As we sat enjoying a cup of tea before Trivia yesterday afternoon, the Captain announced that there was a strong swell in the ocean and once we left the shelter of Keelung Bay, we might encounter heavy seas.  At 4pm precisely, we set sail and on the dot, the “turbo” switch was turned on and the rocking and rolling began.

It’s going to last 15 hours or so, he says.  Oooo.

Well, that was last night and thankfully we’ve survived!  It was fun at times though, I can tell you.  Though we’ve been in rough seas before, I don’t think they’ve lasted quite so long or been quite so consistent.  At odd hours in the darkness, we’d hear a crash or a bang and though we were perfectly fine, I imagine there are others who will be pleased to reach the safe harbour of Naha later.

It was a fun evening last night, though.  The crew are so kind and were on escort duty about the ship to offer a steadying arm to anyone who needed it.  We were up top until around midnight (just two hardy teams made the “name that tune” quiz).  It seems like the heavy seas and the fact that as we lost an hour in adjusting our watches to the next time zone, made the ship a very quiet place indeed.

Today we’ll arrive in Okinawa around lunchtime and my hero and I are going our separate ways to do our own thing.  If the internet is there later, you’ll be able to read about it.  If not, then it might be a couple of days before it appears.

Two or three days without communications, just like the old days!  How on earth will we manage?