Sorry I can't keep the numbers straight, but the dates are right. So far there are at least two 11, no 12, two 6 and no 7. Yikes, the easy days at sea are making me sloppy with my record keeping.
Oct 1 – At Sea (Missed Kushiro, Hokkaido, Japan). Hokkaido is the large island in northernmost Japan that looks a lot like a manta ray. Largely undiscovered by Western tourists it’s a great place to visit. The most well-known city on the island is Sapporo because of its namesake beer. Shame we’re going to miss it.
About 10AM we passed through the La Perouse Strait into the Sea of Japan. The traffic separation scheme required us to go west in the northern half of the strait so Sakhalin Island, Russia was visible to starboard but Hokkaido was not visible to the south.
We’re heading into some weather as we travel south. There’s a fog bank approaching us as we approach it. I think in about half an hour we’ll have the melodic tones of the fog horn to accompany our afternoon. When I was stationed at Travis AFB for my medical on-the-job training we went into San Francisco every chance we got. I always associate the sound of fog horns with that area. As Samuel Clemens once said, “I spent the coldest winter of my life one summer in San Francisco.” He could also have said the foggiest.
The swell is coming from the north so we are not getting any wave action from the typhoon to the southeast because Hokkaido is in the way. After we enter the Tsugaru Strait from the west and then arrive in Hakodate Bay we will be a the place where the Japanese fleet assembled prior to heading to Hawaii to attack Pearl Harbor. As most of you will remember I love irony and even the happy coincidences that are often mistaken for irony. The first one I’ve spotted on this trip is that our first stop is now in the spot where the attack began and our last stops will be in Hawaii where the attack occurred. The bookends for Pearl Harbor.
The Unexpected Boys did an unexpected program this evening as they were scheduled to disembark at the port we missed today. Their show this evening was a Beach Boys tribute and it was even better than the Frankie Valle show they did several days ago. They sang all the hot rod songs, most of the surf songs and unfortunately ‘In My Room’ and ‘Good Vibrations’ the two worst songs the Boys ever cut. I never tire of hearing the one-take, garage hit, ‘Barbara Ann’. It was a very good show.
Tomorrow, dry land at last.
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