In the morning we worked on Tavriya again, then started preparing for the bath. I got distracted and put the cap on the urine collection tank poorly; during transfer the pressure blew it off, along with dirty water mixed with urine, which hung on the hose as a big yellow drop. No matter, I cleaned it up. By the way, there’s no squeamishness here, understanding that this is all ours and nobody else’s. Took a shower.

Pavel Romanovich Popovich came on the line to congratulate us. He told us about a fishing trip. Tomorrow is November 7th.

In the evening, the Tavriya experiment finished; the separation of the substance along the column was not very effective. I drew out the fractions with a syringe.

My spine started aching. I know from my time on Earth — this happens when I don’t exercise enough and the muscles weaken. On Earth, the spine then struggles to support the body’s weight and the vertebrae compress, but up here it’s the opposite — they stretch apart.

We’ve been flying a long time and lost our sense of time. We know a lot of it has passed, but we can’t feel it the way you do on Earth — spring, summer, autumn, winter, vacation. Here, everything is in one featureless time — the alternation of light and shadow 15 times a day; and work like a hamster in a wheel, only we’re not the ones spinning it — it’s spinning us.

We sense that everyone treats us gingerly in conversations, afraid of touching a nerve.