All going well, we leave tomorrow for Hawaii – a 3 to 4 week passage. I`m hoping for the 3. I`ve engineered things with Katie that I will not be cooking tomorrow, instead I cooked yesterday and today. I thought it was time for a change and not cook the first day out for the 6th leg in a row. How I love getting seasick that early…! We found Costco today and managed to shop without a membership (actually, we bought a membership, shopped, then cancelled the membership once we were done. The condition is that we cannot get a membership in Japan again for a year. I don`t think that will be a problem). They didn`t really have a lot of the things we were hoping for. Apparently Japan doesn`t use bleach. Anyway, we did find some things that we were happy to get and I now have a ginormous box of animal crackers in my `stash.` Don`t anyone tell the little Anderson boys or I will never have a second of peace.
Right now, I am hanging out on the free Internet in the hotel (Universal Port Hotel) right beside the boat hoping that Dad and Colleen decide to come home from church early (I think its 10 am for them, 7pm for me) and I get to talk to them on skype before I leave. Tomorrow will probably be busy with garbage going, fuel and water coming, and clearing out in crazy Japanese style.
Our new group of trainees seem like a lot of fun. This is our biggest turnover of trainees since Hawaii between leg 1 and 2. Having that many trainees for whom this is their first ever Offshore experience adds a certain amount of excitement and anticipation, despite the long passage ahead. I`ve sailed with 2 or 3 of them before and know a few others (siblings of Sarah, my old roommate and our WO on the boat). We have lots of food on board, so now I`m just waiting to go. I`m kind of over Japan, as much fun as it has been. One last stop to the santo tonight for the last bit of clean before we hit the open ocean. There is a nice American guy who we`ve run into at the hotel here who is over from LA working on a new show that just opened up at Universal Studios. He`s let us use his room for showers a couple times (which has been heavenly). He just walked by me here in the lobby and was telling me about the crowdedness on the trains in Tokyo (I was telling him that half of Japan was at Costco today). Apparently his translator, a tiny 90lb (ish) woman has had ribs broken on the trains in Tokyo. It gets that crowded. Yay for height and basketball rebounding skills.
And now, back to Kyoto, I ended up getting a kimono at the flea market after all! I found a really nice one for relatively cheap and so now I have a kimono. Don`t know when I`ll wear it, but it sure is pretty!
So wish us fair wind and good seas so that we make good time and I don`t have to start rationing food. These guys seem like big eaters so far…! I`ll talk to you in Hawaii in about a month or so!