Shore Leave

shore leave The ship, in the bay, had a load of grain from the fertile soil of Ukraine, loaded in Odesa, and sent on its way across the Black Sea. In the Dardanelles, a stop for inspections to see if the ship had gods other than grain, not on the manifest. She voyaged the Mediterranean to the Strait of Gibraltar, turned sharply, starboard, up the coast of Portugal and anchored in Cascais. Some of the crew was going ashore, shopping and drinking a few beers as they waited for the launch on the larboard of the ship. The ship was due to be unloaded in Lisbon on Monday, where other crew members could go ashore and see the sight of the great city. The lot, god’s will, for a seaman to be eternally outsider, passing through, but only at home on the high seas.