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Captain's Log
08/01/2004
Much has happened in the few days since
I’ve last written.
The evening before arriving at Busan, our
great weather took a turn the other way, at least for the
bridge crew. As we approached the Korean Strait, ship and
fishing traffic became very dense indeed. The great visibility
we had enjoyed for weeks came to an end and started to become
ever more restricted by the ubiquitous and thick Far East
haze. By sunset on Thursday, the visibility of the horizon was
reduced to only 3 to 4 miles. This made traffic avoidance more
difficult as one’s visual senses are taken away and replaced
with radar data. Anyway, along about 11 PM that evening, the
ship was beset by dense fog: pea soup stuff. But it was a hot
pea soup. The sea temperature was about 84 degrees, the air
temperature was 87 degrees and the humidity was 100%. It was
literally like being inside a sauna. Naturally, about this
time, we found ourselves approaching a long, solid line of
fishing vessels across our horizon. Interspersed with this
situation was a large number of transiting commercial traffic
to deal with as well - all with next to no visibility.
Moreover, just prior to the fog setting in, we were overtaken
by a large oil tanker on her way up through the Korean Strait.
The radar picture showed numerous fishing boats directly ahead
of the tanker’s oncoming path. There was no way for them to
detect the leviathan’s lurking passage except by the
punctuated sound of her deep foghorn. It was amazing to watch
on the screen the vessels ahead of her simply parting to
either side of her inexorable passage to make a hole in the
line of fishing vessels as she approached. I guess it’s a
matter of survival skill you develop if you’re going to make
your living by stopping to fish in some of the most densely
transited commercial traffic lanes in the world. So, we just
fell in directly behind the tanker and sort of draughted in
her wake, a la NASCAR, before they could close back in and
resume their original fishing spots.
About an hour after entering the fog, and
having weaved our way through most of the traffic, the fog
lifted to expose a moonlit sky and much improved visibility.
Well, at least 3 to 4 miles worth, which was a vast
improvement over the 40 yards it had been reduced to earlier.
We approached the entrance into Busan the
next morning under a hazy, but sunny morning. Being the
seventh largest maritime nation in the world, the major
seaport of Busan is an extremely crowded and busy harbor.
There are boats and ships of every description moving in, out
and around this harbor constantly – albeit not quite as busy
as Hong Kong, Tokyo or Singapore, but getting there.
Proceeding to our berth, we managed to miss them all. With two
tugs assisting, we turned 180 degrees and backed into the
Korean Navy berth, which is adjacent (actually a part of the
same pier) to the U.S. government berth of the Army’s 837th
Transportation Command. There was a RoRo (roll on, roll off)
vessel berthed ahead of us unloading armored vehicles and
trucks that we had to back around before tying up behind her.
The end of July and the beginning of
August is the hottest time of year here in Korea. And boy, was
it hot here. You might all remember TV episodes of MASH and
how hot they were in the summer. Well, they were right!
One of the primary reasons for the
training ship to call at Busan this year was to execute mutual
educational exchange agreements between CMA and the Korea
Maritime University (KMU). Because of the formal and official
nature of the exchange, we planned mutual ceremonies between
the ship and the campus at KMU. Because of the upcoming
weekend, we started these ceremonies almost immediately after
docking on Friday morning.
The exchange began with the arrival of
approximately twenty KMU maritime students and ten of their
faculty and staff. The initial greeting was a traditional
wreath presentation made by them to our ship. Since there were
five wreaths, I accepted one on behalf of the ship and the
other four were presented to representatives of our four
academic programs onboard. After the wreath presentation, we
provided extensive tours of the GOLDEN BEAR to their
students and staff. Afterward, we hosted a luncheon onboard
and served, among other things, Midway duck. Once again, the
Chief Steward and his crew did a splendid job both in quality
and presentation. After lunch, the KMU students and staff
reboarded their buses and returned to the university (soon to
be back though).
One of our missions while in this port
was to secure the signing of official MOUs (memorandums of
understanding) between our respective institutions. As
President Eisenhardt’s emissary, I presented the instruments
of understanding to the President of KMU during a separate
ceremony later Friday evening at 6 PM. After the signing
ceremony, we exchanged mutual gifts and presented a toast for
success in our new agreements for educational exchange of
students and faculty.
After the signing ceremony, we all
retired to the patio deck to enjoy a reception hosted by the
ship. The Korean Navy provided a seven-piece combo band, which
was a delightful change to our normal CD player background
music. The support we get from our onboard food service
workers and Chartwell’s management team cannot be overstated.
In addition to feeding the crew three meals during the day,
they provided the fabulous separate lunch for the KMU visitors
and then put on a catering marvel on the same evening.
Unfortunately, we lost one of our best and hardest-working
galley staff to a family emergency back in San Francisco. Mr.
Smiley Garcia had to fly home on Saturday. We will sorely miss
him.
The following day, thirty of our students
and about 10 officers and staff were picked up by bus and
driven to the KMU campus. We were given a thorough tour of
their campus facility, including a video presentation of their
institution and its mission, simulation center, training
vessels and maritime museum. This was followed by a huge
buffet lunch hosted by their President. Their campus houses
6,600 students, all studying some part of maritime sciences
and policy. Their campus is huge and heavily subsidized by the
Korean government, which is a testament to the importance of
maritime affairs to this country’s future.
One of our other missions here in Korea
was the delivery of donations collected by our local Vallejo
Circle-K Club to the Hee Rak Children’s Home, located just
outside Busan. We delivered more than three pallets of
children’s clothing and toys to a very grateful orphanage
staff. They brought some of their kids with them, and their
eyes were huge as they were brought onboard a big ship and
seeing so many tall Caucasians for the very first time. They
were as cute as could be and the staff gave the kids fresh
baked cookies and punch – neither of which they have ever
probably had before.
All of these events were being
overshadowed by an approaching typhoon named Namtheun. This
was the same storm that was dogging our trail from Okinawa to
Busan. As the storm approached southern Japan, it intensified
with winds in excess of 80 knots. As we arrived in Korea, our
weather forecasts indicated that the storm's path would just
skirt southern Japan and hit the south part of the Korean
peninsula. Guess where Busan is located. When we got here on
Friday, the storm was still several hundred miles away but
heading our way. It was not known if the storm would
eventually come ashore over the large island of Honshu in
Japan. If it did, the land would break up a lot of the storm’s
power and energy. If not, it would squeak between the southern
mountainous islands of Honshu and Kyushu and spill almost full
force into the Korean Strait and hit the south Korean coast
before re-curving north and east. There were a number of ships
in the harbor that decided to evacuate the port and left on
Saturday morning. I elected to wait until Saturday at 1700 to
look at the latest forecast before deciding whether or not to
leave while we still had the time to get out of the harbor and
get south before the storm passed Busan, or stay in port. With
the latest forecast from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center in
hand, it looked like the storm would pass about 50 miles east
of Busan out in the Sea of Japan. If it did follow that path,
it would still bring winds of 30 to 40 knots to the ship while
in port. After careful consideration, I elected to stay in
port and hunker down. So, we doubled and tripled our mooring
lines, secured the decks and lowered the inboard anchor to the
bottom. One of the grave concerns in getting caught in port
during a passing typhoon is that, when moored alongside, the
ship is helpless to the fury of winds and storm surge. If you
break away from your moorings, you are in danger of being
grounded and maybe broached on some nearby lee shore.
As it turned out, the storm’s path took
the eye directly onto the south coast of the main Japanese
Island of Honshu. The high mountains there knocked the storm
way down so that, when it emerged into the Sea of Japan some 6
hours later, its' intensity was degraded back down to a
tropical storm and its' path was altered to the east even
further than forecast. The result is that the wind speed in
Busan never got above 15 knots. We did catch a few remnants of
rain but not very much. So, the end of the story turns out
well for the TSGB.
There are a lot of pictures to show
surrounding all of the activity in this port – too may to
present and transmit in one day. So, watch for the upcoming
day’s photo albums for follow-on pictures. Once we get
underway and headed well towards Yokohama, I will bring you up
to date on the ship’s goings-on.
Captain
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