Outrunning a typhoon
All last night and today we've been sailing at 20 knots (that is fast for this ship). During the Captain's noon briefing, he mentioned that he received permission to dock early in Vladivostok at 12:30am instead of 7am so that we are out of typhoon Francisco's harm. As I write this at 8:30pm local time waiting for our 9:30pm bedtime story, the ship's rocking motion has increased due mainly to winds of up to 38 knots hitting us from the east. The crew is putting away deck furniture and cushions. We even passed through a pretty intense rain squall with a bit of lightning which led to leaking in the Crow's Nest.
Today was a sea day with a number of lectures. Joe Holliday, oceanographer, was the coffee chat guest. Dr. Kam followed with his part 3 history of Japan through modern times. Joe gave an oceanography talk. After lunch Lance gave two port talks on the two upcoming Russian ports (the second was a repeat). In between them Marc Wilson presented some of his pictures and commentary about his holocast project which is almost complete. It was very moving especially since we've visited a few of the Nazi concentration camps and I visited a KGB jail in Lithuania.
We had another quiet dinner in the Lido (salad for me) before attending Dr. Kam's Evening Insight presentation on Japan's culture of karoshi (overwork) leading to high suicide rates. A Hungarian violinist, Tom Suha, entertained us with some excellent music.
At the Voyager meeting (bedtime story for us veterans),the guest chef, Yuji Hariguchi chatted with a very small group about food and it was a good time to ask questions of him or his wife. We also met a delightful family from Belize there along with their bear mascot.
Just before midnight we passed under a major suspension bridge and were tied up at the cruise terminal by midnight.
Shortly after that a troop of 22-24 passport checkers marched up to the gangway to begin their process. This should make getting off the ship in the morning easier.
That's all for now. Stay tuned for more.
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