A Rough Pacific Crossing

01-05-24 to 05-05-25

Pacific Crossing. West to East.

Departing Japan we have 5 sea days ahead of us. (P:- Well it is actually 6 days-we get 2 x May 3rd as we cross the International Date Line and have to wind clocks back 24 hours- but I won’t tell Judith this until it happens! This also means we cross into the Eastern Hemisphere. We also cross several time zones as well). Initially we had two stops on this leg of the trip. One in Russia and One in the Aleutian Islands. Russia was cancelled before we left due to the ongoing fighting in Ukraine, the other was cancelled due to bad weather. That means 5 (P:- 6 days 😉) long days of rough seas, listing decks, closed decks because it’s too unsafe to be outside and continual movement day and night. This has not been my favourite part of the cruise and I have no intention of crossing the Pacific again. We have done Sydney to Vancouver, south to north and now Japan to Alaska. Lots of sea days are not for me.

(P:-looking at the forecast as we left Japan it was obvious the image of Smooth Sea Cruise days in the Tropics wasn’t going to be this trip! (We were well aware of this when we booked given the proximity of the Arctic Circle) “ 0le Hughy” the weather gremlin let us have it! We had to follow and then sail through a Force 10 ( Beaufort Scale) storm for around 48 hours. The Royal Meteorological Society describe the Force 10 Storm as “ Rarely seen on land, Sea Condition Mostly White, 6-8m (20-27’) wave height and unpredictable swells” I nearly had to strap myself to the rowing Machine for morning exercises! Whilst we felt a bit unsteady and know what being in a tumble dryer feels like neither of us were motion sick and we didn’t miss a meal- that is an especially good effort for my “smooth water sailing wife)!

During these days we have had some interesting speakers talking about the areas we are going through. Ie. The Ring of Fire, volcanoes, etc, (Don’t forget the lecture and presentation on Storms of the North Pacific and Aleutian Islands)!, the Aleutian Islands, and today about the ports we are heading to. Kodiak, Sitka and Ketchikan in Alaska. We have enjoyed the music in the Billboard Lounge of an evening and some of the evening shows have been pretty good to and as always the food is brilliant. If we are sitting near a window at meal times I have to close the curtain because I don’t like seeing the horizon rise and fall. Puts me off my food.

Tomorrow we hit land at Kodiak and we will be heading ashore. Forecast temperature is 4 degrees Centigrade so the thermals will be on and we will rug up and get some walking in whatever the weather.

(P:- To me it has been a most interesting experience and fascinating to see such wild weather. I have been listening to audio books on Captain Cooks Expeditions- that guy paddled almost everywhere. One can’t imagine sailing in a Force 10 storm on a tall rigger Sailing Boat without weather forecasts or an engine of any type. During the Storm we diverted out of the Pacific, further north into the Bering Sea between Alaska and Russia, where 60% of the USA’s fresh seafood is harvested including Salmon, Halibut and King Crab. The next few days are sailing down the inside Passage of Alaska / Canada one of our favourite parts of the globe. We are both looking forward to that and being on land).