Blog 01

I woke at about two in the morning in the furnace that was to be home for the next five weeks. There were five of us sharing a six person cabin. Thankfully a concession is made on the longer ocean-going journeys for one berth in the nominally larger cabins to remain vacant as there is simply too much baggage for six people to fit comfortably without killing one another. I didn’t want to be the one to wake everyone else but the need for the lav was too pressing. One of our cabin rules was peeing only in the cabin toilet and number twos to be deposited in the outside loos. I held off for a bit but finally succumbed and managed to get to there without tripping over or falling into the wrong berth on the way back.

At sixish I got up and rearranged all my gear and everything seemed to be a bit more manageable after I realised there was more storage under my bed. Sacrificing some privacy by leaving the curtain open meant you were more susceptible to be woken by the lights but less likely to expire from heatstroke and lack of oxygen. Although more bearable for me, one of our cabinmates, Felix, was not faring so well and was being seen by the ship’s doctor. He hadn’t surfaced since our trip into town. I had another hour’s nap, left Felix with Doctor Nelika and went upstairs for breakfast. Apparently upstairs is 'on deck' and I was a Polliwog, a sailor who had yet to cross the equator and did not know the difference between on deck and upstairs. All my notes I henceforth named Polliblogs.