(from my diary)
17 November 1992
Left Rotterdam in the morning. The ship is rolling again. Zhenya plays with his new construction set. Docked in Felixstowe at 9 pm. Took a short walk along the shore. All ports are alike. Left England at night.
18 November 1992
Nothing but water is around us. The crew said that the ship will not call into ports until Australia. This means that for a whole month we will only see waves. The color of water changed to green. In higher latitudes it was grey. Going through the English Channel. Zhenya writes grandma a long letter in which he describes in detail every day of our voyage, then types his letter on the computer.
The night before, the “Academic Gorbunov” docked at a small port Felixstowe in England and left it in a few hours. I did not see any cargo loading or unloading. The reason for stopping there became apparent on the following morning when, at breakfast, we noticed two new passengers – a British couple.
They were seated separately from the officers and other passengers in a small saloon adjacent to our mess. The mess stewardess brought the British their meal. Their food was different from ours and served more elaborately.
The British were very private people; they kept to their cabin. I never saw them on the deck or speaking to anyone. If it had not been Maria who did not hesitate to knock on their door and to invite the British woman to play tennis with her, I’d have known nothing about them.
It occurred to me that I should start learning English in earnest since we were en route to Australia and one day would definitely get there. There was ample time for studying, I had textbooks with me and I could practice English with native speakers. I watched Maria and the British woman playing and dismissed that idea. My natural laziness and lack of Maria’s social skills prevented me from approaching the British. Besides, we were gradually settling in into the unhurried rhythm of life aboard of the “Academic Gorbunov”. Studying required making efforts and I did not want to push myself.
‘Perhaps, I deserve a break after too much stress in Russia,’ that happy thought lulled me deeper into a relaxed mood. ‘All in due time, I will start studying when it comes to it.’
Maria played several games with the British woman trying to get a conversation going. The British smiled gently and answered politely like a well-mannered lady, but she did not show much interest in talking.
19 November 1992
Every night I have the same nightmare in which I am in Russia, hurriedly making preparations for the departure and freaking out that we do not have ship tickets. Going through the Bay of Biscay. Seasick again and spent all day in bed. How long will I suffer from it?
It was 11 days since we left St. Petersburg. The fixed daily routine and monotony of the ship life had a calming effect. Russia with all its problems was well behind us. Apart from seasickness, nothing troubled us. We became friendly with the crew and other passengers. My son spent his time at the computer, playing with toys or reading. I worked out and read too; the ship had an excellent library. In the evenings we went to the sailors’ mess to watch VHS movies or I played patience. On the surface, our life was undisturbed. Yet deep inside me, I was still fighting the demons of the past. It took 2 weeks for the nightmares to stop. After that, I started sleeping soundly at night.
20 November 1992
Yesterday I was really bad. Today is much better. Sat outside in the sunshine. The water became deep blue. Sailing along Spain.
Maria invited the British to tea in her cabin. She wanted to entertain them in style and asked if, in my opinion, our captain had supplies for this purpose. My opinion was that it’s improper to have guests at someone else’s expense. I kept that opinion to myself and made a helpless gesture to show that I had no experience in such matters. The resourceful Maria went to the captain who gave her two boxes of chocolates and assorted cookies.
When the tea party was over, Maria popped in again with a new question. Her foreign guests did not eat up all chocolates. She wondered if she should return what’s left to the captain. I could not imagine our captain being so petty that he would take back half-eaten boxes of chocolates. Trying not to laugh at the absurdness of the situation, I advised Maria to check with the captain if she wanted to be on the safe side. Maria ran up to the captain’s cabin one more time and, of course, he said not to worry about the remaining chocolate.
Later Maria told me that the British were retirees, in the mid-60s. The wife had breast cancer. The lump was removed, but the prognosis was not good. Instead of waiting for the end at home, the couple bought round-trip tickets to Australia on a Russian freighter and lived one day at a time.
That tea party was the last contact with the British. We saw them during the meals for a while, then they started eating in their cabin and no one felt their presence on the ship.
21 November 1992
The weather became pleasantly warm. Passed Gibraltar today. In the morning the crew washed the deck. They hosed it with seawater and accidentally sprayed the computer through an open porthole. The computer stopped working. Zhenya is devastated. He did not know what to do all day without the computer.
22 November 1992
Today is two weeks since our departure. Opened a swimming season. Zhenya was first to jump into the pool on the deck. I followed him after a brief hesitation. Water is so salty that it tastes bitter. Played tennis later and swam in the pool again.
The computer dried out and it’s working again. Zhenya resumed his duties as computer assistant to forth mate and playing games too.
In the evening the ship passed the Canary Islands. First, we saw a mountain, then lights at its base. Multi-colored lights sparkled with the dark mountain as the backdrop. Very beautiful sunset. Pity that we did not stop at Las Palmas.
Thank you for continuing your story. Oh, I hate being seasick!!!
Yeah, being seasick is awful, but it is interesting how our memory works. It mostly retains pleasant reminiscences. I recall being seasick a couple of times and that’s all. Now when I go through my diary records I see that I was seasick much more often than I remember.