The Introduction

The following bits and pieces of my life are all about my second trip to Sakhalin in Russia and yes, I fully agree that I have previously completed a series of seventeen articles on the subject. I am not trying to capitalize on the first series; this is by no means Russia 2, soon to be followed by Russia 3 and 4 (the last two written on a shoe-string budget). This series is aimed to be complimentary to the first and will be as different as reading about swimming pools would be to the first moon landing!

Yes, the situation onboard the vessel remains the same as before. The Russians are in-charge and run their own boat and there are also us four advisors to advise them in this task, when and where necessary to keep the boat operating on the right track and to company and regulatory requirements. The job is not easy but then I do not write these articles to complain and I hope to avoid upset through non-use of sarcasm or attack, I write about my observations during my time here keeping everything on a safe track and for the most part I write objectively.

Yes, I agree, it could easily be assumed that these articles will read the same as the last seventeen, but then this assumption would be way off the mark! A land of wispy trees and drab grey buildings bears no resemblance to meter thick ice and temperatures cold enough to freeze your piss; so my latest serving is my life here in winter, my last was life here in summer!

The trip started off in similar fashion, I kissed my wife goodbye at Kaohsiung airport and I flew to Singapore to get my Visa and do a survival course. I then flew to Russia, spent one night in a hotel and then joined my vessel, the Pacific Endeavour the next day. And then seventeen articles got written in-between bashing ice, nipping outside for some very cold and supposed photographic moments, tasting White Stalk Vodka at the local bar and making head or tale of the Russian way of life. And then after suitable time had passed I left the vessel and returned home.

I write this as I travel home. I still have two articles to write to make 17, one maybe a time-filler in a hotel in Yuzhno, another in the hotel in Incheon International Airport. Then again, I might just have to make one more distinction between the summer and winter articles, I may have written seventeen for summer and now only 15 for winter!

Ieuan Dolby
Author and Webmaster of SeaDolby.com
Copyright © Ieuan Dolby, 10th February 2007