Got up early for breakfast and said our brief goodbyes to the Hotel
Staff.
We got ourselves to the Telecom Center Station where we met the agent
for the shipping line and soon after we arrived so did Stefan, the 3d
passenger. Apparently he has decided to continue his trip around the
world the slow way. The agent drove us to the Customs Office where they
issued us special security badges to walk into the building. We went
to a special office where they looked at us and at a few papers. Then
after a few minutes we were walking out and were turning in our badges.
The agent was surprised since he said that usually our luggage would
have been looked at but this time they never even wanted to see it.
I guess they were happy to see us go.
The agent then drove us to the ship and we boarded, went to the ships
office were we gave our passports to the Chief Officer. Our time in
Japan had ended and our return voyage had begun.
We went to the Officer’s Mess at 10AM to have coffee and the
Captain came in to join us and meet us. Captain Ulf Mahnke introduced
himself and spent time chatting with us.
He was quite personable and said how whenever they had passengers onboard
his goal was to “Build Bridges”. When he said that, Cindy
and I gave each other knowing glance. I wondered how he had found out
that we were “Celebrating Rotary by Building Bridges.” Maybe
he was in the back at our District Assembly.
Our talking transitioned from coffee break to the lunch meal. By the
time we finished our lunch the ship had pulled out and was doing the
3 hour transit to exit Tokyo Bay with 2 pilots, the harbor pilot and
the bay pilot. We went up to the bridge were the Captain gave us a tour
of the landmarks as we were leaving Tokyo Bay.
As we were leaving we saw many ships 
leaving
with us, coming in, or anchored waiting to go to a berth. We even saw
the 4 mast Chilean Cadet Schooner and a US Navy Nuclear powered submarine
entering the Bay.
Leaving the harbor and transiting the bay is quite difficult due to
the largeness of our ship and the amount of traffic that is in the bay.
It was surprisingly busy. It felt like being on Highway 280 in San Jose
during peak traffic times. I was surprised how calm the captain seemed
but I could tell that the pilot was responsible and worried enough for
at least 2 people. We are always excited to watch the transfer of the
pilot to a tug boat and since they had 2 tug boats and 2 pilots we got
to see it twice.
We are looking forward to having conversations (Building Bridges) with
our new shipmates.
We put things away and settled in.
Saying Goodbye from the M/V Penang Senator which is identical and a
sister ship of the Pusan Senator (We even got the same cabin that we
had on the last trip).
See you tomorrow on the web site.
Ron and Cindy Sekkel
