Aliens. What Moved In on Deck While the Crew Were Away, and What Was Christmas Like There?

We’ve got... flying slugs living on deck. Even as I write this, my hair is standing on end. It’s the tropics, baby... How did it happen? It was raining cats and dogs in the village of Gadyukino, while we had just found a way to go live using the internet ashore. This quest required a great deal of luck and diplomacy, because the time difference meant we had to go live at 6 a.m. So we arrived for the livestream like a travelling gypsy camp, the whole lot of us. With bedding and pillows, huge bags of laundry and provisions. The roosters began screeching at 4 a.m.; we went on air at six. The owners of the premises and their neighbours stoically tried to sleep. By 11 a.m., they finally managed it. Because we had been live for a full four and a half hours. As always, we answered every question. If you missed it, come to our YouTube channel. We Left for a Day and Came Back Four Days Later Our young sailor caught up on her sleep, then became listless; before leaving for home, we took her temperature—39.5°C. ... And so we stayed. All told, the following evening we appeared for a couple of minutes live on the morning show on Moscow FM radio, and the next morning, again at 6, there was an Instagram livestream with Yacht Russia, the country’s best sailing magazine. We spared the neighbours this time and broadcast from the house. Then Christmas came around, and what sort of Christmas can you have alone? So we celebrated it with the hospitable owners of the house and the internet, and returned to the yacht four days later. During that time, the rain had washed out the path on the approach, and some new residents had appeared on deck. This had the first mate shrieking all evening as if she’d been stung, gathering jumping slugs into a tissue. The latter frolicked in the basins of water, sprang onto our legs and crawled over every surface. “Andryusha, what if they’re babies? They’ve only just been born. And then they’ll grow to three metres long. They’re aliens—I’ve worked it out.” And I armed myself with a torch so I could spend another hour on the wet deck. The remaining aliens frightened the girls and me again in the morning. Midnight is drawing near now, and I’m afraid to go out on deck for a shower. What if they’ve grown already?? Today (and Not Only Today) As everyone knows, in beautiful places sailors not only repair their yachts, but also sit at their laptops. We’ve been working for ten hours straight on a film about Suwarrow Atoll. As it happens, of this arduous 85-day passage from Tasmania to the centre of the Pacific, it is the atoll that will come out first. It will break up the relentlessly nautical, hard-going videos on the channel. And only then will we plunge into the horror show of the Tasman Sea. Agreed? The Formalities Situation So far, there’s no news on any front. We still haven’t managed to re-register the yacht, and we haven’t received our Korean visa. The authorities of the island nations are taking a long time to decide. Meanwhile, we’re staying among the islands and getting closer to putting to sea. We hope it will happen by mid-January. About three weeks remain. If we can repair the watermaker and mend the mainsail in time. But we’ll manage that. In the meantime—are you feeling festive for New Year, friends? May Your Wishes Come True! And, summing up, we’ll say that despite all the difficulties, it was a very good year. In our lives, it was one of the best and most important. Our circumnavigation via all the planet’s southern capes and Antarctica is complete! Today we learned that it was named Journey of the Year by the Russian Circumnavigators’ Union. Hooray! And thank you to everyone who voted for us! Hugs! Dreams do come true—we’re telling you! A huge thank-you to everyone supporting the expedition budget through Yoomoney and Paypal. Thanks to you, we feel that what we do is worthwhile. Hugs!