South Sea Vagabonds by John Wray

I am reading a great book called South Sea Vagabonds by a Kiwi called John Wray.

1977 Edition

It’s a simple tale full of ingenuity, common sense and daring do, as it tells the story of a young man who decides, (after being sacked for too much daydreaming) to make the dream a reality by building a boat.

But he is nearly broke and the boat grows from a mish mash of scrounged and found materials with a lot of help (and kegs of beer!) from his friends.

The story then simply describes their exploits as they sail around the tropical islands, not quite always staying out of trouble.

Early on in the journey, John comments;

“We learned later that throughout the South Seas there are very few clocks in evidence. No one knows what the time is. No one cares.” John Wray (1939)

Offers anyone?

It got me thinking, what a great goal, to live without wearing a wristwatch. Eating when you are hungry, waking and going to bed when you body tells you too. Being free of work induced unnatural constraints on your natural rhythms.

Alas, I can’t see it being a goal that I can achieve any time soon with at least 4 points in my day which involve me being somewhere definite at a very specific time!

Maybe I could experiment with not wearing a watch at the weekends and see how it feels!

Who knows, maybe one day, there will be a very used and battered Oyster watch for sale on Ebay……….

Incidentally, John Wray’s South Sea Vagabonds was leant to me by another resourceful Kiwi, my friend Warren, who by strange coincidence, also doesn’t wear a watch…………lessons learnt, perhaps?

I imagine that John Wray would have got on with Warren very well indeed.

What about you? Do you watch the clock?

Stay well