Tolya and I just finished assembling the “Magma-Crystal” technological furnace, more advanced than the “Crystal” unit on Salyut-6. The visiting crew with the French cosmonaut is coming soon, and it’s time to prepare the equipment for joint experiments. We’re assembling by documentation that turned out to have inaccuracies. For example, the electrical schematic shows connector III 89/10, but on the cable it’s marked III 80/10, and there are other discrepancies in schematic 9. Try meeting your assembly timeline when you have to spend time clarifying documentation with the ground.

I’m pleased today that we managed to defend our proposal for a control experiment with “Piramig.” Besides that, we asked them to schedule a “Delta” test to confirm once more its ability to manage the station and prove that the code array wasn’t loaded into the computer because there was no exchange with the external storage device — that’s why the VZU indicator wasn’t lit. We finally feel calm that we’ve prepared in time for the joint work.

In the evening Savchenko came on comm and confirmed that we were right in our experimental recommendations.

Tolya and I watched South Georgia Island near Cape Horn. A solid mountain range covered in snow against the blue ocean and various cloud formations. Very beautiful! For the first time I saw, on clean blue water, dozens of white little ships — icebergs. They’re quite large, comparable to the biggest ships. They’re very clearly visible on clean water without cloud cover.

Above my bed hangs Vitalik’s photograph, and there’s a stack of photos of Lyusya and me, my father, and friends. Every evening I kiss my son goodnight. He looks at me so sweetly that when I’m feeling down, I tell him: “It’s all right, son, I’ll endure.”

Now every evening they give us the news broadcast. Tolya and I sit at station post one, arms folded across our chests, floating peacefully above the Earth and listening to Moscow radio. We fly over the Falklands, and they’re telling us England is at war with Argentina over these islands.

We look at them — beautiful islands, cut by inlets and bays, as if this land had been torn apart over centuries. We fly over Spain; we know the World Cup is happening there right now.

We admire the azure of the Mediterranean Sea and the mountains of Italy, and ahead Africa and the Red Sea are already visible. That’s how we study geography and admire the Earth. Otherwise, life here is nothing but chores, like in a village. From morning to evening we potter about with the household, on top of the main fieldwork.