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The South African shipping company that I had worked for was split up and sold to two companies, one Greek and one Danish, a sad victim of "asset management", or was it just bad management? The Greeks got the Bulk Carriers, Salvage Tugs and Reefer ships and the Danes got the Container Vessels. I happened to be on a big Cape Size bulk carrier, the "Saldanha", when this action took place so was "sold" to the Greeks! Of course I had two choices, like it or lump it! I decided to like it. Why stress for no good reason? The style of the Greek company was completely different from what I was used to but there was no real reason to leave and a change of environment might not always be a bad thing. Anyway, one reason for going to sea is the adventure, so My Adventure Continues!

After a few changes of plan in quick succession, I was off to join a five month old container vessel, the LionMax, in Long Beach, California. This was a complete and welcome change from the bulk carriers that I had been on for the last few years. The flight from Cape Town was via Johannesburg, Frankfurt, over Greenland and on to LAX at Los Angeles.

I took over from Captain Drescher, a shipmate from various container ships on the South Africa/Europe run - a great captain. He had taken delivery of the LionMax from the builders in Taiwan and had been on it since then. After a good handover I was in command of a real ocean greyhound! Captain Drescher flew home to Germany to have some leave and to move into his new house. We completed cargo work and moved from the Long Beach Container Terminal to the inner anchorage to take bunkers and stores from a barge and then sailed for Manzanillo, Mexico. My Pacific Adventure had started, read on!

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