Day 25

27 September, 2003

A mostly sunny day in the East China Sea, although still stiff northerly winds as we pass off Okinowa. We keep heading East-North-East. At one point a fleet of forty or more identical Chinese fishing boats, all towing nets, makes our bridge watch have to steer like a drunk sixteen year old on a Saturday night, weaving in and out. The captain says that although these Chinese fishermen are somewhat irritating in their audaciousness, not worrying about being in major ship routes and bantering on the emergency channel, they were at least sailors and followed the rules of the road.

The captain says the really troublesome traffic is the week end sailors of the United States, the only country to not require a license to own and command a boat. All sorts of drunks get out there and get into all sorts of trouble in American waters. He also complained about the radio operators of the coast guard, who do not use international English, but slang and jargon laden American.

I heard an example of this in the Red Sea, which has a traffic control, in English in spite of an Arabic accent. What must have been a couple of young U.S. Navy communication officers kept making fun of his accent on the air! But their own valley boy surfer dude argot was the real idiocy compared to these people who are doing an important job well. We keep forgetting that we put our least well behaved children in charge of these giant war machines. Very rude!

A nice turn on deck, after lunch, brings me to the forecastle for some sun. The newly painted forward-starboard deck is a great improvement. The primed patches in other parts bode well for the maintenance.

After dinner, another turn up top during a beautiful sunset. Although cloudless all day, the wind is still strong, and the sea a bit rough. After watching “Two Jakes”, around 2145, as the ship is getting a bit jumpy in the pitch-black night, I take the inside stairs to the bridge to get an idea of our position before bed.
In spite of the pitch black night and pitching ship, this is the big route, the Interstate 5 or 95 if you will of the Pacific. The radar is chock a block with traffic, while the warning “dangerous target” keeps flashing . Once again, added to the mix is a fleet of fishing boats which limit the options for the larger ships to stay out of each others way. A ship is bearing down on us, fast and large, the third mate has to jog us way off coarse but still it seems to come at us. Finally she corrects her coarse and we can see that a fishing boat was preventing her from doing it earlier. The third seems completely calm with these shenanigans, but I started thinking if I wanted to be able to sleep I better stop watching this sausage being made. To top it off, the third notices this same ship about to run us down in the night, is our sister the Pugwash Senator coming back the otherway. He served on her about two years before, and in a moment there is a long friendly conversation between him and the Filipino watch commander on the Pugwash, in Tagalog. Once we leave Tokyo,and head out across the Pacific, not only will we lose these fishing boat swarms, but the train of oil tankers servicing Japan will also be done with. Meanwhile, I can’t take all this suspense, I’m going to bed!

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