Thats TWO updates in one leg! Will wonders never cease...

Well, here I am again. True to form, I forgot about my plan to write every few weeks...so here I am writing from Osaka. Our final few days in Okinawa went well. Most of us stuck fairly close to the boat however, we were all pretty anxious for any news of a possible departure. Notable events included a trip to the nearby bowling alley (Highlight: bowling shoes came out of vending machines...only in Japan), a very fun morning of soccer and volleyball in the park, and Valentines Day. Sarah made us all little mailboxes, and valentines abounded on the morning of the 14th (mention goes to Bec for her skill with rhyming.) Heart-shaped cookies were made the night before and enjoyed by all right away (thus thwarting Scott and I in our masterplan to eat them all that night.)


Dancing with the statue after a morning of volleyball

Graham`s fine bowling form

We finally got the go-ahead to leave early in the afternoon of the 14th, and finally bid Naha adieu. Had some great sailing - so nice to be out again. The passage to Shanghai was cold. Unbelievably so. No one ventured on deck unless watch necessitated it – everyone huddled down below in sleeping bags and near the stove. Number of layers hit an all-time high; most of us had at least three layers on under foulies, boots, hats, and mitts. We were still cold.

Chris...watch was cold

The focsle (aside from moving up and down 10ft with each swell) was particularly chilly. Due to its warm nature, big uglies quickly became the coveted dishes position, and most of us consumed or body weight in tea and coffee. My lovely mother lent me her mitts (after I tried using socks for a day...), and Sarah and I discovered that dancing exuberantly is the only way to keep oneself warm on nightwatch...humorous to watch Im sure.

Sock mittens and dancing to keep warm

This passage was notable not only its freezingness, but also for the unbelievable number of breakages we had. It started the first full day out, when the starboard anchor came unlashed and fell inboard. Jord, Joel and I had a fun-filled 45 mins getting covered by waves while getting it back into place.

One of Becs sailing shots

That afternoon the stove blew out in a spectacular way. It spewed so much smoke that the crew came through and actually evacuated everyone up on deck for an hour...nothing like the sweet smell of diesel fumes. That night after watch it was discovered that the focsle bilge was full of water due to all the miscellaneous junk floating around. Jord and I had a hilarious hour and a half, lying on our bellies, elbows deep in bilge water fishing bits of books, shoes, pencil cases, Mortein cans and everything else out from around the pump. Then, the next morning the bail broke. We were on watch, and suddenly heard a big snap, and saw the whole rig jolt backwards. The bail holds the forestay up at the top of the formast. So the stay fell off. Our FORESTAY fell OFF. It was trailing in the water underneath us. We dropped sail, hove to, and teams got going to set things back up. I went up the mainmast with Jose and Graham and set up two one-inch rope supports up in the trestletree area that led down and were tensioned on the winch by Pop and Bec. Wow there was a lot of movement up there... I was so sick when I got down!

Our rope support system

Jordan, Antony and Chase went up the fore, and re-attached the stay with wire and come-alongs.

Since we were coming in via the Yangtze shipping lanes, traffic around the mouth of the river was insane. At night there were as many as 60 fishing boats and 20 freighters showing up on the AIS (over 300 tons) - only slightly daunting in the dark!

A look at the AIS.　　Each little triangle is a freighter, and we`re the small green boat in the middle of it all
We anchored near the mouth of the river so we could meet the pilot in the morning, and had a mini work day to spiff the boat up in time for its open house in Shanghai (scrub down, brightwork, blackening...) That night the winch hydrolic line broke and sprayed oil all over the foredeck. So at 3am everyone was woken up to hand-pump the anchor up. Jordan and Raven got covered, while fixing things again.

Coming up the Yangtze into Shanghai that morning was incredible. The shore was lined with massive shipyards, and on our every side were massive freighters. Shanghai is huge.

Freighter companions...this was a big one

It was chilly, this is me as a human blanket...

We were all slightly culture-shocked by the gigantic buildings and bridges that we passed by on our way in. We tied up at the cruise ship dock and waited to be cleared in.

On the way in
Excitement of all excitements...we got mail! Shanghai was by far my most exciting mail stop to date, thank you very much. There is very little that makes a port more exciting than the arrival of mail – it made my day.

We decided to tape our initial China ventures, so as soon as we were cleared, we all set out with the cameras and video camera in tow. Jordan and Jose captured all manner of our embarrassing moments, from ATM and bank miscommunications and food surprises, to Kara and I staring blankly at a map trying to decipher the Chinese directions...just great.

One of the side streets we explored day one

Sara, Bec and I met a group of students studying English, and went with them to a tea ceremony. Very neat - got to sample some of Southern China’s best teas in this little tearoom, and we had a blast. Definitely got ripped off though...

The teas we tried, and a Jasmine ball completely opened

The next few days were spent trying to explore Shanghai by foot. An impressive goal considering the city is home to 17 million people.

Night and Day...lights and people are the norm

I spent a lot of time wandering along the intriguing back streets and alleys, lined with bamboo scaffolding and tiny tea and food stalls. Lots of little food carts selling everything from candied strawberries and cherries, to fried meat (or ‘street meat’ as Tiana calls it) and corn. Found as much rice/bok choy/beef as I could eat for 10 yuan ($1.50). Found some intensely nasty internet cafes, but their cheapness kept us coming back. In the first one Sara had a cockroach crawl out of her keyboard...how does that even happen? It was filled with smoke (the café, not the cockroach obviously), and since it was full of gamers, every so often someone would let out a loud scream. No one payed any attention to these screaming players, no one even looked up actually. I thought this was hilarious, so I thought Id give it a try. I looked around, waited for an opportune moment, then let out a loud yell...no one even blinked! Very satisfying.

I went with Jordan and Pop to the Silk Market one morning. Stall upon stall of beautiful fabric, and a multitude of knock-off products. It truly is amazing how many people and things are crammed into such a small area.

A side street by the Silk Market

This lady was amazing. She turned out these `breakfast pizzas` as an incredible rate...
Visited Tony the Tailor (his card reads “Where we make it our business to make you look good”) on the advice of Jean-Marc, and Jord got measured up for suits. Pop and I each got measured for a jacket...never done that before. He was a very interesting man; very funny. He’s made suits for Sylverster Stalone, Danny Glover, Clint Eastwood...he has some good stories. We also found a great little tea store. I definitely came to appreciate tea in Shanghai, ginseng oolong on particular. The couple in this particular store were great, they let us sample a couple different teas at their little table, showed us how to prepare them, and were just a lot of fun. We may or may not have bought tea sets...

We happened to be there over Lantern Festival, so a few of us headed down to Yu Gardens to check out the lights.

Wow there were a lot of people there. In a four city block square there must have been at least 500 000 people. We had full contact with people on all four sides, and the crowd just surged along.

The streets outside the gardens
In the centre of the gardens the buildings were all lit up with lights, and along with lanterns there were giant illuminated inflatable animals...interesting. Really...so many people.

Oh yes...and we couldn’t bathe. Haha, we couldn’t find anywhere in Shanghai (short of renting a hotel room) to bathe OR do laundry. Yes, we were quite stinky. We couldn’t take deck showers either (apart from the obvious reason that we would die instantly from hypothermia...) cause there was so much pollution everywhere. It was fully alright for us to dump all our slop overboard at the cruiseship dock, we saw sewage trucks empty into the river in the middle of downtown, and there was so much smog that you could look directly at the sun...yummy. What a change from Japan! Something that didn’t change from Japan...it was still cold. Intensely so. We kept all the hatches closed, the bulkhead open, and the stove on and open all day and night. Still, the girls would wake up stiff and shivering. There was actually snow on the deckboxes one morning. I didn’t think I could possibly get any colder...then we went to Beijing.

My entire family went to Beijing. Haha, you have to appreciate how much of an anomaly a family of eight already is...then imagine us in transit! We took the train overnight, and it was singularly the most enjoyable eight hours of my life (for the past two months at least...) It was amazing! Since we booked so late we were all split up in different cabins, so Bec and I were each on our own with three other strangers. It was great, my compartment members acknowledged that I was generally useless and couldn’t speak to them or understand anything, and thus I was left alone. It was warm (this is a big deal...in case I haven’t stressed the point that I was chilly on the boat...), I had TWO pillows (I have never had 2 pillows in my life), a reading light, and a lovely quilt. I had the best sleep of my life. A lovely lady named Jenny met us at the train (Jose and Antony had met her earlier and she had shown them around) with a bus. We got a bus! It was a 15 seater, and for $30 would take us anywhere throughout the day. Not really my exploring transport of choice, but for how many of us there were, and for the little time we had, it worked really well. Our driver was fantastic. Jenny came with us and was great; she was so much fun, and taught us so much about everything we saw. We headed out straight away and wandered through the Forbidden City.

It was chilly!

It was amazing. (It was also cold...shocker. The moat had three inches of ice on it...). Absolutely stunning buildings - intricately adorned and painted. Mind-boggling how many people worked on it, how long it took, and in general how much effort and money was put into the Emperor’s life.

The City was built to house the Emperor, his mother, his sons, eunichs, and 2000 concubines. Its truly massive – it took us two hours to wander through, and we didn’t even see everything. Amazing to think of what it must have been like when it was in use, with people in traditional dress bustling around.

We wandered through Tiananmen Square as well...I wish I had read more on the history before I went – I’d like to research it now. Simon was sick and very cold, so we made a quick stop to pick up some warm boots for him before we continued. Went to a neat little tea room outside the Temple of Heaven, and tried a few more types of tea.

Simon was sick...not too interested in tea ceremonies apparently
Interesting to see all the different ways of preparing, serving, and drinking each tea. The boys were quite excited by the gift of a small clay man that pees when you pour boiling water on his head...I may have asked for one as well. Jenny brought us to a silk factory as well, and we could see the whole process from worm to fabric...interesting.

Machines taking the silk from the cocoons into thread
Saw the Beijing Acrobats that evening. The things they could do were amazing...definitely made us all feel weak and noodle-like.

The next day we walked up the Great Wall. Actually, it was more like we hiked up a cliff...that happened to have the Great Wall built along it...we were wheezing all the way up. Incredible to be walking up something so historically significant.

Guard house window
I cant even fathom how much work building, maintaining, and defending it entailed. At sections it was up to 15-20 ft across, layered with different kinds of stone, and many of the steps were worn down into deep dips from all the footsteps. Every few hundred feet there was either a guard post or a watch tower, and if you looked either way you could see the wall zig-zagging impressively off into the mountains. The part we were on was one of the less touristy sites, but still there were fur and high-heel clad Europeans huffing up beside us for a good portion of the walk. We ended up walking about an hour and a half up, and got an amazing view of the surrounding valley.

This man was just up in the wall, playing his sax for everyone

Jord, Noah, Arwen, Bec and I at our highest point on the wall

The trip back down was significantly quicker, due in large part to the discovery that the handrails were excellent for sliding. My gliding came to an abrupt halt however when I hit a particularly steep section, rocketed out of control, and bailed spectacularly in front of two middle-aged women. They kind of jumped out of the way, then proceeded to tell me that though I was free to die on the wall, they’d prefer not to...

The rest of our day was spent exploring the Temple of Heaven and wandering some of the older back streets of the city. Intriguing little doorways and the winding corridors they revealed, old men on ancient bicycles with wardrobes and desks lashed onto the back, and the picturesque (but very illegal) ‘Black Taxis’ were among the things we found.

Bike moving vans, and a Black Taxi

Tried some interesting food, and was pleasantly surprised by pancakes filled with leeks...go figure.

The train ride back to Shanghai was, of course, wonderful. This time we got the whole family together in two compartments so it wasn’t quite as quiet as my trip there, but significantly more entertaining.

When we got back to Shanghai we spent the first day running errands and picking various articles of clothing up from various tailors. Our coats turned out really well, thank you Tony. Turns out almost half the boat ended up going to Tony...we were officially the best dressed smelly people around. We’ve made big plans to get all fancied up (and bathe...) and go out near the end of the leg. We all visited Tony’s for a goodbye and had a lot of fun chatting with him, taking photos, and everyone ended up staying for cheesecake and drinks at a little place across the street. Enjoyable.

Trying to look tough in our new duds

The passage to Hiroshima was quick (4 days) and largely mishap-free! We did have one night of ridiculous motion though. Bec went sliding out of her bunk when her lee cloth broke, and I think the entire contents of hers and Tiana’s bunks ended up on the focsle floor that night. I, stupid as I was, has planned on a starboard tack, and thus packed my shelves full of rather heavy things. During the night, however, we changed tack, and all my (rather pokey) books proceeded to rocket down onto my face...splendid. I ended up sleeping with them for fear of it happening again and them landing on Karen beneath me.

Another good shot of Becs

Interesting how quickly we all get used to falling asleep when the whole focsle is moving so much with each swell. Once inside the Inland Sea it was flat calm, so the last day was relatively free of face-bruising book falls.
Our Osaka agent is apparently amazing, as he had forwarded all our mail to Hiroshima for us…bonus! A fabulous package from Kelsey, Adam, and Jen arrived, which we opened with everyone. Sweets abounded, as did costumes, great letters, photos, music, and laughs. Thank you guys very much (the Jelly Bellies were shared out recently on our last nightwatch…very appreciated). Tav’s package for the crew also got there safe and sound, containing everything we were craving: good dried fruit, new music and reading material, Lindt chocolate, quality candy, photos, and newspaper articles! Very much appreciated, a very big thank you from everyone.

Had a great watch dinner, obviously we’re the best watch of the three.

Our lovely watch

Our restaurant of choice was a sushi train, and what with the sheer size of our group, and the fact that an entire bowl of miso soup was spilled on Sara and Joel’s faces...we were a force to be reckoned with. Some funny photos were taken, almost everyone took advantage of the amazing deluxe restrooms, and the food was good (octopus especially.)

It is so nice to be back in Japan. Wow. I had a lot of fun in China, and very much appreciated the cheapness of everything, but still, Japan is great. Everything runs properly, people are friendly and super polite (as opposed to in China where you’d routinely have to leap out of the way of someone’s snot-rocket or spit...), and we can bathe! Almost everyone from the boat made at least one trip to the bathhouse...which was worlds better than the one in Naha. All marble and stone, this one had an area outside as well as multiple new pools/rooms. Minor embarassing moment with the individual steam room things...but we got over that. There are definitely still the initial few minutes of awkwardness...especially when you run into someone else from the boat...but its most certainly worth it. Oh, and we also found laundry! The usual translation-related mishaps with soaps and such ensued...but our clothes are clean.

The main reason we came to Hiroshima was the Atomic Bomb Memorial and Museum, so we went through it as a whole boat.

Cenotaph, Flame of Peace, and A-Dome in the background

Cranes made in memory of Sadako, there were thousands

Childrens Memorial

It was really powerful. I didn’t know a lot about it ahead of time, so it was mostly new to me. We started out by the A-Dome, visited the various memorials throughout the park, and ended up at the museum.

A-Dome

Surreal to see the Dome, and try to imagine an entire city like that. 140 000 people killed with the one bomb, and that doesn’t even take into account the others that died later from radiation-related illnesses. The museum did a really good job of presenting an unbiased view of what happened, and it had so much information. There was discussion of what led up to the bombing, the science of the actual bomb and other like it, and all the fall-out from what happened (world-wide as well as just in Hiroshima). There were preserved bits of walls (either with shards of glass embedded in them from the force, or streaked with the black rain that followed the blast), roof tiles that had melted with the intense temperatures (2000-5000 C around the epicenter), and body remnants like fingernails and skin that had melted off. Heartbreaking to see the burnt and tattered clothing of children and babies – most of the children whose clothing we saw had died soon hours or days after the blast.

Noah and post-blast Hiroshima

Everyone was pretty quiet after we came out, and even though there has been numerous good conversations on the topic, no one is really sure how to deal with what we saw and learned. Its amazing that its such a huge event in history, and the scale of the tragedy is so big, and yet we knew so little about it.

My family, Jordan and Gill went out for Okonomi-yaki on one of our last nights in Hiroshima as well. Okonomi-yaki developed out of necessity after the bombing, and the literal translation is “anything fried.” It was cooked over wherever, open manholes included. Now its become a bit of a Hiroshima specialty. Its now cooked (and served) on a metal counter/table of sorts that you sit around. So you see your meal cooked, then they push it over to you and you eat it with a sort of tiny shovel implement.

I tried one with squid, bacon and shrimp (combined with the usual cabbage and noodles)...it was good. All the fried material is contained on one side by a pancake of sorts, while the other is egg...delicious.

Final spices going on

Our one day passage to Osaka ended up being two and a half due to a couple achorings (once for tide, once for daylight coming into the harbour.) Had some very entertaining last nightwatches, complete with loud singing of Bon Jovi and Joseph, very annoying phrases (Hella balls for-sho...word), and Jelly Bellies. Coming in we apparently came under the longest (biggest?) suspension bridge in the world...impressive I suppose.

We are currently docked right in front of Universal Studios Osaka and the adjoining hotel. So along with being bombarded by the incessant flashing neon lights (and completely useless stuff that seems to abound in theme parks), we can hear the shouts of excited rollercoaster riders from just across the street. One fabulous plus of having this hotel only meters away from the boat is the free internet in the lobby (...we have, by the way, asked if we could use it...we’re not just exploiting them in our usual hobo fashion.)

The weather has been beautifully sunny, and even remotely warm! Its been so nice to be able to take off the foulies and boots, whoopee! So far our explorations have been relatively fruitful. Banks, showers, post offices, and free shuttles were among the first things found. A group of us rode a gigantic ferris wheel and got quite an impressive view of the city (large buildings, overpasses, and smog as far as the eye can see...beeeeautiful!)

Sarah and I had a late-night adrenaline high for some reason and, aided by our discovery of a hilarious secondhand store, roamed the blinking boulevards in outrageous garb. Many incriminating photos were taken.

Now, all is set for our two work days (tomorrow and the next day...Bec and I are painting the hull...surprise surprise!), then only a few more days until the end of the leg. It has gone by so fast, I cant believe it. Then only two more passage legs left and we’re home already. Offshore in general has gone so fast, its going to be over before we know it!

Anyways, this has, true to form, gotten ridiculously long – again, good job if you read the whole thing! Thank you to everyone who send email and mail, I cant tell you how much we love it. (Jenna S you package came! Thank you so much, the book is hilarious, and the music is so appreciated.) I hope all is well at home, Ill try to do a quick note after work days, but if not, then Ill write from Hawaii with news of my longest passage thus far...