Roseanne's Summer Vacation- Chapter 19
They marched along Washington Street, which was peppered with tiny pioneer houses and communist blocks of flats. Occasionally, they saw industrial piers in the distance, inaccessible to tourists. They crossed tracks for cargo trains and a bridge. Mr Orville pointed in the direction of the water.
“If you look closely, you will see a massive cargo ship moored over there. It says ‘Хатанга’ on the side. We just call it Khatanga in our language, which means large water in Russian. This vessel has been here for eight years already, abandoned by its company and generating costs for the Land of Po. The authorities labelled it as junk, and try to sell it overseas.”
Roseanne looked in the direction of the ship. It certainly looked abandoned, but it didn’t have the flair of mystery like Mary Celeste. Quite the contrary, Khatanga resembled a rotten toilet bowl. Yellow stains of rust spilt over the white lining of the accommodation unit and slowly began creeping into the empty deck. The vessel was enormous; nobody could deny it. But from afar, it was a repulsive ghost ship. The only sign of civilisation that used to inhabit it was a red “No Smoking” sign on the white wall. Roseanne suddenly felt grateful she wasn’t working in the maritime industry.
After clearing the corner at Chrzanowskiego Street, the sight of the Public Ferry Terminal appeared in front of them. The familiar sea wind blew strongly as countless trucks waited in the parking lot for admittance to a Stena Line ship. A large glass tube connected the boat with the terminal. In the distance, there was an old passenger station converted to a museum and the Harbour Master’s Office with another berth, but this one was reserved for gargantuan cruisers.
“Stena voyages from Gdynia to Karlskrona in Sweden on a daily basis,” Mr Orville explained, raising his right hand to point at the ship. “I don’t know the specific hours. Sometimes it sails in the morning, sometimes it leaves in the evening, or the other way round.”
The girls stopped to take pictures, but a true visual feast was awaiting them at the edge of the main office. Mr Orville led them to a pier for tugboats from which they could admire a luxurious cruise ship called Aidamar. It was as towering as a mid-sized office building, and its length covered the entire pier. The outer hull was adorned with colourful paintings of a mouth and eyes.
Unfortunately, the girls couldn’t approach the cruiser directly because the entrance to its parking spot was guarded by a fence and a bunch of angry looking security men in a booth. A table on the fence stated that only the ship’s passengers are allowed through, and they should show a proper pass immediately.
Roseanne was taking pictures when one of the tugboat workers suddenly said, “Warnings! Counter measures! Precautions!”
“Excuse me?” Roseanne addressed him.
The 60-year-old man with white hair was gently swaying on a tugboat next to the pier. “The harbour is afraid that someone may board the cruiser illegally. These are not the 1980s! You’re better off using the Stena Line, miss.” The old sailor nodded towards the ship behind.
“Uhm, actually. I don’t think I like boats at all.”
“Have you ever travelled by boat before?”
Roseanne shook her head. “No, It’s my first time in Gdynia.”
“Give it a try. You might like it. I’m retiring soon, but I boarded Stena and went to Karlskrona and back again, just for laughs.”
“Just for laughs?”
The sailor suddenly turned away from Stena and spoke, “You see these two openings in the breakwater? These are the entrances for boats into the harbour. They were blown up by the Germans during the war, so we had to rebuild them. One entrance is for regular ships and the other, on the left, for the navy.”
“The navy is here?”
“Sure it is. Just look at the opposite side.” He pointed to infrastructure across the water from where they stood. “Plenty of battleships. It’s been a bitch keeping an eye on them in winter.”
“What do you mean?”
The sailor directed his hand to the breakwater entrance again. “You can’t reach it from the mainland, lady. In winter, this entire place is frozen like popsicles. When I had to survive compulsory military service, my captain told me to stand by the entrance—on frozen freaking water—and guard it all night. It was cold as hell.”
Roseanne immediately winced at the image of the sailor forced to stand on the ice desert until dawn. She wouldn’t like to experience something like that. But hang on a minute, Roseanne thought. I want to join the military! What if I get an order like that? Would I survive an entire night in the freezing cold, worrying that the ice cap under my feet might break any moment?
The girl descended into the abyss of overthinking. Her mind didn’t even register the sailor unmooring the tugboat and powering on the engines. The mechanical vessel headed to the entrance, leaving puffs of dark smoke behind.
Suddenly, a faint scream spread around the pier, “Help! Stop the taxi! Stop the taxi!”
Mr Orville observed the tiny figure of a man who exited the cruisers and came running to the fence. The security muscles stopped him and tried to communicate in Po language, but he spoke only in English.
“What is the problem?” Mr Orville asked.
“My phone!” the American tourist exclaimed. “I left my phone in a taxi! Aidamar is about to leave any minute!”
Thally suggested, “Okay, we can try calling the phone.”
“I tried that already! Nobody’s picking up!”
“How about calling the taxi company. Can you remember their name?”
Tears trickled down his cheeks. “No, I can’t! There’s… there’s no use. It’s useless.” He threw his hands in despair.
“Come on, we want to help you,” Thally encouraged, but the tourist turned back to the ship.
“That’s kind of sad he lost his phone,” Natasha commented.
“Yeah, but the boat is leaving,” Mr Orville said. “There’s a lesson to be learned from this situation.”
Thally tilted her head. “Cry like a baby girl and give up?”
“No! Always check your pockets when leaving the car.”
Aidamar horned a few times, and it began slowly crawling through the waves. The girls waved to the passengers on the decks high up. Mr Orville checked the time. “Let’s go to Kamienna Góra. Roseanne, are you with us?”
She kept staring blankly at the horizon for a good five minutes. The teacher’s call brought her back to reality. “Huh? I’m going.”
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