I remember being quite dispirited and low leaving my last boat. Our Med season had been a grind and I dont think we ever had time to get over our brush with death and the man over board we dealt with in the Bay of Biscay. My wife had returned home to New Zealand and I was quite fed up. That said I didn’t write anything down and to be fair time has healed a lot of what I was unhappy about.

I don’t think time will be quite so kind with my time here. I have already penned some of my grievances. There are many juicy things that I will not be able to write about until I have finished in this industry. Outside of work these castles made upon sand and the fragile society that surrounds them still puzzles me. It doesn’t feel right. The Doha fire tragedy that happened two days after we arrived is still dragging its way through the court system. The thing that mosts irks me, is having my broadmindedness slowing eroding away. I do believe I have developed racist traits living here.

My Sister called this my tour of duty and I think thats the best description. Everywhere I have travelled or lived I have felt or seen common threads. Here the threads are so tenuous that I might as well have been living in a space station for six months.

I am still not free and will not feel so until I am on that plane. I broke a few rules leaving here. Usually there is a one month notice period. Through careful negotiation and clever writing I got that down to a week. For my residency to be cancelled there were numerous paper hurdles that normally take a month to process. Fortunately I had unwavering faith that I will join my new boat and I am not supposed to live in the sand. My final paper work came through 2 hours before the close of business day on Thursday. I will fly out of here at 11:45pm on Saturday.

That is my glance back over my shoulder. My future is incredibly bright. There is much to be happy about. I am in good health, I have a great job to look forward to. I now have a 50% work/life balance. Im going to be travelling to places I have never seen. I am going to have plenty of things to write about.

Let the dice fly high.