It’s a common saying that we always want what we don’t have; for Suchet, this was the ocean.

Along with his nine brothers and four sisters, Suchet was born and raised high up in the Thai mountains, as far from the ocean as you can imagine. He didn’t have electricity or warm water, only lanterns and cold showers.

His house was isolated, no neighbours within shouting distance, and no town within reach. His family was poor and could hardly afford primary school education for their children. Most of the time they lived off the land – even their medicine came from the land, a lesson Suchet would remember later in life.

At the young age of fifteen, he had his first taste of ocean life. As a reference from his sister’s boyfriend, Suchet was given his first job working as a deckhand on a longtail fishing boat that left every morning and returned at night with the day’s catch. But this didn’t last too long.

Suchet was conscripted into the army. Once he had completed his service three years later, he returned to the ocean where he found work on a ferry. Little did he know that this was the beginning of a new life. One certification after another, he finally obtained his Captain’s license.

At the age of twenty-seven, Suchet became the captain of a large oil tanker; a few years later he was captain of a drilling ship. At some point, an old friend appeared and introduced him to the world of leisure cruising. At that stage, Suchet was thirty-eight years old.

As life was settling down for Suchet, Thailand experienced political upheavals. While angry mobs rioted, Suchet found himself back on land, helping those sick and injured from the fighting working as a doctor with his knowledge of traditional medicine.

And then he met the crew of Meta IV. He joined us immediately as a first mate and worked his way up to finally become our flagship’s Captain.