| "I met JCK on the Caledonien in early 69, we had both joined the boat in Panama. He was a few years older than myself and a more seasoned traveler having ridden a motorcycle cross Canada, down the Baja, through Mexico and the rest of Central America. I had gone to South America with some vague ideas of visiting the Amazon, but never got close. Kennedy was just returning from a 2-month raft trip down the Amazon starting from Pucallpa, Peru. He was the sort of traveler, adventurer that we all wish we could be, part mountain climber, part engineer, part motorcycle mechanic. |
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He had booked his ticket on the Caledonien through to Sydney, his long term plan was to travel around Australia and then do the overland trip to Katmandu and on to Europe before heading back to the States. Well I don't know if that is what he really planned but that is what he wound up doing. The trip on the Caledonian was I think an exceptional time for our little group in the smoking lounge. Bonds were formed that were to last a lifetime. I hitchhiked around Australia. Kennedy bought a motorcycle and went further than I. Biking all the way around via Tasmania, cross the Nullabor to Perth, up the West Coast, back over to Darwin and back down to Sydney via the Gold Coast. He found a job in Sydney to finance his world travels, while I wound up going back to Canada. We meet up again in London the following year as he was completing his overland trip. At that time I was planning the next trip back to Nuku Hiva on the Caledonian. Kennedy wound up going back to the States to look for work after riding a motorcycle around Europe and across North Africa. He wound up living in the one of the 'coolest' places on the planet, a houseboat in San Francisco Bay just north of Sausalito. Now I was arriving Frisco on a Northwest Orient flight from Hawaii after sailing from Tahiti to Honolulu on the way back to Vancouver. He wasn't exactly expecting me but that was OK, I could crash on the couch. He lived on a small boat and had some interesting neighbors; the whole harbor (Kappas) was interesting. The girl next door, was straight out of Haight Ashbury while the woman on the other side was a beautiful European type with a large pet Ocelot that freaked out all the other houseboat cats, dogs and birds. |
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It was a great place, for artists, musicians and philosophers of all sorts. Kennedy said I should try to find a job and hang out there for a while but I finally seccumbed to the temptation of an easy way out debt, which was to go back to Vancouver and my old standby job, driving a MacLures cab for the irascible "Louie." |
