Georgiana and Nick's Next Great Adventure

2010

The Ides In Asia

Report #1 – Seattle to Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia (September 24 – October 2, 2010)

After two great nights in Seattle, we taxied over to Pier 91 to board the ms Amsterdam and begin our latest adventure to Asia.  Interestingly, fifty years ago in July, 1960, a newly commissioned Ensign from Cornell University stepped aboard the USS Watts (DD-567), which was also stationed at Pier 91, Seattle, Washington.  That young (handsome) Ensign was Nick and that began his 18-month assignment of sailing the Pacific Ocean from Juneau to San Diego, patrolling for foreign submarines.   Nick said the duty was not difficult, but added that there was always the great Pacific Ocean to keep you on your toes - at times smooth and calm and at other times, quite the opposite.

Leaving Seattle and the port brought back many memories for Nick, including the spectacular view to the southeast of Mt. Rainier.  Less than a few hours after setting sail, the ship’s captain announced that when we officially entered the Pacific, around midnight, we would experience some motion.  He further indicated that our course would be to northwest and that there were two storms in the Pacific that he would do his best to avoid.

Some motion was a gross understatement and our next three days were very rough and unpleasant.  The first storm we met up with sported 30-40 knot winds and waves 10 to 20 feet.  The second, however, was full scale with winds at 50-60 knots (force 10 on the maritime scale) with wave heights of 25 to 30 feet.  This was the strongest storm we have experienced in our 250+ days at sea with Holland America and needless to say we, and many others, spent a lot of time in our cabins, eating crackers and hot soup.  We had hoped to have “scenic cruising with commentary” as we sailed along the Aleutian Islands and crossed into the Bering Sea near the island of Unalaska, but no such luck.  It was cold, with rough seas and heavy, dense fog.  Even though we couldn’t see them, we read that the Aleutian Islands are an arc of over 300 small volcanic islands extending about 1,200 miles westward from the Alaskan Peninsula toward the Kamchatka Peninsula.  They islands contain 57 volcanoes and are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. 

We lost one day (October 1) due to crossing the International Dateline, so on our seventh day (October 2), we finally arrived at our first port of call - Petropavlovsk, on the Kamchatka Peninsula, in Russia.  The city was founded in 1740 during V.J. Bering’s second Kamchatka expedition and soon became an important center of trade between Russia and Central Asia.  During the Soviet era, the city retained its military role and became a sizable Pacific Fleet submarine base.  Presently, its main industry is fishing, bringing in a million tons of fish a year.

Loving the fact that we would be on solid ground, we signed up for the ship’s Countryside Tour, complete with a forest walk and a visit to see sled dogs, followed by lunch and folk dancing.  Picture this – it was cold, windy and raining when we boarded our bus and soon noticed that there was no way to see out of the foggy, wet windows. The countryside drive was complete with limited views of ugly buildings, garbage and broken down cars.  We arrived at the dog sled area to find one circular hut-like building with a fire in the middle and one other small building, where lunch was to be.  Everything else was planned to be outside, in the rain.  It would have been manageable if we were a tour of 30 people, but we were almost 100, so we had to be split into three groups and rotated through each activity.  We went to the hut first to hear a description of the area and the dogs, all while drinking vodka.  Next, was a rainy walk through the mud to see the dogs and last we had lunch of grilled salmon and raw vegetables, sitting on picnic-type benches inside the second building.  On the plus side, our tour guide spoke excellent English, was very sweet and told great stories.  Also, the local folk dancers did everything they could to make our trip memorable, including teaching us animal and bird sounds, aided by our consumption of Russian vodka.  We got back on the ship cold and wet, but happy that our day was spent enjoying a different culture and its people.

Next, we’ll travel southwest past the Kuril Islands and the northern most islands of Japan to reach our second port of call – Sendai, Japan.