Aboard The Professor Gul

At 10:00 this morning there was no boat. At 3:45, Vika called and said I had 30 minutes to get to the ticket office, there is a boat leaving tonight. 

I loaded the bike, paid the hotel for the extra night, and headed for the port through rush hour traffic in Baku. I thought I did pretty well, considering. I didn't make it in 30 minutes, but that was okay because there was a line. Getting the ticket took a little more than half an hour, as an American with a moto is at the bottom of every priority list. 

I stopped to use the restroom and buy some water and bread and Snickers bars for back-up. Then I went through passport control, customs, had my passport logged again, then the border post. Finally everyone was happy, and I rode the bike aboard. There I was hijacked for 40 manat to tie down the moto and "watch it."  It's getting expensive to get out of here. 

I have been shown to my stateroom, No. 1.  It has a (n open) porthole, but since we aren't moving, it is like sitting in a steam bath. But the room is not that bad. Once again, it's much MUCH better than the airport hotel in Anadyr. For those wondering about Anadyr, I was stranded there in Siberia in '91 coming back from a trip to Magadan. 

It is also much better than the aft troop berth in the USS Jennings County, LST 846, in which I spent six weeks in 1966.