Page 227 - Michael Frost-Voyages to Maturity-23531.indd

Obviously, the future was up to me. (To be fair, I could hardly expect him to be
particularly welcoming to what he would probably have seen as another defection
from already-depleted sea-going ranks.)

Back aboard Cathay for another voyage we welcomed the next lot of passengers;
they struck me as especially unremarkable. In fact, I have no recollection of any
of my table companions and I did not even go ashore in Cape Town (this was a
sign of professional ennui; when one stays aboard rather than go ashore in really
interesting ports, the spark of the enjoyment of travel has plainly sputtered).

In Colombo the Shepherds came aboard, and Stevie and I were very happy to
see that the ladies’ plans were going well. In the meanwhile, he too had decided
that he would leave the ship at the end of the voyage, and that if we were to have
a bit of a group hug in Europe, we collectively decided that we would try for a ski
holiday, our return to London being scheduled for early in March (I was more
than happy to replicate my Leysin experiences, which, despite some inexplicable
disappointments, I could recall only with pleasure). He indicated that he knew a
girl who might be interested in coming with us (a bit of a surprise to me, as I had
hitherto thought him very much actively prowling), and I was rather interested
to see somebody, anybody, who would be interested in his rather laconic ways.
As far as the two of us were concerned, the passage from Colombo to Hong Kong
and back again could not pass quickly enough.

In Colombo again, Judith and Susan boarded. However, I was quite
disconcerted to see that Judith brought with her a big, handsome all-American
guy, a Peace Corps volunteer who was a graduate farmer from Washington State.
He I just didn’t like the look of; he resembled a hero from an American movie.
Fortunately, it transpired that he was not going with us, though Arnold, upon
being spoken to, presented himself well, and when Judith explained that he was
just a nice guy, but not too sharp, I felt the ‘danger’ to be allayed. As the Shepherd
parents were shortly to be leaving for UK on Oriana, and from there going by
ship to Montreal, things were working out excellently.

But there always had to be some flies in the ointment. This time they were
Mummsy and Gayle, two Americans taking a rather exotic route back to some
desperate place in the USA. Mummsy was a blowsy ‘lady’ (not the right word!)
who bore the cross of her crass twenty-something daughter (who, I judged, would
look just like her mother in only a few weeks) an ill-educated drop-out obviously
in need of a ‘boy’.

Departure Colombo was a moment of joyful expectation. I had arranged to
have Judith and Susan on my table and cannot recall who made up the number
– all that I had to do was avoid approaches from Mummsy and Gayle, who were
accommodated with some unfortunates … though we saw plenty of them in the

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