The Crew Boat Ride

At the Nogliki Camp I clambered skyward and into the Blue Bus that was to take me to the small port of Nogliki! The purpose of this ride was to get to the crew boat that would then take me onwards and to sea, thus to my ship the Pacific Endeavour.

The ride took about 45mins and was an exercise in dexterity, holding onto the seat in front whilst trying to look at the scenery as it bounced up and down outside of the mud-splattered window. The whole journey is along a dirt road, one that winds up embankments before falling sharply down the other side and all around is just trees! They are sparser here, thousands of trees with no leaves, just thin wispy trunks standing in the soil like some leaf and branch thief has been busy deforesting the jungle!

I arrived at the port at about 5pm! Being the only passenger in the bus I thought I might have the ear of the agent who would tell me what the plans were to get me out to my ship! Simply stating that I would sail on the crew boat called the Green Ocean he then disappeared to fish at the end of the dock with the security guards. I just stood there, noting the fact that no boat called the Green Ocean was in sight and that it was drizzling with rain and getting quite nippy!

The rusting hulk at Nogliki Port
Photo Copyright © Ieuan Dolby, 2006

The port is not a true port in the true sense of the word. It is a wooden jetty that somehow pieced itself together from drift wood, around a sole bollard that just happened to be sitting there. To the right a very old wreck lay wasting, a ship that looked like it had just drifted ashore from lack of attention, and there it sat ignored and lonely! To the right another wooden jetty jutted out and then nothing! Behind me was my blue bus, a few wooden huts that could have done with some paint and then just the trees with the dirt track swallowed-up amongst them, like a snake to its lair.

Looking inland at Nogliki Port
Photo Copyright © Ieuan Dolby, 2006

I stood on that jetty getting colder by the minute, watching the drizzle turn to rain and the view reduced as the fog descended. Eventually and after contemplating walking across the marsh like beach to confront the agent I heard the rumble of the crew boat approaching and with it the relief that soon I would be heading in the right direction.

The crew boat docked, the passengers got off and I stood there. There were plenty of people milling around, what looked like border security guards in their green uniforms were busy off-loading fish (most likely caught and sold by the ships crew) and my trusty agent was busy waving his arms around on the bridge like a windmill. I stood there and I stood there some more and then just a little bit more again! To break the monotony I was told to board the boat, but once onboard I was then told in sign language by the Russian crew that this boat was not going anywhere. Therefore, I dragged my bags off again to the freezing cold and wet plank of wood on the jetty, the one that had my name written on it!

At 6.60pm things were getting desperate. The agent had long since disappeared with the off-loaded passengers, he just ran away and I stood there without a clue as to what to do! Eventually, things sorted themselves out and I was invited back onboard. Someone somewhere must have got things into motion thus changing the Captains mind and so with ten other people (crew for a pipe laying barge in the same area) we set sail.

I have my trusty packaged meal, the ham does not smell so bad this time, I have a bottle of water and if all goes according to plan we should be at the location by 11pm or thereabouts!

I should have the Pacific Endeavour in my sights shortly, after what might have been the most harrowing, sleepless and ill-fed joining of a boat I have ever had the pleasure of undertaking! Except maybe that time in Angola when a guerrilla commander was captured and through fear of reprisal we were confined to our hotel for two days without explanation, but then at least the Portuguese biased food was good and looking back it wasn't that bad at all. I nearly caught the wrong plane that time as well, the one that takes the army out to the jungles to fight the guerillas but I was tired after having stood in a closed compound with the sun beating down for three hours and was probably suffering from heat stroke. Or maybe that time when it took three attempts and three days to get off the ground at Heathrow and when Air Canada eventually found a plane that worked and I arrived in Quebec my ship had sailed, but then again it was fun and I still keep in contact with some of those passengers that were in the same boat so to speak.

I can quite honestly say, despite the fact that the whole journey has been an adventure and I suppose exciting that I have never looked forward so much to getting on my ship as I am now and I can only hope that leaving the ship is not so complex or ridden with problems as this journey has been.

Look, over there, I can see my new home beckoning! I must go now!

Ieuan Dolby
Author and Webmaster of SeaDolby.com
Copyright © Ieuan Dolby, 29th August 2006