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- Herausgeber: BookRix
- Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
- Sprache: Englisch
How can the enchanted isles cope when six thousand people arrive as tourists
and are some awakened to the charms of the mermaids?
As cruise liners probe the north, like Jason and the Argonauts, their passengers discover cuisines and love.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
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Mermaids and Cruise liners
To the Mermaids, may they prosper. The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this book are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.BookRix GmbH & Co. KG81371 MunichMermaids and Cruise Liners
Orkney July 2017
High weird cries, the call of the seals on the island of Shapinsay in the darkness. The vision of the land hardens, becomes more distinct.
Marc Gastineau stood quietly on the after deck listening to their eerie calls, almost human. As a marine biologist he knew that now, in the summer months, the common seals gave birth, then they mated.
The treeless land against the sky becomes a thin black silouhette, low, smooth, feminine, like the outline of a sleeping girl. The strips of cloud above it are underlit with rose, heralding the approaching sunrise. Navigation lights wink, wink.
Inner deck
“I wonder what this is?” said Helmut, reading a guidebook, “clapshot?”
“A local dish,” said his wife Annalise, “turnips with potatoes bashed together.”
“Bing.”
“Ah, there is the call – lets go down.”
The gangplank was four flights below.
They stepped into the lift with some other passengers. Annalise recognised no one – there were after all 6,000 passengers on this ship, the brand-new cruise liner Hyperion.
With noisy chatter they spilled out onto the pier here at Hatston on Orkney; an early morning island mist made them shiver.
Helmut pulled down his ear flaps.
“Is it always this cold?”
“It’s the damp,” said Annalise.
They headed for bus two, German speaking Guide. They had some English but it was just for shopping.
Back on the Hyperion the captain handed over to the first officer.
“There you are Guido, it’s all yours. I’m going for a nap.”
The ships engine was silent now, just the auxiliaries made a slight hum.
The ship was new, high sided, gleaming white, super new with the latest nav, and propulsion units and azimuth propellers, allowing her to dock unaided.
Captain Bruno Swartz had been on the late watch which included navigating into the archipelago of the Orkney Islands in the early hours and a dawn docking. The pilot boat had come alongside at 4 am.
Bruno reached his bunk; he was asleep in a few seconds.
Guido Guiastieri meanwhile was overseeing the disembarkation. Not all would go ashore; the drunk, the frail elderly, those bored by yet another “historic port” would stay and require feeding. He called the catering officer to the bridge.
Alexander Popolous appeared in his smart uniform – a whiff of after shave preceded him.
“How many may stay aboard Alex?”
“Just over 2000. The rest are over there.”
He waived to the quay below the bridge window. Port stays were usually short, measured in hours. Most often the ship left in the late afternoon.
Guido looked down. Buses were already in convoy, streaming off to local sites; the Ring of Brogar, Skara Brae, The Tomb of the Eagles.
“Can I take on supplies? They have good fish here; salmon, haddock, crabs, lobster.”
