Since I was a child I have always loved, and I am still crazy about tall girls. To me the real proof of a woman's beauty was and is - the long legs!
In my homeport, Vladivostok of over one million people and half of them are sailors, who are mostly away sailing a long time overseas: it's why we never had a shortage of girlfriends with long legs in our port.… When I decided to sail around the world, I put in the design of my ship a long bed for future cook… But then in those days in USSR prices for wood were skyrocketing! And in the shipyard my fellow-constructors did not have enough wood. They made a nightmare's mistake! They built the cook's bed only 1,5 meters or 5 feet long… I was so upset, when I saw that terrible bed. That's where all world's tragedies started - from the short beds…
All my girlfriends came to me one by one crying tears on my shoulders , but I could not take them! My fleet was ready to leave port, but still I had no cook the right size! I put a sign on my door at 1.5 meter point and attentively measured each new girl that came… But then disappointment after disappointment: each new girl was too long… Then I heard the doorbell. I opened the door and a small and smiling miracle with long golden hair and big blue eyes was there. My heart stopped immediately. I took her hand and put her head right to the mark. Exactly! Unbelievably 1.5 even! A couple of centimeters more and this would be no good.
But to sail through oceans this test was not enough to be justified; just to fit the bed. My second test - meals. I send the newcomer to the kitchen. In one hour I had a wonderful dinner - the taste; much better than in any restaurant. I almost swallow my fingers! Now the most important test - #3. I asked blue-eyed beauty to kiss her potential captain. She tried hard, but what did I find? - she doesn't know how to kiss! She had no experience! And that's exactly what I was looking for! I took Irene to the boat and showed her the cook's bed… Yours forever!
In our more than 15 common years we spent together more then 6000 days and I treasure each day and each hour with my lovely wife. Tiny and short Irene - the tallest luck in my entire life. She is a very rare person. I have been with her in 20 meters waves, in 5 hurricanes, in two crashes, in pirates robbery, but she was never scared, she never cried. It is easier to get water from a rock. At the same time she is very gentle and a soft woman. Without her I would never make it through two oceans and seven seas, so many thousands of miles.
Here is just a small excerpt from my book "A Salty AmeriCat": "Irene has two undoubted talents: painting and cooking. In the kitchen she is simply magical, concocting food so good, that you lick your fingers. She is able to create culinary masterpieces from the simplest of ordinary ingredients. Our ship's artist cuts the vegetables so artistically that sometimes I feel it is a pity to eat them because she has taken so much time to create such works of wonder".
But the greatest advantage of my expedition has come from the Irene's ability to paint. She graduated from music school (plays piano) - and from the designer's institute. But education doesn't matter - she was born an artist, and paints since she was a child. When we were starving to death during our travels, she started to paint pictures with oil and acrylic on canvas, painted wooden dolls and eggs, plates, vases, boxes, and images for t-shirts. We sell these things on our way and that's how we keep afloat for so long and sailed so far. (Would you like to order some of Irene's creations? Or do you wish to picture yourself or have a loved one in a nice portrait? Email us!)
Big and deep thank you, Irene, my dear and my closest friend in the whole world.