Day 25

Air / Water temperature: 24°C (23°C at night) / 22°C

Wind direction / Bft: East / 0-1

Area: DANUBIA (slight chlorine smell) – Nautical chart showing the route

Combuse: Golden trevally (900 g) fillet and remove skin, salt and pepper. Cover a non-coated steel pan with aluminum foil. Add 4 tablespoons of fine beech smoking flour, 1 tablespoon juniper berries, 1 tablespoon allspice, 1 tablespoon pepper and four crushed cardamom pods. Heat until the flour begins to smoke. Set the fish fillets on a rack, put it in the pan, put a tight lid on and reduce heat. After 20 minutes, remove pan from heat and let stand for another 20 minutes in the smoke. Mix to make a sauce 100 g curd with 2 tablespoons finely chopped dill, a pinch of salt, some white pepper, zest and juice of ½ lime. Cut 1 green bell pepper into finest slices, mix with a little salt and 1 tablespoon sesame oil. Spread out the bell pepper on 2 plates, put two sticks of crispbread on it, carefully place the smoked fish on this bread and add a tablespoon of the sauce on top. (More recipes from the Chief cook of «PS Narina»)

Only thing is, how does Oskar see the situation, what sort of world does his brain prompt him to take for real? Not a single day goes by without me asking myself if, in his eyes, I am simply a green female and if, to his nose, my feet smell of saltpetre? Or, have I perhaps one of the two colours he can differentiate between – and for which he develops an animalistic hunger when the complex odour of my flaky skin enters his nose? There’s no doubt that Oskar and I do not perceive the same world, smell the same delicacies, taste the same disgusting packet, or hear the same tones, and that our skin sensations are utterly different: these facts alone make it absolutely improbable for us to find a common language, not in a hundred years, quite apart from one or two other barriers. 

Whosoever travels with an ant on a paper boat will be reminded daily that even his own senses are no window to the world. Rather, they function as a form of white cane, the vibrations from which trigger numerous fantasies in his imagination. Then one asks oneself whether one can, in a counter-move, derive freedom from these oppressive facts; for instance, assume that one’s bathtub is an ocean and that it’s possible to discover a hitherto-unexplored island in the bath foam.

Next day (26)

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