Action-Man, 21 June, the Adriatic Sea

It would be super indeed to have a blanket! The room inside where we are sleeping is very cold. I'm sure that Blue Star Ferries has big closets full of thick, folded blankets. But I don't get one, the receptionist said, because I didn't rent a cabin.

Out on the deck, the air is balmy. We crossed the bottom of the Adriatic Sea to the port of Igounemitsou in northern Greece. We are over halfway to Patras, and I suppose will touch the Ionian Sea with our unwieldy prow.

Last night, Drew and I raced ahead of the crowd of last-minute passengers. We were the first in a host of backpackers to get our tickets. We boarded the ferry and at the top of each escalator, there stood a man in a blue waistcoat. Each of the stewards has black pants and a white shirt and a blue waistcoat. They are swarthy men with black hair and Greek names. One man behind the counter looked like Jon Schimpf.

Drew and I are both excited about Greece. I don't think of modern Greece as prosperous or internationally involved. But they did build the Acropolis and invent democracy. We are hungry, but so glad to be on the road again. Our trip should have ended in Italy, but it didn't. Now I feel that each hour is borrowed time. Are we not always debtors to God?

Sam