Unexpected news and the continuation of our maritime Odyssey
So here I am, keeping quiet and dragging my feet, hiding behind the urgent need to finish writing the book, and the fact that I drove across half the country single-handed, holding meetings in between, and am, like, tired ).
What’s more, I’m only posting on the website today information that hit social media more than a week ago.
Meanwhile, the captain is actually out in the ocean. Because
The concept has changed. Lady Mary did not stay in Vladivostok for the winter,
and is now approaching Taiwan,
heading for the Philippines. A major refit is planned in Manila.
Be careful what you wish for )
Everything changed rapidly because word got around that a yacht with European registration (which Lady Mary has had since December) might get stuck in the country. There had already been problems ordering and paying for certain spare parts.
The captain had been itching to get back to Novosib since early September: he needed to work.
By around 20 September, the captain was tired of the road trip, the commotion, the meetings. That’s exactly what he said: “I’m tired.”
How do we cure that? I asked.
I want to go to sea!
In mid-September, he suggested we wrap up the programme of public meetings and race back to Novosibirsk. By the end of the month, it turned out he also needed to fly to Vladivostok....
Listen, I can’t do that—I feel responsible to the people. Let me hold the meetings on my own, and you get going.
And so we split up. That evening we held a business meeting in Kazan, then drove through the night to Ufa, where we had no need to go, except that the only direct flight to Novosib departed from there.
The Urals, Siberia and the Ocean
Ufa–Perm–Yekaterinburg–Tyumen–Omsk–Novosibirsk–the Altai Mountains—we girls travelled that stretch on our own, holding meetings with adults and children, welcomed by the Russian Geographical Society,
yachtsmen and friends from the foothills of the Urals all the way to Siberia. Thank you for the warm welcomes, dear people of Perm, Yekaterinburg, Tyumen and Omsk!
We, naïve Chukotka women, hoped that by the time we returned, the captain would have sorted everything out with the boat and would already be home. However, the decision forced upon us by the circumstances made no one happy: Lady Mary and Andrey put to sea.
I wrote to Andrey: “Look what a sorcerer you are! You wanted to go to sea so badly that the Universe spiralled into even greater chaos, and now you have to go.”
What worried me most was that Andrey, who had been chronically sleep-deprived for at least a week, would put to sea alone. Fortunately, we found two sailors—friends of ours whom we had got to know in Kazan. Fortunately, the captain can trust them to stand watch.
What’s the plan?
Initially, it was South Korea. The guys wanted to deliver the yacht there so they could fly home.
Since the summer, Andrey had been wondering whether, with things developing as they were, it made sense to leave the boat in Vladivostok or whether it would be better to take her to Korea. Korea had always been visa-free, then introduced visas after Covid, but there was no reason why we shouldn’t get one... At the end of September, visa refusals began coming through. South Korea linked Russians’ attempts to enter the country with the events of 21 September. Of course, for some reason it had forgotten that every autumn a dozen or two yachts leave Vladivostok to winter in the city of Busan. The bay there doesn’t freeze, berthing is cheaper, and repairs are no problem. It had been that way for many years.
Despite all of the above, Korea refused the visas (yep, it requires visas now). And even (!) our request for an emergency stop after a storm in the Sea of Japan came to nothing. Despite the fact that even the Foreign Ministry stepped in on the guys’ behalf. An agent, meanwhile, could partially resolve the issue and wanted a thousand dollars for permission to carry out repairs without going ashore.
“W-e-e-ll,” the captain replied, “that’ll be a no...”
They’re heading for the Philippines. The captain is “resting” in the hold, repairing either the pump or the engine (which now starts with a screwdriver); the seasick sailors are coping in different ways...
It feels strange for us girls to be on our own. We study, write, deal with firewood and the Gingerbread House’s temperamental heating system. I’m trying to finish the book; it was due practically yesterday. It’s hard to pull myself together after being knocked to pieces by the change of concept and all of this. But we’ll manage. We always have.
What’s good about all this?
The good thing is that our maritime Odyssey continues! And that means the adventures continue too. Don’t believe me? Read the next post.
As before, you can follow Lady Mary and the crew under the
“Route” tab.
There you’ll find the real-time track from
Iridium 360.
Who used to follow us on the tracker?
Hugs. Ask questions; we’ll stick together.
For news and the typhoon Lady Mary was caught in, see the next post.