The Equator Party

Happily, any event (and I’m not talking about Russian Independence Day) is a good reason for a party at sea, and we duly partied in the approved style with a barbecue dinner and flowing beer-chests on the bridge deck…

Biddy was duly serenaded and presented with the ritual cake by chief stewardess Svetlana



and the early evening rolled into mid-evening into late evening into night as we chatted and danced and beered the hours away…




I met up with my friends of the last party, and made a few more. Yevgenji, the Bosun, 29, the ship’s undoubted jeune premier speaks excellent English and I discovered to my semi-surprise that he’d begun life as a ballet dancer before taking to the sea. Then there was Valery, the demon barber of this afternoon’s proceedings.
I also did my best to have a conversation with our chef, who was all willing, but alas has about two more words of English than I have of Russian. And I feel may have also had two more beers than I.
Anyway, Bosun and chef duly posed for the imperative Gänzl camera, with the very decorative Viktoriya between them



Another splendidly relaxed evening in delightful company …
And just to prove that I WAS still standing at the end…
(no, I am laughing at Valery trying to point my camera at us, and the gorgeous Natalja is NOT holding me up!)