Reporter's log | Peng Yining

Saying goodbye to loved ones is never easy, but somehow it seems more acceptable when one is leaving on a plane or taking a train; you disappear within a few seconds, before you even remember to turn around to take one last look at your family. It's painful, but quick.

However, leaving on a ship brings out the strongest grief of parting. You watch the coast slowly retreat and the ocean gradually fills one's field of vision.

The process of farewell is long and drawn out - painful and seemingly endless. People standing on the quay wave, and some hold handkerchiefs. It is like a scene from an old movie where people see off a departing naval vessel, which is going into battle in strange waters and may never return. Farewell sailors! Farewell, my friends, my family, my love!

You, too, wave and the tears in your eyes turn the waving handkerchiefs into blurs. Those seeing you off on the dockside have tears in their eyes as well. You can hardly see each other but the waving never stops.

An officer standing on the deck next to me was waving goodbye to his wife. A soft shore breeze carried early summer drizzle and dampened his white uniform. His lips were pale and taut. His eyes tearful.

This is the third overseas mission for the Chinese hospital ship Peace Ark. I joined the 118-day voyage alongside more than 400 sailors, officers and medical crew.

All of them have lives back on land, but once again they have to wave goodbye to their families. For most, this is not their first departure, but the separation never gets easier.

When the quay was too far away to see, everyone was still talking or texting on their mobile phones, squeezing every second before the signal disappeared. I watched my phone's signal become weaker. The voice on the other end was phasing in and out, like the fluttering of the wind, and I felt like a child who tries to catch a feather in a whirlwind.

But eventually the sadness of separation abated. When every connection with the land, mobile phones and the Internet was cut off the crew began preparations for their new life on the ocean wave. The deck became a scene of cheerfulness, activity and order.

(China Daily USA 06/19/2013 page8)