The Ship
The temperature is plummeting. Wind is now ‘Stiff Gale’, wind speed 44 knots, though the sea is calm. Perhaps because of the great depth under us, 6,000m. It is misty, and the Queen Elizabeth is powering its way through the grey sea at 22 knots.
In the interior luxury of the ship, we must remind ourselves why we are travelling on this 16 night journey. Unlike nearly all our fellow passengers, our only aim is to cross from Asia to North America – not by air. For nearly all the others, up to 2,092 passengers, it is a Cruise, connecting Japan and Alaska. Their purpose is the cruise, while for us, the purpose is to get across the Pacific Ocean.
Having said that, who would not enjoy this experience? Peter, while updating this blog post, is sitting in the lower Library, on deck 2, looking out at the passing sea, white bow waves gushing past. This beautiful library has a huge number of books to lend out, a 30 inch globe made in 1932, maps, PCs and a librarian that is also the internet helper. And it is quiet and peaceful.
There is a cigar room (not for us…!), a full sized theatre, a ballroom, a generous gym, with spa treatments, a casino, many restaurants and bars, including a British pub, of course, much shopping, including an art gallery. Not forgetting a laundry on each passenger deck, with three industrial quality washing machines and tumble dryers. A popular activity, which would have benefitted having adjoining bars.
Of more use with more welcoming weather, there are two generously sized swimming pools, four whirlpools, deck games including croquet, bowls, paddle tennis, golf shooting (t-ing off?), and outdoor al fresco bars, manned by lonely, freezing staff, in case a passenger appears.
Deck 3 offers a walk completely round the whole ship, 500m long. In these waters, a thoroughly bracing activity. Decks 9, 10 and 11 have toughened glass wind shields, so the warmly-wrapped can lie on the loungers with a book and a hot tea or coffee. At the start of our voyage, the weather was glorious, so these facilities were more popular.
Queen Elizabeth is a massive ship, 94,000 tonnes, built in Italy, with her maiden voyage in 2010. She is 294m long, with a beam of 32m, so only just able to squeeze through the Panama Canal. Classified not as a liner, but as a cruise ship, she does not have heavy hull plating everywhere, but has strengthened bow plates. This enables passage across the great oceans and a maximum cruise speed of 23 knots. A crew of 980 takes very good care of both the ship and its passengers.
After leaving Yokohama, we called on two ports in Northern Japan, as described earlier. On leaving Japan, we were to sail north, close to Russian territories, however we sailed southwards, back-tracking on our previous route. No announcement was made by the ship’s officers, but we believe the change of course may have been prompted by the obvious risk of sailing into wholly Russian dominated seas.
We are currently on the third day of the seven day ‘at sea’ crossing. Each day, at noon, we have set our clocks forward by one hour. We are now 12 hours ahead of Greenwich – by tomorrow, we will be 12 hours after, as we will be crossing the International Date Line. Do we gain a day like Phileas Fogg …? Or is that an illusion?
