Ferry update
Ok, that’s possibly giving an optimistic slant to a development which has befallen us. Our embarkment was in two stages. Whilst waiting to board in the sun yesterday afternoon, Chris (who else?) got chatting and arranged for us to leave the cars on the quayside and we went aboard to rest in our cabins and have a bit of chicken and chips, in the dining room. We all understood the jeopardy of the situation, which needs no spelling out (what could possibly go wrong?) but we accepted the risk………
As soon as we sat down to our feast, we got the call to drive the cars on! You see we took the risk and won. Cars on board we returned to our now cold and even more congealed chicken and chips. Also the dining room is an exaggeration. This is a truckers ferry!
We had our own supplies of booze (none available to buy on the ship) and set about gaining the perfect balance of booze filled tummies, but not overly much to cause nausea, because the wind was still strong and sailor Nigel wisely prepared us for a rough crossing. I read aloud an account of a Turkmenistani ferry sinking recently, just to add spice to our troubled nerves. But we were in fine spirits. We had boarded, against many gloomsters predictions and soon we’d set sail, not, admittedly, at 4pm as we thought earlier nor it turned out at 9pm which was another time mentioned and we went to bed in various stages having each taken one of Nellie’s pills to suppress sea sickness.
We all slept the sleep of the righteous. The swell seemed very slight. In fact it seemed at first that the ship was gliding on air; barely a tremble nor rumble nor roll. Strange indeed. Opening the curtain revealed a sight so unexpected that it was hardly believable. We were still in Azerbaijan, tied up to the dock. What!?
Nellie and I rose quickly to find out what was going on. Our investigations revealed the following: not a single crew member to be seen; truck drivers asleep on all the seats, benches and chairs; outside, the ramps were up, the generator running but not the main engines, no one on the quayside. Conclusion - we have been customs cleared and are prisoners on board our own ship.
An hour later, now 8am, we found a crew member. Through Google translate, adjusting for the fact that we are on a Turkmenistani ferry, we think we have discovered there is a problem with the engine. The engineer is coming. He is coming from Turkmenistan. He is coming by ship!
We wait……..
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