuggling “high tec” private goods, like photo equipment, transistor radios and digital watches, all with origin of Japan.

We told them that it was all for personal use, but they were not listening! The only answer we got, was that we had a long jail sentence waiting, if we did not pay a “find” of 3000.USD and with all our personal belonging taken.

That was enough for me! I got really angry and without any fear for the well armed police, I told them my rights as a Swedish citizen! And that was to be contacted by the Embassy in Santiago de Chile. They were laughing and told me that was impossible! So, I told them, nothing is impossible and showed our transit visa to Argentina signed by telegraph message, on the ship. There was a change in attitude, but told us that we would be escorted to the Argentine border, but without our belongings! We all refused to this deal and resulted that we were jailed for another long 5 days and nights, sleeping on the floor like dogs…..

Suddenly on the sixth day, we were told to pack our belongings and to be prepared for a long journey. We were put on a military transport, taking us to the bus station at Santiago de Chile, with destiny to the train station of Los Andes, situated higher up in the mountains.

We were all very happy about this sudden change, but never told us, why? We had to be escorted by a military Police, until the border of Argentine. We agreed!

 When entering in this old “guagua” (bus in South America), it was like one of this museum pieces that I seen from the end of the1800th. Will this really work? We wondered. Our military Escort, fully armed, entered first to reserve our seats; the other passengers looked strangely at us.

The bus was finally full with local people, with lots of small children, but all very well dressed prepared for cold weather.

If some of you ever have traveled in the mountain roads, up against Los Andes, you know about the panoramic views and the endless steeps next to the roadside. For us, sailors, this was our first experience and a high ruff sea was much comfortable than this. The road started with curves that were so tight that you almost saw the end of the bus hanging in the air whiles the front driver disappearing around the corner….frightening!

Our bus suddenly stopped! The driver started to shout in Spanish that we did not understand much, at that time. All passengers started to leave and we were just wondering what was happening. Our escort told us that there was a truck in front of us that needed assistance. He allowed us to leave our seats to get out of the bus. In front of us there was an old transport truck full with animals that had been pushed back on the lorry, for that reason and the steep road up worth and had lifted the front of the truck, hanging up in the air! Without the possibility to remain the weight and continue, up the road. The guy in the driving seat was shouting to all of us to help him. It was a strange sight!!

The people on the road just started to pull and clime up on the truck, to even the weight, also pushing the animals forward. Finally the lorry was standing firm again on the road, the driver waived at all of us and drove away. All aboard, shouted our bus driver, it was all over and done! Without more serious incidences, finally we arrived to the train station in the town of Los Andes, 850 meters above sea level.

The train was covered by wood panels on the outside walls, the other parts made of steel, needed some painting. There were only 3 wagons, for the reason of the climbing we had to make. Another adventure started….

When we had settled inside one of the wagons, our escort told us that he had finished his task, as the train was going direct to Argentina, but he also told us that we had to pay for his services!

Once again I got angry and disappointed when he asked for money. I told him very clearly that he cannot fool us by his trick and again referred to the Swedish Embassy. He finally shook his head and left us. We were free….at last!

Our train whistled and started to move, up against the hillside of the mountain of Aconcagua. After one hour, it started to be freezing inside the wagon, there was no heating system! That’s why everybody was so well dressed with blankets and hats….

We, coming from our ship and only wearing jeans and t-shirts!

Our first stop was at the town of Portillo de Chile, now at 2,867 meters above sea level! The town was covered by snow!

After asking the Porter on the train how long the stop will last, one of my friend left the train to find something that could warm us up, we were ice could! When he arrived back onboard with 3 lit. Of Rum and 1 lit. of Coca Cola, we asked him what kind of shopping he had made? He told us that the price of 1 Coke was the same as 3 bottles of Rum, period! So when the train started again, we started our party, also inviting people around us. We finally had a good time.

When I looked up on our left hand side the top of Aconcagua had just been visible. It was a breath taking view, with the white snow and clouds surrounding the mountain, fantastic!

The scenario changed when we arrived at the border town Los Caracoles (3,176 m.) an ugly looking place. Maybe they had named the town, because of the time getting there?

The border control went smoothly this time, Thanks!

After a while our train started going down the slopes, leaving the massive mountain range behind us.

I woke up, when we were going for full speed at the flat land of Las Pampas, Argentina. The climate had changed to hot and sunny, what a relive!

Our destination was the town of Mendoza, were we had planned to make a few days brake on our journey.

Downtown Mendoza, was at that time almost like “wild west” town in southern US. Wooden houses surrounded by “dirt” streets. We found a hotel in a street corner and finally got our bed to sleep in; it had been over a week, without a good night sleep. This same evening in the hotel we found out how friendly the local people were, we had an invitation to a Ranch the next day!

The family who invited us had over 500ha of land, with lots of cattle, horses and a private wine yard!

 I had one of my best T-bone steaks ever, made over a huge BBQ at the farm, but the owner told me that the meat came from the local butcher in town and not from his cattle.

 This was good living!

Next time, will meet in Buenos Aries!

Los Andes (Chile) – Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre

A new Time Zone as began, 2020, The Year of the Rat!

I was born in 1948 and the Chinese year of the rat.

 The old Chinese legend says that
Buddha himself called the12 selected animals in the zodiac and the first to
arrive, was the rat.! The Chinese horoscope repeats every 12th year.

It’s also always an Olympic year!

People born in the Year of the Rat are instinctive, acute and alert in nature which makes them to be brilliant businessmen. They can always react properly before the worst circumstances take place. They are also sophisticated and popular in social interaction. They are sanguine and very adaptable, being popular with others.

1972, was the year of the Rat, and I was recognized as the youngest Hotel owner in Sweden!

After that, my life I was addicted to be a businessman, with many ups and downs, but always as a winner! Quality thinking was my trademark and still are at today’s date.

Rat Zodiac Eminent Personalities:

My favorite writer Jack London was born 1876 in the Fire Rat year ¡

Other well-known people born in the Rat Zodiac as following are, George Washington, John F. Kennedy, Wolfgang Mozart, William Shakespeare, Marlon Brando, Truman Capote, Richard Nixon,  Mata Hari, Prince Harry, Prince Charles, Jude Law, Cameron Diaz, Avril Lavigne, Richard Bach, Ben Affleck, Katy Perry, Scarlett Johansson, Katherine McPhee, Kelly Osbourne, Denise Richards, Mandy Moore, Diego Armando Maradona, Zinedine Yazid Zidane.

I love being a Rat, because it has been so exiting to follow my Time Zones in life and always knowing that the result of my Quality Thinking has given me, happiness and peace of mind.

In the mid 80´s I had created one of the most important Catering Companies in Sweden at that time; Chef Food. With events all over the country providing caterings for, Stockholm Open tennis, Davis Cup tournament, The SEO-Golf competition, a 50 years celebration for SAAB motors and others for Volvo, etc.

The Chef Food Company grew, employing 42 members of staff and in 1984 was awarded a Gold medal in gastronomy.  We started a Mexican line of products and served the 7-Eleven chain with their fast food products.

In my spare time I worked on an invention of mine that later was patented in USA & Europe, the year was 1986 another Rat year, that gave me the success in reaching another of my goals in life.

Whatever Zodiac You belong to…. study your sign and find out if it fits your personality.

Happy New Chinese Year of the Rat!!! 25-01-2020

I will be back soon, Windmush.

Thank you for reading.

Rat (zodiac) – Wikipedia

Japan, has Quality thinking people ….

Quality Thinking Living.

One time in Osaka, Japan, I did experienced how easy it was to adopt Quality Thinking in daily living.
I was invited to stay for one month in a house of a Japanese family. Atsuo-san, the head of the family was the owner of 4 exclusive night-clubs. At home all family members where following some strict but logical rules. Everything was so perfect. Taking of your shoes to enter in the living area was obligatory, but it was almost made into a ritual. Your shoes had to be but in a special way and your indoor slippers was always in the same spot.

Sign for Quality in Japanese.


The preparing and serving of food had a perfect balance in timing and quality. You could never have a meal better served even in a first class restaurant
Every one of the family members helped to do a task, so everything ran smoothly and effectively. This experience of such quality team work, is something that I never will forget.
This is hard to adapt to modern European living but it is worth a try. “Doo Itashimashite ( your welcome)

I will be back soon, Windmush

Culture of Japan – Wikipedia

From the eye of a hurricane

# I was not comfortable in my TIME ZONE !!

FROM THE EYE OF A HURRICANE.

It happened in the year 1964, when I had one of my most terrifying experiences in my lifetime.

I was working on M/S Broland a Swedish bulk cargo vessel with the size of 18.000 Dwt. We were crossing the Pacific Ocean with a full cargo of Bauxite, loaded in former British Guiana, now heading for Japan, after passing the canal of Panama.

We had a cruising speed of 20 knots and the weather was nice and sunny with lots of Dolphins following our vessel.

When we just passed the dateline, the weather made a drastic change in less than one hour (we also had lost one day passing the IDL). Our Captain informed us that we had a bad storm ahead of us, on our destination to Yokohama. We secured all moveable stuff, as normally in bad seas.

The wind and waves were growing for every minute and the ship rolled and dived through the dark high waves, now reaching almost 20 meters high !  Suddenly everything became calm and dark…..what happened ­??

We had entered in the EYE of a Hurricane !!!  This was all new to me and when I for curiosity walked out on the open deck, I could not believe my what I saw…. The ocean was flat and seemed to have a dark oily black color and knowing that the depth of the ocean was about 2000 meters under us, I was stunned! Looking up at the sky I saw a small patch of blue, but around it there was dark clouds moving so fast in circle, that I became almost dizzy…

…was this the end of our journey??    The crew on the bridge told us to go inside and close all doors and portholes!  Our vessel Broland was at still, not going anywhere. Our captain informed us that we were in a ”dead zone” and no radio connection could be made neither the compass or navigation system was in function…..we did not know which way to get out of this HELL !!…..A drastic decision on the bridge was made to go at full speed ahead against the dark wall of shriving clouds and rain. The decision was taken by our captain. Very soon we left this calm dark sea behind us and met huge waves and even stronger winds….we were rolling and jumping again and without sight ahead more than the length of the ship. I had never experienced this before, we seemed to be lost and going nowhere. Suddenly after long hours of living hell, the sky opened, and we had left the center of the hurricane behind us.

I said to myself, “finally it’s all over” ….!! But I was WRONG!

We came out where the hurricane has left the ocean with long huge waves, almost like a tsunami!  Between the waves, we were “surfing” with an 18.000 Dwt. Vessel ‼ The waves had now the height of almost 30 meters.

Without warning, an enormous wave broke all over the ship and we seemed to be diving like a submarine. It was almost midnight when a sound like an explosion was heard all over the vessel…. The main machinery had cracked!!  Our M/S Broland became totally quiet, after being growling and shivering for the last days……

This was even worse than before, we had cero control over the vessel, now we moved like a nutshell at ruff sea. Our telegraphist sends out a S.O.S. call, as now, we were outside the hurricane! Finally, it was captured by a large oil tanker ahead of us and came to rescue, until a tugboat from somewhere came to assist us.

With a large amount of luck, we finally reached the port of Yokohama. It was not a beautiful sight, as we found other ships who had gone down or sunken. One Maersk Liner was hanging on top of the pier at the port entrance! This was the “after show” of a hurricane or typhoon!

Finally, when stepping on shore, for the first time in 25 days, was a relived feeling. The port was a mess! The first 2-3 lines of buildings where totally wrecked, but finally reaching “uptown” Yokohama we could find a nice location to have a relaxing Japanese meal…

 I will now end the story for this blog, but I will be back with more….

Thank You for reading!

Curt/Windmush

1964 Pacific hurricane season – Wikipedia