Frank Esson struggeling his way to the loo
Prepared for any challenge
Penzance is a dock harbour and our ship's toilets are (were, by now) simple bowls with a pump to outside. So we were asked to use the heads ashore. It was alright so far, but the public lavatories are entirely for the ships and can only be opened by typing in a special code.
So when Frank decided to go there at night, he first had to take a paper to write down the code. By then he needed a torch to read the paper and what one can't really figure out in his hands is a compass - for safety reasons. He is sailor enough to do without the GPS.
Our own heads are about 10 feet away - in a straight line through the deck.