Our first port of call is tomorrow Petropavlovsk, Russia. Eight sea days may seem like a lot, but in reality they fly by even at 16 to 18 knots. The captain just made his daily 10 am report, we've covered 2700 nautical miles since Vancouver, with 270 to sail till we anchor in Petropavlovsk Bay at 4 am tomorrow. ( A nautical mile equals 1.15 land miles), The first five days we crossed the Gulf of Alaska, cutting between two islands of the Aleutians to enter the Bering Sea. The ship has altered course twice to avoid rough seas, so the trip has been a little disappointingly calm, darn it! Yesterday not a cloud in the sky, today low heavy clouds and it's moisturizing, temp is 50. Wearing layers so not too bad. The clock has moved back an hour a day for five days in a row, resulting in 25 hour days, and the calendar skipped Thurs the 18th, Wednesday turning into Friday the 19th. You wouldn't think adding an hour a day would mess things up, but it does a bit, the result being that you start waking up at five or six am, I've never seen the breakfast buffet crowded at 6 am, but it is on this ship. Losing a day has every one befuddled. We all got a date line crossing certificate on our pillow last night!
Sunday, 8/21. Yesterday's grey skies turned into a good storm, we plowed through rough seas all day long. I had lots of fun! This morning by four am we were in the shelter of Petropavlovsk Bay, which as it turns out is one of the most magnificent natural harbors in the world. Home to Russia's largest submarine base, it is ringed by mountain ranges and three snow covered volcanoes, one of which is venting away. It is located right on the ring of fire. We were cleared to go ashore by Russian authorities by 11:30 and wandered around this small city for a few hours. Being Sunday it was pretty quiet, but picturesque and friendly. We are about to weigh anchor and head out through the harbor's narrow entry and head out for two sea days to our first port in Japan, Oturu.
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| Happy Russian Immigration official. |
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| Note the steam venting from the volcano on the left. |
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| A Russian bear met us |
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| Millennium in the bay |
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| It was Sunday, light a candle in an 18th century Orthodox church. |
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| Happy Russian family. |
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| That's how to write hot dog in Russian |
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