The following diary extracts are a raw and personal account of my first voyage at sea. It was October 2001, I was fresh out of university and heading off to spend four months on board a Portuguese trawler, fishing off of Newfoundland’s Grand Banks. I’ve tried not to meddle with it too much, so that it is true to how I thought and saw things then. Having said that I have tidied it up a bit, and added a few paragraphs here and there to explain things.

I’ve enjoyed re-living some of the memories, and glimpsing the world through my younger and greener self. With the benefit of hindsight and many subsequent years working at sea, I can say now that this trip was really quite something, but at the time I had nothing to compare it to.
Enjoy the journey.
Ross
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