oh, Puccini… 
…come a bit closer! 
thank you…
I should be used to culminating delays, but the more you hope the harder to be realistic…
Yesterday, the agent had told me that berthing should be at 1400 (“fourteen hundred”) and he would tell me more at 1000. He messaged me at 715 (or is this 725? It was a quarter after 700) and I thought, now I must speed up to be faster at the port, but it was the opposite. It should be 1800! For M&M this meant that saying goodbye would be in the middle of afternoon instead of in their lunch break. For me, it meant nearly another complete workday, only from time to time interrupted by packing one bag after the other. Later, in the morning, the agent told me, the ship would berth earlier and so, I should come at 1700. So, M&M came at 1500, my bike was ready to go, we talked a bit and when the situation became a bit awkward, because we knew we must say goodbye in the end, we just did it.
For me, this was a big moment in many ways, but something important made it easier – M&M will come to Europe in a few months.
Australia, to be more exact: Sydney and to be even more exact: M&M had been the goal of that trip, all the time it gave me extra motivation to complete the trip according to my idea to get to them only by bike & ship. Then I arrived and in a way the tour was finished, in reality of course not.
But there was no time to dedicate to philosophical pondering, because soon, Doron arrived and we had this great camping trip, served on a silver tray, I just had to enjoy it without wasting any thought on where to go next, what to see, where to sleep, not even what to eat. After this trip, there were some days left together with Doron and then another 12 days of jauntiness. I could stay like a family member, with no special responsibilities, only enjoying my time and our time (M&M had to their jobs…). Because of those many days that I was staying, a little bit, I felt like an intruder but then M&M said two things that confused and touched me:
Markus said they were thinking about an au-pair and even when this was more meant for fun, it tells something positive. And later Martina said that it will be strange when I will not be around anymore.
Thank you, also for that…
I drove to the port and it was a relaxed ride, because I knew the way (see day 291) and came there at 16:30. At the barrier of gate B34, I didn’t know what to do, because nobody seemed to see me, so I drove in like the other trucks. Now they saw me, and 5 horrified security ran to me and asked me what I did there. I could calm them down and they showed me a place to wait. After a few minutes, a bus from The Mission to Seafarers (>>Volunteer Ship Visitors board commercial ships in ports to offer help and support to individual seafarers and crews.<<) arrived. The driver chatted with me for a while and explained that he and others fetch and bring crew members to town and back. While we were talking, the agent also arrived and told me that the ship will stay in the port until next evening !
Well, at least, I could board. The Puccini is a smaller than the other ships, but the structure is similar. The security officer immediately wanted to make a tour on the ship and show me the live boats etc. Happily, I had heard most of that before, because it was quite fast to remember. It was interesting that again I also heard something new. Then the cadet came to show and bring me to the mess room for dinner. The last thing was the immigration procedure, then I was alone and could start to adopt to the meditative and regular life on the ship.