FERRIES, SHIPS AND BOATS

Big Mama somewhere in the Indian Ocean March 1970 on the way from Mombasa, Kenya to Bombay, India (happily unaware that she is going to become a Big Mama)

Looking through photos to put in yesterday's blog post about the ocean, I was suddenly struck by an obvious fact - not only did I have an enormous amount of ocean-photos to choose from, but also pictures of BOATS! Big and small! FERRIES! Me onboard boats, alone or with family and friends, not to mention all those snapshots of JUST boats - floating, sailing, moored.

German boats

Norwegian boats

French boats

Mum & Dad, also somewhere in the Indian Ocean, March 1970

What's this obsession?! Well, it sure got me wondering. The answer that first springs to mind is of course that I LIKE being on boats, and I will just as soon take a ferry from A to B instead of any other type of transport, or I'd eagerly go on a sailing holiday. But if I should look for a deeper symbolic explanation of my fascination with seafaring vessels, well - perhaps it's an underlying subconscious idea of movement, of travelling, of longing out to distant shores. Which I know to be true in me - having had a lifetime of moving between countries. And often on ships.

Going back to Norway in 1970 after three and a half years in Tanzania, instead of flying home my parents decided to board the Italian ship MS Victoria in Mombasa, Kenya, sailing all around the Cape of South Africa (the Suez Canal was closed at the time), into the Atlantic, up along the west coast of Africa, into the Mediterranean to eventually disembark in Venice. It took 24 days. The red Mercedes we were bringing with us from Dar was transported on the same ship, but that was far from the main reason for sailing instead of flying. I think it was a way of letting us all down gently, of giving us a holiday after a three-and-a-half-year stay our parents knew would end emotionally for all of us, themselves included - goodbyes to close friends made under short-lived and special circumstances. And for me - saying goodbye to my boyfriend! I cried quietly in the backseat of the red Mercedes all the way from Dar-es-Salaam to Mombasa, leaning up against the window, pretending to look at the African scenery. I was heartbroken.

But we had fun on the ship! How can you not have fun at fifteen, when the ship is swarming with kids your own age. Being older than twelve - and both my siblings being under twelve at the time I may add - I was allowed to eat with the grown-ups whereas my brother and sister had to eat at the kiddies' sitting a couple of hours earlier! I was also allowed to sit in the bar and lounges in the evenings, whereas again - my brother and sister were not. Sometimes being the oldest has its advantages - that's what I keep telling my granddaughter Jelena when her younger sister gets up her nose.

Getting used to not being a kiddie

Speaks for itself I think - Young Big Mama on the left

Ship docking for a few hours in Durban, South Africa, July 1970

The trip on the MS Victoria was my fourth major Travelling On The Sea Experience - my first ones had been across the Atlantic to and from New York when I was a small child. The third one was a trip from Mombasa to Bombay in March 1970 - when my parents wanted to test what it would be like travelling on a ship with three kids. As it turned out we enjoyed it so much there was yet another round of tearful goodbyes when we got off the ship in Venice, whereas our parents were glad to get off! I recall my Mum and Dad going for vigorous and slightly desperate walks round and round the decks (remember this was not a modern day cruise ship with gyms - the closest you got to exercise was clay-pigeon shooting). And I vividly recall all the dads sitting around on the last day of the journey adding up the bar bills we had all signed for. (Us kids had signed for delicious non-alcoholic cocktails, of course! I wasn't THAT old....) And we'd only come from Mombasa! Some of the passengers had boarded the ship in Hong Kong, for heaven's sake!

Me and Sis on a ferry - 1978

Granddaughters & sisters Jelena & Mira on family boat