November 6 Noontime Position: Lat 47deg 06,8N; Long 166deg 43,0 E

“I follow the Moskva, down to Gorki Park Lissnin to the winds of chayy-yaynge”

 The tinny speaker-fed sound wafted out of the crew recreation room. Inside, sprawled among bar snacks and Bacardi, the Filipinos of the Hanjin Copenhagen were doing their bit to uphold (and in some cases undermine) their country’s musical reputation. That was my second night on board. Since then, most evenings have featured boozy karaoke. I’ve considered it my duty to take part, since I’m otherwise purposeless on the voyage. Here’s a partial list of my performances thus far, annotated:

“What’s Going On” – Marvin Gaye. Damn, that was bad. Was too ashamed to finish.

“Sometimes when we touch” – Dan Hill. Oh yeah, I went there. Is the honesty too much for ya? Fulfils Canadian Content requirements.

“Sweet Caroline” – Neil Diamond. A feel-good choice, which felt even better fuelled by cans of San Miguel Philippines beer. Good times never felt so good, so good, so good.

“Creep” – Radiohead. Odd to find this on the playlist. But definitely hit the sweet spot of my very limited vocal range. Fantastic belting out “What the hell am I doing here?!?” from the middle of an ocean, among Filipino sailors.

And Elvis, Clapton, Eagles, etcetera. Of course, several Tagalog-language hits are also sung. I asked the 2nd Officer what were the lyrics of a particular song. He thought about it for a moment: “The song says – “You’re ass is too big, so I give up.”? The karaoke machine shows a nonstop loop of scantily clad models and marine wildlife on the television screen. Dames and dolphins, all cavorting to vocal accompaniment of varying quality. The Steward actually has pretty good chops, and even keeps time with his own drumset. It’s fun for me to sit in, but for the Filipinos there is a certain sadness in these evenings too. The songs, invariably sentimental, pluck at heartstrings frayed by long absence from home and family.

November 5 Noontime Position: Lat 44deg 49,5 N; Long 178deg 12,0 E

During breakfast we crossed the international date line, and to the outside world it is Sunday, November 6 instead of Saturday, November 5. However, for administrative reasons Hanjin Copenhagen is leaving the weekend intact and will be making Monday disappear. What wonderful shipboard logic!

After a desperately dull Friday, today has brought events that pass for excitement on a long voyage. It’s been sunny, for one thing. The dawn glow blasting the containers, making their colours stand out. We also passed a container ship and an auto transport heading for North America. Bulky Lego blocks on the morning horizon. There’s also been a course change from WSW to WNW as we slalom back north to avoid a storm building to the west of Japan. And finally, rather prosaically, I’m doing laundry.

As you might expect, I’ve also been doing some reading. Earlier this week, I wrapped up a book on cities, and am now into the tense finale of the latest John Le Carre. Any tomes I finish on board will stay with the ship, which already has a fair-sized library in the Officers’ recreation room. Among all the Crichton, Ludlum and Follett titles, I’ve picked out Hemingway’s “For whom the bell tolls” as my next read. But I’ve also gleefully found an erotic novel about naughty Oxford university rowers translated into German from the original English. Here, for your reading pleasure, is a brief passage that I’ve converted back into English.

“At least we have a chance. Unlike your crew, which will probably wind up in the second division. And I’ll tell you one more thing. If we don’t end up as ‘Head of the River’, then you can spank my bare bottom – in front of both of our crews.”

Wouldn’t rowing be more interesting if it always included trash talk like this?