My first glimpse of the Hanjin Ottawa, seen through the windshield of a paneled van driven by a shipping agent named Mr. Shin. "May I ask you question?" he said. "Why you take the ship? Long time! Ten days!"
Gantry cranes at rest, with booms raised skyward, resembled brontosauruses or steel giraffes.
My cabin on the E-Deck featured a view of the containers.
Though I read the list of forbidden activities from the "Passenger Information" handbook, somehow I managed to forget item five: Do not "walk outside accommodation during . . . bad weather or during hours of darkness."
Facts and figures from the "Passenger Information" handbook.
The Ottawa's gym also houses a seawater swimming pool, empty during winter because the northerly waters of the Pacific are hypothermically cold.
Looking aft from the bridge deck during the first day at sea.
Looking fore from the bridge you can see the white foremast rising up from behind the stacked containers.
Looking down from the starboard bridge wing on the second day as a sprinkle of snow starts falling.
The icy view from the bridge as we steam northeast through a snowstorm into the Graveyard of the Pacific, east of Japan.
Five days out, at the International Dateline, the sun breaks through the clouds for the first time in days.
A self-portrait as I hang on to the foot of the foremast.
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