Slept. Read. Ate. Exercised. Sea is a lot more frisky now but still pretty calm overall and there is no sickness to report. Watched 'Tomb Raider' (utter, utter, sh*te). Still not bored!

Sleep is also an important element of our schedule. These beds are comfy! We don't seem to be doing much but we aren't getting bored. We are doing a lot of reading and the 3 square meals a day certainly take up some time. Captain Bily has put an impressive range of DVDs at our disposal (though the individual films themsleves don't neccessarily look impressive, eg, we all voted to pass on 'Boa vs Python' (kind of like 'Alien vs Predator'...

The sea today was as calm and flat as a swimming pool first thing in the morning - it really had to be seen to be believed. Went to the very front of the boat (out on deck) to admire the view. Popped up to the navigation deck where Captain Bily was looking less resplandant than previously, now that he is kitted out in some kind of Ukrainian thrash metal band T-shirt. Exercise regime started today. We have limited ourselves to the super structure of the boat (not ...

Nathan from the shipping agents called at 1000 to tell us to be at the Harbour Front by 1130. This we acheived. There we met with Jake and Wendy from Derbyshire who were the other passengers for the voyage. We all got picked up by the shipping agents and after our port passes had been processed we headed out for the docks. Soon the Theodor Storm was sighted and we headed up the gangway. Captain Bily (Ukraine) looked resplendant in his bright white unifrom whilst ...

Another busy shopping day: haircuts, trainers, books, newspapers, picking up suits. A-M popped into the office that she had frequented earlier in the year to catch up with Serge, Kiko et al. Apart from an early morning swim, there were few opportunities on such a busy day tp make full use of the hotel faciilities., but we certainly slept well again. We'd finally managed to get in touch with someone from the shipping agents but all we had managed to gather by...