Saturday 2 June
…today had good parts and bad. The crew had a very interesting chat with a lady who’d first said hello in Hel, and spotted me again here in Gdynia. She is a tour guide in Gdansk, having trained as an engineer and architect, native Polish and fluent in English, and described a childhood under Communist rule and the position of modern Poland in Europe. It was a rare and fascinating opportunity to really understand aspects of a country we are visiting, and she had many recommendations of what not to miss seeing in the nearby area.
Unfortunately all this talk led to the crew finding a very late lunch in one of the harbourside restaurants, prior to a provisioning run. Even more unfortunately, Mate made a poor choice of a tuna salad, which she deemed almost inedible, although Skipper tucked into his barbecued pork steak and potato wedges with some enthusiasm.
They then cycled into the well-stocked indoor market and chilled hall fish market, returning laden with fresh produce. By now Mate’s headache had developed into a full-blown migraine, and she retired into the shaded and relatively cool forecabin. Inevitably the festival was still in full swing, and it was another night of gig into the early hours.