A month earlier...

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the amazing response to my Blip yesterday. Your stars, hearts and comments are truly appreciated. And my Pirate would have simply loved to make it to the Popular front page!

This is a prequel. It demonstrates just how slim a thread of coincidence our lives hang on...

25 years and four weeks ago I took a break from three months' fairly relentless travel (east to west: UK to Hawaii to Tonga to NZ North Island then South Island) and stayed in a backpackers' in Greymouth on the West Coast for a couple of weeks. 

There I worked for my bed and board changing sheets, cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms. 

One very wet day I learned to pan for gold with Kev from Brighton (the Blip); another world traveler who was helpfully traveling west to east. He made recommendations for my next stops in Australia, suggesting that I gave Cairns a body-swerve and head north instead: first to Port Douglas; and then further north as soon as possible, to stay in Cooktown. 

He had just spent three weeks there, mostly fishing from the wharf and vainly waiting for a break in the weather so he could get out to the Great Barrier Reef.

"If you get there, you must ask around and get on a trip to the Reef with this guy called 'PP'" he instructed me. 

We said our farewells soon afterwards and disappeared out of each other's lives in opposite directions. He left with my recommendations for his next stop, in Tonga.

I flew into Cairns, spent a night in Port Douglas and skedaddled north, booked into the backpackers in Cooktown and made arrangements with the owner to get me onto a Reef trip with 'PP'. 

Three days later... I met a man leaning against the mast of his trimaran yacht.

Had I not met Kev in Greymouth I would categorically never have met my Pirate. 

Had I not taken voluntary severance from work (aka redundancy) in March of that year I would never have traveled to NZ and met Kev in Greymouth. 

Had Scottish Local Government not been reorganised in April 1996 I would never have taken severance.

And so one decision after another led me to my Pirate. Some out of my control. Some made on a wing and a prayer. 

The ride that we call life is quite remarkable.

Incidentally I tried to contact Kev later, to let him know what his recommendations had led to and to thank him most profoundly. Despite my best efforts over several years I never found him. I would love him to know he utterly changed my life.