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“…but I would be content with nothing but going to sea…? - Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Dafoe

Across the South China Sea - Six days in the life of a Siberian Sailor

Rob Lilwall
2007-12-01 14:46:30

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/>Two days later, our boat anchored in the bay and all my stuff unloaded and repacked on shore, I knew I could no longer put off the inevitable - I had to get back on that bike! Behind me lay the happy memories of three months safe shelter in sparkling Hong Kong: the epic skyline, the hard working people, the good friends and even an amazing new-found girlfriend (now in London). Ahead of me lies a slightly daunting "out of my hands? relay of island hopping, visa blagging, rascal dodging, jungle crossing adventure. Realising I had better just quit worrying and enjoy it all (whether it be successful or not), I rise early from my bunk on the boat and decide to swim ashore. Pushing a little bin bag of essential possessions in front of me, I kick my way through tropical water, stopping briefly to allow a ferry load of bemused, smiling Filipino school kids to pass in front of me. Climbing ashore dripping, I wheel my well rested bike back onto the road and turn north for Manila...

Rob
and finally... a quote about going to sea (!):

' "No,? said Harris, "if you want rest and change, you can't beat a sea trip.? I objected to the sea trip strongly.
A sea trip does you good when you are going to have a couple of months of it, but, for a week, it is wicked.
You start on Monday with the idea implanted in your bosom that you are going to enjoy yourself. You wave an airy adieu to the boys on shore, light your biggest pipe, and swagger about the deck as if you were Captain Cook, Sir Francis Drake, and Christopher Columbus all rolled into one. On Tuesday, you wish you hadn't come. On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, you wish you were dead. On Saturday, you are able to swallow a little beef tea, and to sit up on deck, and answer with a wan, sweet smile when kind-hearted people ask you how you feel now. On Sunday, you begin to walk about again, and take solid food. And on Monday morning, as, with your bag and umbrella in your hand, you stand by the gunwale, waiting to step ashore, you begin to thoroughly like it. '
-Three men in a boat, Jerome K Jerome