From Japan to Columbia

Sunday 28/Monday 29 December

After going around every car checking they were secured tightly and the handbrakes were on we were given the afternoon off.

Tuesday 30/Monday 5^th January

The weather has begun to deteriorate and so every day the cars had to be inspected. The technique used is to walk round (or climb where they are too close together) testing the tension in the ropes with ones foot. Slack ones are tightened up with a turn or two. As the weather got worse we were experiencing 35 degree roles (maximum). Some of the ropes were found actually broken and many of the cargo hooks came out of the boards. The worst of the weather was on New Years Day when we had to heave to, head to wind and ride it out for a few hours. Life-lines were strung out along the decks and forward one had to beware of seas and flying spray. The first damage was caused due to sloping cargo boards which had lifted, thus a couple of cars had slewn into each other and two had run down the slope into others. These had to be repositioned and lashed down. Wooden chocks were then nailed in front of the wheels to prevent a recurrence. Other damage was minor and due to the lashings stretching. The cars being so close together that an inch of movement resulted in abraised paintwork. During this period we crossed the date line, thus having 2 x 1^st Januarys!

Tuesday 6^th January

This was to be the last day of inspecting the cars as we were due in the Columbia River that afternoon. I found out that I would be on the 8 to 12 watch so went to bed in the afternoon for a couple of hours sleep. As can be seen from the postcard below, the Columbia is a beautiful and spectacular river, but as it was dark none of this could be seen. I hope our journey back is in daylight. I was kept very busy on watch marking our position against the various buoys and keeping the Rough Log Book up-to-date. There was not much traffic on the river and the pilot was interesting, talking about the various dangerous pilot ladders he had nearly fallen off in his career! Once we were made fast I waited for the mail to arrive before going to bed.