The Last Sundowners Club

In days gone by and after dinner (sometimes before) the sundowners club would set up shop on many an aft deck or bridge wing the oceans over. A few bottles or cans of beer would be disposed of as the sun worked its way around to the side of the world that can't be seen! As the light dimmed the enthusiastic would continue drinking either outside or in, the less keen would have repaired to their cabins to bury their heads in-between the covers of a book, catch up on the paperwork or dream of the life back home, fantasy or otherwise. And everybody was happy then.

Suddenly new laws appeared and drink was blamed for past lost time accidents, sleep deprivation and reduced performance in the work place!

The average day of any engineer is spent under or in a dirty black monstrosity of an engine or inside a tank that hasn't seen daylight since a champagne bottle smashed on the bow all of those years ago, a spot of amateurish welding or a game of hide and seek with the Oiler. Running around like a mosquito on a high makes any working day flash by in a blur of intermingled activity and stress. From eight until five o'clock time passes rapidly in a work orientated and hyped blur briefly interspersed with cups of strong black coffee and a lunch time nap. At five though life comes to a bone jarring standstill; a serious shock to the system that is often hard to adjust to, for the who lived in the civilized times anyway.

With the noise and the speed of eight hours of sweat having been successfully beaten down for another day, what happens next? A few hours of empty time ahead to do whatever takes ones fancy! Is it to be a spot of golf, a beer at the local or a blind date at the Indian curry house? Not quite so simple as that, not so cut and dried or for that matter possible (even if the cook is good at dishing up curries and wears a dress) and without a drink to pass the time the evenings ahead can pass by like a freight train heading up Mount Everest, those snow chains lying forgotten in a dusty drawer back home.

Of course it would be terrible to say that there is nothing to do and that beer makes ships go round! At sea and sailing though the tropics, watching the sunset over a cup of hot chocolate is quite a nice pastime. And mulling over the ripples, those that gently curl along the ships hull before smoothly intermingling with the rougher yet more purposeful wake behind is quite a lovely way to pass ten minutes or so. It's just those other three or four hours and fifty minutes that need to be filled with activity!

One can always talk to somebody else or sit comfortably curled up to read a book with a cup of hot cocoa to hand! Play some music, make pancakes; enter dreams worlds where naked woman frolic on the forecastle (usually only reserved for drug induced moments) or build scale models of ships that will be too large to fit through the cabin door upon home coming time.

Honestly, there are just mountains, literally untold heaps of activities that could be undertaken to pass an evening without pause to the determination of its passing...... the taking of some exercise for one! A gentle jog around the deck could be good for more than just reducing the belly that stretches any T-shirts imagination, or how about a brief bash at lifting ones own body weight with a set of dumbbells that some over zealous engineer manufactured out of main engine pistons and a thousand welding rods (some of which still stick out the sides). Some people consider skipping an occupation that does wonders, others more astute and often those slightly larger than the average consider an evening stroll around deck the key to an hour or two! Certainly the stroll around the deck is not quite like walking along the promenade with a girlfriend, wife or affair and it certainly doesn't bring enviable views of rolling landscapes that make all gush overly so but it does get the pins moving and the time passing. In all honesty, the walking around the deck can be a time for reflection, a time for solitude and exercise, a form of escape from the madness that surrounds a ships daily life and those within its steel walls! But then annoying people that charter ships like to load that lovely deck up with all manner of containers and bits of cargo that leaves little space for the recreational - even a rat would think twice before braving the outside with all that clutter around! Or the weather picks up and trying to walk around deck whilst dodging the large waves that break over the crash rails no longer has appeal!

Dinner, now there is something that one can spend time over! But first a shower, a hot shower to wash away that sweat and then dinner, some Indian curry or sausages and mash - who checked the menu today? Not me Sir! The uncertainty of what the cook might serve up brings adventure and mystery into an otherwise repetitive chore!

Watch a video! Now there is a worth while pastime of an evening. A civilized occupation that can bring a smile to the face, or tears, or anger to the emotional! I mean now-a-days it is so simple to crack out a movie! In the past when large reels of delicate tape had to be manhandled and twisted off reels, were radio officers shouted at cadets in frustration and where insults flew viciously around as the tape snagged during an interesting bit, everything was a bit of a workup. But now personal laptops, a DVD player and TV in many an officer's cabins, mess rooms and recreational areas means that a movie can be played at any time, anywhere and by anyone.

Sixty days at sea and within the first thirty all of those DVD's have been watched! All of those books that can be read have been read and all of those magazines that were lying around of been scrutinized thrice over for that missing needle in the haystack. Conversation with others always leads to a potential argument; exercise brings about the possibility of crossing paths with another similar minded creature, music is sickening and just nothing to do!

And so time passes ever longer as each day a repeat of itself. Each evening dragging and resembling a constant wait for a delayed British Rail train.

At least with beer onboard life was acceptable and definitely something to look forwards to at the end of a long hard day!

Why did they take that away from us?