Crossing the Mariana Trench and The Season that Was 2015!

I did find notes of our Mariana Trench crossing and the deepest point was 4,983 Fathoms or 29,898 feet. One fathom equals six feet. The Scientific Computer System calculated the depth into meters and read 9113.81 meters or 29,900.95 feet. End result…Its deep!

We returned to sea and started our trek north towards Japan. We had to dodge several typhoons so it was rocking and rolling for about five days.  We went far north about 207 nm southeast of Iwo Jima before turning around to start our research. One thing about the islands in the Northern Marianas chain is their distinct beauty. Not one island is a replica of the other. The live pluming volcano of Pagan Island, distinct cone shape Asuncion, the caldera of Maug and my favorite island in the chain, Uracas. The remoteness and lack of any “civilization” and human activity is what attracts me to the place. Of course I am not shipwrecked and forced to survive there either! At Maug you can see both Uracas and Asuncion in the distant and tell the difference by their unique shape. On our way down we had a port call in Saipan. I had requested relief so I can return to Honolulu and close out escrow. I was receiving correspondences that we were coming close to an end and it was going to be complete! I was to fly out of Saipan and catch a plane from Guam for an eight hour flight back to Hawaii.

I like going to Guam and Saipan. The Asian influence, especially Japanese, is robust. I went to an izakaya in Saipan. The place is called Umi Bouzu, in English Ocean Monk. Actually it is a legendary Japanese sea monster that haunts sailors and sink ships! When I walked in I was in Tokyo instead of Garapan. I was greeted in Japanese by the obasan and given a menu all written in Japanese. The chef was a genuine Japanese cook. I did not utter a word of English. I ordered a curry rice as it was one of the Japanese writing I recognized! After dinner and a few mugs of Asahi Draft Beer I went back to the ship. I had an early morning flight to catch from Saipan to Guam so I could return to Hawaii to close the real estate deal.

As usual with any real estate transaction, it’s one thing to another. We finally closed escrow on June 15 and got the keys. We started the move next day and gave the landlord the keys to the house we called home for the past four years. The little place we were going to call home until I retired was going to be prematurely part of our history instead. I was to return to Guam in 11 days so every day after was busy. In fact work was much easier. Four months after we moved in, there are still some items that we need to resolve. But it’s all part of home ownership and when the day arrived for me to go back to sea, melancholy had again set in. I would be back in Hawaii in twelve days.

Perhaps the worst thing that can happen to any married sailor is a long inport. Not having the additional money wasn’t the only problem but you got used to home life. You discover that you are married again and that life as husband and wife was back. I did squeeze in overtime as there is still much work to do. But it was coming home in the late afternoons or evenings that many of you on shore take for granted that was the best part of any workday. And Friday nights has significance along with weekends off and Sunday afternoons at the beach with a visit to a pub afterwards! I was home from July to September.

The season ended with reclaiming Monk Seal Encampments in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands. I had made reservations to go back to Samoa with the wife. Sailing season 2015 had come to an end. However three years sped by and it is time to put the ship into dry-dock for maintenance. As I write this we are heading north to San Francisco Bay Area to a shipyard in Vallejo, California. Three years ago we went to another shipyard in Alameda. I was hoping we would go there instead but it was not to be. It’s closer to Oakland and San Francisco as well as my brother in Livermore and father in Tracy. I should think forward and maybe this could be my last work in the yards as I crossed the threshold of less than three years until retirement.