Day 128 - Waves

Well, the first of May started ominously, with dark grey clouds. It did clear up during the day however we’re still getting a fair bit of a roll. It’s actually a nice constant rocking motion. This is quite different from the crossing of the Atlantic where these side-to-side rolls were interspersed with lunges forward and back. Later in the day I played with the camera a bit. I rested it against the windowsill in the cabin and took shots as the ship moved from side to side. It’s quite interesting to see them together. I was up on the bridge today and we’re showing as 10pm at the pilot station on the 4th of May. I suspect it will change a little and I know we’re really hoping for a morning transit. It’s kind of a catch-22, as a late evening transit would likely let us have more time in San Diego.

Day 127 - Engine Control Room

Yikes, another time change tonight. I figure at this point we have four more evenings at sea and we need to do three more changes. At the moment I’m hopeless about sleep. Last night I was still awake at 6am and thinking I might as well get up later and go to breakfast. I did fall asleep at some point before 7am but only really slept until 9am. I think I dozed off and on in the living room until just before lunch. I wasn’t going to sleep this afternoon but gave up and managed to catch a few hours sleep. My mother is doing marginally better, but not much. Even the captain mentioned it tonight at dinner as he’s finding himself awake at odd hours and not able to get back to sleep. Gunter, one of our fellow passengers, is finding that he can sleep at 4pm but not at 10pm. Oh well, a few more days and we’ll be in California and at least for a while there will be no time changes.

The picture today is one I took back in Shanghai, while getting a tour of the engine room. It’s a huge, multi-level structure that it pretty much spotless and well lit. The day we went through it we were tied up. Even so the noise level made it almost impossible to get more than rudimentary information. This room, which was quiet, is the control room. From here they can monitor and control the many pieces of equipment. I don’t think you are prepared for how the engine areas look after seeing one too many movies shot in the bowels of ships.

Day 126 - Officers' Mess

The weather has finally cleared and we’re getting clear, slightly warm days. I’m not sure what the temperature ended up at today but it was 13C at 8am. With the many time changes (five now) my internal clock is a bit messed up so I didn’t sleep at all last night and ended up napping in the afternoon. Tomorrow if the weather holds I think I’ll do my napping in a deck chair on the upper deck. The picture for today shows the officers’ mess where we eat our meals. I know a while back I talked about the meals, so this is only to show the room and the centre platform that holds all the condiments, meat, cheese, water, juice, etc.

Day 125 - Nagasaki

Well, it was another quiet day at sea. The weather improved slightly today with the sun finally coming out. I think we’ve officially passed the halfway mark to San Diego. We were teasing one of the other passengers today as we passed Hawaii. This was something he had asked about, so the captain pointed out that we would be sailing past it tomorrow. Of course it will be almost 1000 miles south of us. I suppose that’s a little too far for a quick stop.

The picture for today is a last shot of Japan, specifically Nagasaki harbour. The rest of the shots until we reach the United States will be of the ship. We were talking about it tonight, being quite happy we will dock before going through the Panama Canal. Sometimes you get a little stir crazy when at sea for too long. It probably wouldn’t be so bad if the weather were better. When the weather is better you can spend plenty of time outside, so it doesn’t seem so bad.

Day 124 - Container Handling

Our second Friday passed uneventfully. The weather has started to clear up a little bit and the sun keeps trying to break through the clouds. It was quite pleasant on the decks although they are still quite wet. We’re crossing our fingers and hoping that the weather improves as we approach North America. The only bad thing is that we have another 5 time changes to make before we dock in San Diego. I had originally thought we had 7 changes to make however I hadn’t taken daylight savings time into account. The three changes we’ve gone through have already started to affect my sleep patterns.

The picture for today was taken in Kobe, although we’ve seen this type of handling before. The equipment is used to take the containers off the incoming trucks and stack them in the local yards. It’s quite interesting to watch them work. I’m still amazed by how much cargo is moved by the many ships travelling between ports.

Day 123 - Kobe Park

There’s nothing really to say about today. The weather continues to be dull and grey. This morning was grey, by afternoon it was worse, by dinnertime you couldn’t see the bow of the ship. The only good thing is the waves are modest and the wind is nonexistent. The most interesting thing is that today is Friday and tomorrow will be Friday again. Yes, during the day tomorrow we will cross the International Date Line. Somehow I thought we would actually repeat Saturday, but I guess not. We’ll also see how this affects our arrival date in San Diego. I noticed today that our arrival is now projected for May 4th instead of May 5th as we’re making good speed across the Pacific.

The picture for today is also from Kobe. I think it is Higashi-yuenchi Park however I could be wrong. I know that the statues and design of the park had a dedication plaque. Of course, I didn’t take a picture of it so I’m not entirely sure.

Day 122 - Kobe Tower

It is beginning to look like we could have poor weather all the way across the Pacific. Today again has been grey and stormy. It hasn’t really been raining, but this isn’t the type of weather you want to be outside it. It doesn’t seem to be as bad as crossing the Atlantic was although it’s possible by now that we’re just used to it. With the second time change the routine now seems to combine sleeping late with listening to audio books in the afternoon. Even adding today’s position data leaves a large expanse of ocean to cross.

The picture of the Kobe tower is obviously one taken when back in Japan. Like a lot of city towers you could go up to see views of the city. Unfortunately when we got to it that day it had just started to rain a bit so we didn’t go up. This was actually where we caught the city tour bus that gave us some great views of the city. I think we were both sorry that we really only had one day in the city.

Day 121 - Current Location

The rain picked up this morning. There were various levels of rain throughout the day however it was constant. We have another time change tonight, although last night we seem to have solved the problem. Instead of going to sleep early, we stayed up later. Since we almost never go down to breakfast at 8am it really doesn’t matter if we sleep later. Dinner tonight included wine from one of the other passengers, so we all sat after dinner having a bit of a chat. The captain has been providing wine on Sunday usually. Last week we decided to beat him to it. So he just provided wine on Saturday. You can’t be sneaky about it since he gets the order slips once you have signed them.

For the picture today I just updated our position on the mapping program. You can see that even though we’re only into our third day away from Japan that there is still a very long way to go.

Day 120 - Dangerous Work

Well, we passed what will probably be our last sight of land this morning. Specifically, they were the islands of Hachijo-kojima and Hachijo-jima, off the coast of Japan. Our passage will take us on a slightly northern arc, coming back south as we near the coast of the United States. It’s pretty windy on deck, so we spent most of the day inside. There’s only a slight roll. You can tell it’s not too rough, as the chairs aren’t locked down in the dining room. Last night the water bottle had been put out on its side. That’s the first sign of rough weather. It was slightly calmer today, so it was back upright. I was watching the guys painting part of the ship today, with only a tether around their waists. It would stop them from falling off the ship, but not from falling. Our first of seven time changes will come tonight, something I’m not looking forward to. When crossing the Atlantic we went through six changes, and I found that it really threw off my sleep patterns. Hopefully this time will be better.

Day 119 - Fully Loaded

Our first day at sea in the Pacific wasn’t a promising one. The morning was grey and rainy, with it only clearing a little by the late afternoon. I went up to the bridge in the morning to look at our projected arrival time into San Diego. At the moment it is showing as May 5th, in the early afternoon. The course computer shows arrival in local time, so for now I’m going to assume this means it will be May 5th with the repeated day. If this is correct it means almost 14 full days at sea. Hopefully we’ll see the sun tomorrow. The picture for today was taken from the pilot deck in the late morning. It wasn’t actually raining at the time, however, the strong winds made it impossible to stand up there for more than a few minutes. It shows the ship fully loaded for its trip across the Pacific. The white objects (both the rectangular and the bubble shaped ones) are part of power-generating windmills. They are bound for Houston and part of something called the Comanche Project.

Day 118 - Sailboats

We woke up to pouring rain this morning. We knew this was a possibility when we chose not to go into the city yesterday. The problem is that everywhere we had picked to see was an outside location. We got up anyway and had breakfast, in the hope that it might clear up. It didn't really look like it was going to clear but you can always hope. After lunch we decided that it wasn't going to clear and as the rain had stopped around the port area that we would just go off the ship to the local store. This was mainly because we had some Yen left over. We made a few purchases and stepped to the door of the mall and were met by pouring rain. We hung out for a bit, but eventually decided just to walk back. Even with rain cape (mother) and umbrella (myself) we were soaked by the time we made it back. The snapshot of the sailboats was taken yesterday. I was going to take a few pictures of the port as well, however, it never cleared up well enough to do so.

We sailed just before 9pm, and it was still raining. That’s the last land we will see until we get to San Diego. I believe that will be 12 or 13 days from now. I’m just a little confused with how crossing the International Date Line will affect the projected date, as we will repeat a day. Tomorrow, once we're at full speed, we will have a general idea of how long it will take. The course plotting system shows a visual location and the time to the next pilot system. It is constantly changing as our speed changes though, so it’s only a rough guide, especially for longer passages.

Day 117 - Nagasaki Harbour

We arrived in Nagasaki this morning, although for various reasons we did not go ashore until the afternoon. As we are here for a full day tomorrow, we just wandered off down the street once we were out of the port gate. We went past a pachinko parlour and wandered through a local shopping centre before heading back to the ship. We have a tourist map of Nagasaki City, which is about 15 to 20 minutes by bus. The plan is to head into the city tomorrow morning. This is assuming that the number 7 bus that runs down the street here is the one that goes into the city. We should have attempted to find that out today, but didn’t. Either way, we’ll see some of the area. I do hope it’s the right bus as the tourist map looks quite good and even points out four places I can get internet access.

Tonight we’ll walk out of the port again with some of the crew. Although I think they would like to shop as well, I’m not sure if the shopping centre we were at today took US dollars. That was one thing we did before we left – get small amounts of local currencies for predicted ports. Perhaps just enough to pay for a taxi if needed, but it has been very helpful. Even though I think it may bother our American passenger not all countries are interested in you paying in US dollars. The exception to this is usually the closest variety store to the port and the nearest bars.

(late evening update)

We discovered something very important tonight in the local port area. There are no bars. We found only restaurants, shops, and a pachinko parlour. We walked into a residential area in one direction, and at least a kilometer from the port road in the other direction. Also, the crew couldn’t get any money changed at all. The banks are only open from 9am to 3pm on Monday through Friday. Since we couldn’t find a bar we chipped in the Yen we had taken with us, along with our German passenger (Gunter) and we bought beer and snacks to take back to the ship. It’s important to know that you cannot buy alcohol on the ship while you are in port. This isn’t usually a big deal, but tonight it was. We tried setting up a bar on the pool deck, as the night was quite warm, but eventually moved into the crew mess.

Oh well, tomorrow we will head into the city. This is assuming that the No. 7 bus is the one that actually goes there. We have enough Yen left for the bus trip in and out as well as a reasonably priced lunch. Assuming I get this online tomorrow, this will be the last update until at earliest San Diego. At the moment our arrival date for San Diego is May 6th.

Day 116 - Rickmers Antwerp

Last night’s weather was a little rough when we swung into the Pacific. It was nothing like our sail across the Atlantic but it was the first time we’ve had a noticeable roll to the ship in a while. The morning dawned bright and beautiful and the day’s sailing was wonderful though. Today they were painting the pilot deck and the deck with the pool on it. The ship is constantly being scrapped, primed and painted. I suspect it’s a losing battle no matter how hard they try.

It’s just after 7pm and we’re almost at the anchorage point. Unless it’s changed, the pilot will be aboard tomorrow morning just before 7am. This will be our last port before crossing the Pacific so I will try and update the blog in Nagasaki. Some of the crew asked if we wanted to go to the seaman’s mission tomorrow night. If it’s actually a mission it will likely have internet access. If it’s a club it will likely just have beer. I’m not sure if the distinction between club and mission is quite so important to the guys.

Day 115 - Motomachi Shopping Street

Last night’s rain had cleared away by morning. I was up early and thought for a bit that it wasn’t going to, but it did. At breakfast the captain mentioned that we would be leaving early, but wasn’t sure exactly what time. He was hoping for noon, however, in the end it turned out to be 3pm. With no specific departure time it was a bad idea to go back to the city. Just before 9am though I went down onto the wharf and managed to get a picture of the ship. This sounds easier than it is. Usually between equipment waiting to be loaded, and traffic, it’s not possible to get the entire ship. I missed a perfect chance in Avilés and haven’t had another good one since. The picture I chose for today is of the Motomachi Shopping Street. It’s numbered in six sections, each one being a city block. It’s a really nice place to stroll through. Since the major streets, and even alleys, are open to the elements, it allows fresh air in. You don’t get that mall feel and you don’t have to worry about carrying an umbrella in questionable weather.

We’re currently sailing between Kobe and Nagasaki. Although we’ll be in Nagasaki tomorrow evening, we will drop anchor and wait for the pilot to come aboard on Saturday morning. I had to really think about that for a moment. Today is Thursday. It’s sometimes tough to remember these things.

Day 114 - Minatogawa Jinja

We arrived in Kobe this morning just after 7am. Immigration would not clear us with the crew so it was arranged that the agent would take us to them. This turned out to be the best thing ever. Not only did he escort us to immigration but he took us to a shrine afterwards, as the stores were not open. After letting us out in front of a bank, to exchange money, he arranged a meeting place for the afternoon. The time was actually of our choosing. On top of this he provided a tourist map as well as contact information and another map with instructions for a taxi driver if we chose to come back at a different time. This left the four of us to explore on our own with a guaranteed ride back to the ship. It was just perfect.

Kobe is a beautiful city. I suspect some of this has to do with an earthquake in 1995 that destroyed a good part of it. There is no evidence of this by now, with everything being rebuilt. Some of the public spaces we walked through were beautifully landscaped with large sections being devoted to park space. We walked through two shopping streets that are actually glass covered, yet still open-air. As most cities there is a Chinatown, which is beautiful. I was sorry afterwards to realise that I hadn’t taken many pictures of it. We spent most of the day just walking around, exploring the city. We had Kobe beef for lunch, something at home that is touted as the best beef. It was a pretty good lunch. Late in the afternoon it darkened a bit and rain threatened. We were down near the waterfront and spotted a city tour bus. For 250 Yen (a few dollars) we spent an hour seeing the sights while it rained a little. Now, although the map was in English, the tour was not. It really didn’t matter as the tour map gave enough information so we could follow where we were.

The streets are labelled in English and a lot of the stores have English in their signs, as well as packaging for some consumer goods. This should not be confused as a city where English is widely spoken. Having said that we had very few problems getting around or purchasing what we needed. I had a short conversation in one of the shopping street with a woman whose English was excellent. She had offered help with directions, which I hadn’t needed, and was fascinated by the trip we were taking. Anyway, when we were early back to our meeting spot we went into a coffee house, something the city is full of. The waitress said she didn’t speak English, however, she understood that we wanted coffee, that my mother wanted something sweet to go with it, and afterwards that a restroom was required. So, she really did speak enough English. At least for these horrible tourists who speak no Japanese. Overall, it was a lovely day.

Day 113 - Kaanmon Straights

Last night just around midnight I went up on the bridge to see what time we would be at the pilot station. The display showed about 4:30am although the captain told me that the pilot was called for 6:30am. I went back to the cabin and we set the alarm for 6:30. As it was the pilot actually came aboard slightly early. The good thing was that the ship must have arrived early and slowed down, or stopped. The rumble of the engines woke us both up and we saw the pilot boat pulling away. I actually caught a few late sunrise pictures, something I’ve rarely done on this trip. The passage through the Kaanmon Straights was lovely, however, it’s much more built up than the passage into Masan. We spent the afternoon sailing through the Inland Sea, coming out into the Pacific later in the day. We should be in Kobe sometime late tonight.

Day 112 - Masan

The one thing that’s important when you’re on a trip like this is not to get too invested in your plans for the day. We woke up to heavy rain, so even though we were to stay here most of the day it just wasn’t a day to walk around. With a few exceptions we have generally made no plans of things to do or places to visit. When we came into Brussels we had decided to go to Bruges, however, this was a safe bet as historically the ships were always there at least 3 days. Once we were in and found out we would be there four or five days we added Ghent and Brussels to the list of places to go. Anyway, we sailed out of Masan about 9pm at night. This was almost a perfect time to sail, as this will get us into the Kaanmon Straights early tomorrow morning. Okay, probably about 6am, so perhaps 10pm would have been a better time!

Day 111 - Port of Masan

It was another lovely day in Masan. Activities today included another trip into the city as well as watching the cargo operations. Next to where we are docked there are a constant stream of roll-on / roll-off ships. On the wharf are rows and rows of Daewoo cars and Volvo excavators that seem to be headed off across the world. When passing the cars the other day they are addressed to places like Mexico, South Africa and Chile. As it was Sunday the pace seemed a little slower. The captain had provided some wine with dinner so we had an enjoyable chat afterwards while we finished up the wine. It seems like we will likely be here most of the day tomorrow. So it was probably a bad idea to get rid of all the Korean Won today. Tomorrow we will likely just walk out through the wharf and down the street a bit, although I don’t think there is much to see in the immediate area.

Day 110 - Passage to Masan

The pilot time of 6am this morning ended up being more like 10:30am. I’d set the alarm for 6am, but figured out quickly that we weren’t even close to moving. I heard the captain about and he told me that 5 minutes before they were supposed to come aboard they changed the time. It’s got to be a frustration to him even though he deals with it well. For us, the passengers, this was a wonderful thing. The fog lifted considerably and the sail in was gorgeous. I took tons of pictures even though I don’t think individual pictures quite capture how beautiful the passage was. There were many small islands and rugged coastline. There was still a mist in the background and it seemed every time you turned around you saw more hills and mountains in the background.

We came into the port just at noon and shortly after lunch we decided to go ashore. Originally we were just going to walk around the port area, however, after talking to the supercargo we changed our minds. One of the crew bugged probably every stevedore on the wharf until he found one that understood him enough to write down the port address for us. We managed to get a fellow at the port gate / office to call a taxi for us to take us shopping. We tried to get the concept of internet access across to him - this was a lost cause. He also checked our return address and confirmed it. When the taxi came he came back out and made sure that the driver knew where we were going. It was a great start.

As we passed through the downtown core I spotted what I thought was an internet café. As I was trying to figure out how to get him to stop he pointed to a curb with a number of taxis. I agreed and he let us out there. This was just about perfect as it was a quick walk back to the internet place and now we knew where to get a taxi back to the ship. I should explain that we actually found very little English spoken, even though we got on well. The internet place (PC Zone – this was a hint) was up a couple of flights of stairs and was probably the nicest one I’ve been in since leaving home. I saw the number 1000 on a sign and pulled out a 1000-Won note. This got me an hour’s time and I started 37 days of website updates. I ended up having to take more time towards the end, but got everything done. I answered some email and downloaded the current Manila Times from the website (for the crew).

Meanwhile, my mother did a little shopping, and we bought some lovely strawberries just before we headed back to the ship. Getting a taxi was easy and in no time we were back home with our purchases. After dinner I helped the crew to print out the web pages and now we’re not quite sure what we want to do tomorrow. The city itself is lovely, however, I suspect that the sail in today showed us the best of it. Anyway, we’ll figure it out tomorrow.

Day 109 - Rail Cars

When I was up on the bridge last night watching the sail down the Huangpu River the captain told me we wouldn't be stopping at the anchorage. This would make our arrival into Masan very late in the evening today, or very early in the morning tomorrow. I'm never quite sure how to tell, I suppose it depends if you're up late or getting up early. The morning brought a fog so thick that you could barely see the water. By late afternoon it actually did clear and you could see the sun. Of course that also brought high winds and choppy seas. Just after 4pm I was standing up on the bridge watching the spray from the port side land on the starboard side, over the cargo hatches. The waves weren't that bad, it was just the wind picking up the spray. Anyway, our pilot time has been changed to 6am, so at the moment we're just drifting in the open sea. There is no official anchorage outside Masan and the captain tells us that where we meet the pilot is narrower than he would like. So it makes more sense to kill time out in the middle of the East China Sea. It's also good for the passengers as it means it might be daylight when we're coming into port. I'm not entirely convinced of that as the time changes tonight, but we'll see.

Oh, and the picture today is from Shanghai. I couldn't quite decide if we were loading or unloading these rail cars. I say that because I was sure that in the morning I'd seen the barge come down the river with the four cars in it. They were down in the bottom of the barge so it was difficult to tell that they were rail cars and I couldn't swear that there were four of them. Late afternoon I saw them swinging two of them into the barge. I went downstairs for a shower and after dinner the barge was gone. Usually I would have asked the supercargo, but he's off the ship already. Doesn't matter, since one way or the other we have carried them, or will carry them. Sometimes when in port items will be moved as the load is balanced. We've seen that happen once or twice while loading.