On Friday, April 30, 2004 9:36 PM, Reef Fish wrote:

(snip)
> That pales in comparison with Strike's dive in which TWO divers, and
> the ONLY two divers on the dive, Strike and a French cook, were left
> by a crew of THREE at sea.

Mate!  There were three of us - the only divers (and passengers!) aboard the
boat - left at sea by a crew of two!  (I always console myself by the fact
that the other two divers were French and that I was just a hapless victim
by virtue of the fact that I wasd in their company!  Madame Jacqueline - the
Vietnamese cook, actually took a fancy to me - mainly 'cause I joined her
and the skipper and showed them that I knew how to eat roasted water-melon
seeds!) :-)

> It was Strike's famous tale on Madame Jaqueline (other times
> attributed to Madame Catfolly).  :-)

> THAT was actually the tale I had requested Strike to tell in
> our BaliNEDfest party, to our Singapore friends, because that
> dive supposedly took place at or near Singapore, I fink.  :-)))

It was actually in Vietnam and just before the 'incident' with the water
bottle!  (That was two-days before the Vietnam Salvage Diving Association
made me a guest of honour at their newly established diving lodge, on the
banks of the Saigon River.  They made me eat catfish washed down with huge
quantities of beer!  None of the group apparently spoke English, so all
conversation was directed through an interpreter.  Late in the afternoon,
the Chief Diver and I were left alone to drink beer while the rest of the
group - including the interpreter - were busy discussing our travel
arrangements back to Saigon.  When he saw that nobody was paying attention,
the Chief Diver - who apparently spoke not a word of English - took a
laminated card from his pocket and showed it to me.  It was a US Navy
identity card bearing his - younger-looking - picture issued in the late
'60's!  He just smiled at me.  I smiled back, and we both sat contentedly
sipping beer and watching the boat traffic on the river!) :-)

Strike