Left Austria as a young lad in June 1984 accompanied by my friend and buddy Martin Ehgartner. Didn't speak any English and depended on Martin. We were to visit our American friend Bobby who had studied in Austria and lived with Martin in Vienna. I was 20 years old at the time. We toured the United States for a while and then, after some two-and-a-half months, Martin returned to Austria to continue his studies. As I had no job to go back to, I saw no reason to return and stayed on. Hitchhiked all over the States and started to pick up the language. One thing led to another and I soon found myself travelling further afield. Worked illegally in the States doing all kind of stuff. To renew my visa I had to travel to Canada. There I stood in front of an American Express office with eyes bigger than my wallet and ended up buying a ticket across the Pacific, with return to the States (I still had the return ticket to Austria in my pocket.) Hitched back down to San Francisco from where I boarded a plane to Hawaii. As I had hardly any money left, I slept on the beach and ate whatever I could find, mainly fruit. Was lucky when I found a job as I was down to my last US$15. Had a plane ticket to New Zealand but no money to get me from the big island back to Oahu to board the plane. Worked as a carpenter and helped to build three houses. Made a total of over US$500. Next stop New Zealand. I got friendly with a family on arrival in Auckland, and ended up living with them. Found a job so that I could move around the islands. Lived near Lake Taupo with the brother of the American for whom I had built houses in Hawaii, a guy called Loui Denolfo, a character and a legend in his own time. Loui was a fisher and bone carver and taught me his skills. He played the mouth-harp wherever he went; once he used to play together with Jimmy Hendrix. I did all kinds of jobs and ended up staying nearly six month in New Zealand, travelling all over the islands. Then I flew across to Australia. Sydney was my first port of call. I still had the five hundred dollars in my pocket. Found a job moving furniture. My father had a friend in Sydney, so I went to see him. Ray, an Austrian from my hometown, helped me to find a job cleaning during the day in a High School and a few hours at night in a huge office building in North Sydney. Spent six months in Australia before leaving for Fiji. In Fiji I found a yacht named "Tyrant" which was short of a crew to deliver it to California. The skipper was a Brit living in Samoa who had worked with Hans Hass, producer of underwater movies such as "Under the Red Sea". His name was Arthur Anthony William Travis, or Bill Travis for short (by the way, I lied to him about my sailing experience in order to get on the board; I had never sailed before in my life.) We had lots of problems on that voyage. The crew consisted of Kerry a Kiwi, Inia a Fijian, Merry the Fijian cook, Bill the skipper, and myself. Sailed from Fiji to American Samoa. The next thirty days we spent at sea. Put in at Hawaii for repairs. To write down the whole story would take too long but suffice it to say that just about everything went wrong. We ended up in jail in Hawaii as we had no visas, yet American Samoa had cleared us by saying that we would receive our visas on arrival in Hawaii. We spent three days and three nights in jail and were finally deported. They usually sent people back to their country of origin but in my case I guess they thought AUSTRIA sounded very much like AUSTRALIA and I finished up back in Australia - the last convict deported to Australia! I travelled up the east coast and worked on Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays. Saw a yacht there with the most beautiful flag which turned out to be from Papua New Guinea. Arranged to sail with this yacht but nothing came of it so I crewed in the Cairns-to-Port Moresby yacht race. Had it all mapped out: arranged a yacht to take me back to Australia then hitched across to Darwin where I boarded yet another yacht to Indonesia. Island-hopped all across Indonesia and made my way up through Malaysia to Thailand where I received instructions in the art of Thai massage. I returned to Australia via Singapore and arrived in Perth during the America's Cup in 1987. Well, Rob, that's taken care of the first THREE YEARS! Now for the other 17!