short-term candidate; an intellectual, poet, he never stood a
chance.
But for a minute, it looked like the tide would turn. Not so. The
watershed: just falling short of the majority for a consensus.
Furthermore, this voyage was an exhilarating and reflective
experience on a capsule in the middle of the ocean. In a time
that everyone flew.
We arrived Days - some 4 I think - too late in New York. After
all the hustle and bustle and getting to the ship on time. A
pregnant (considering my condition) incident that I am still
embarrassed about: my brother-in-law Rob drove us to Rotter
dam, we stopped in Voorburg, close to The Hague to say good
bye to family there. At that point we discovered that my beauty
case was still in Amsterdam. It can happen: everyone picks up
a bag and that one was left behind in haste. What's a beauty
case besides identity? We were discussing this situation while
driving on the highway to Rotterdam when we saw our friends
Frits van Doornick and California Cathy - on their way to wave
us off. Since there was still time to return to Amsterdam Rob
gallantly offered to drive back and pick up the bag. So said, so
done. Gustaaf and I got into Frits' Citroen 2CV and continued
the journey to our ship while Rob sped to Amsterdam and
so our paths parted. Immediately I had guilt qualms - never
knowing when where our next meeting would be. How
could I be so vain? He did make it and just minutes before our
launching Gustaaf and he met on the gangplank underneath in
the ship handing over 'the case'.
Cinderellathe midnight hour.
Sentiment. Tears, wet handkerchiefs but at last finally on our
way - until 15 minutes later when we stopped - for an untold
number of hours - within the territorial waters of the country
we thought we left. Talk about an anti-climax! There was
something wrong with the motor - meaning no tax-free booze
for the moment and a financial loss for the Holland-America
Line. To begin with there was only about one forth of the
capacity booked. Everywhere we went to pick up new passen
gers - England, Nova Scotia - people had to be put up in hotels.
The captain and crew were grim-faced, the stabilizers were not
