Pacific Odyssey - Leg 5

It has been a day full of new experiences.  We arrived safely in Shanghai by mid-day, making a very fast passage up the river because of the helping river current.  Our pilot, Eric, was very friendly and him and Skipper shared information about themselves.  For Eric it was the first time he had piloted a boat such as the Grace up the river; otherwise he brings in big freighters, nice and warm with the officers in the bridge, but I think he enjoyed it.  Today was a cold day, 2 degrees and everyone who wasn´t wearing socks and long pants yet, pulled them out today.  Skipper, Jose and Antony started to raise anchor at 0130hrs but ran into problems when a hydraulic oil line broke on the winch, which caused oil to spray all over the foredeck in under 6 seconds. All trainees were woken up to manually raise the anchor and help adjust the temporary fore stays. There were a few trainees and crew covered in thick grease, and a few freezing fingers by the time the jobs were completed. It was a great show of people working together in a difficult situation.  Despite the initial delay the Grace met the pilot just 15 minutes before the scheduled time.  The trip down the river was fantastic with most of the banks covered in industry.
Like the day before, there were at least 60 visible targets with another 50 being monitored electronically.  There was a parade of freighters behind and in front of us, all going either up or down the river, it was quite something.  We passed 2 very large shipyards where freighters were being built.  The banks were covered with monster cranes, sometimes 7 to 10 in a row.  As we left the Yangtze River and entered the Huangpu River we began to see the incredible skyscrapers of Shanghai.  The skyline is fantastic with huge buildings, hundreds of stories high and layers deep; I myself have never been in such a large city.  Custom and Immigration was waiting at the dock; all 20 of them, including some photographers and writers from the local paper. They came below and didn´t want to leave.  There were 30 papers for Skipper to fill out; when he was done the officials asked for a tour of the Grace and took lots of photos.  The photographers ordered all of us to pose in certain parts of the boat and they took many pictures, laughing and enjoying themselves.  It was quite funny, with both sides not being able to communicate well.  The shipping agent, Tong, is a great fellow and brought 2 batches of mail.  Thank you to everyone who sent mail; this is an incredibly important part of offshore and we all share in each others good news, sad news, articles, photos, treats etc.  Thank you.  The next address to send mail is in Osaka; please call the SALTS office for the address. By 1500hrs everyone was free to begin exploring China!  Jose, Jordan, Antony, and Skipper, with their cameras and video camera, followed groups of trainees around, trying to capture on film, trainees´ first impressions.  It is very different here than Okinawa.  Small and dusty, ancient alleyways and shops are situated amongst modern, glass skyscrapers. On major streets we saw clothes lines hanging in upper windows with underwear, long johns, t shirts etc. suspended on lines held out on bamboo poles.  They were pegged with specially made pegs or stretched over a coat hanger.  Sometimes it was just one or two underwear hanging randomly above a store front.  In 2 instances there were pieces of meat tied individually on a line beside the laundry.  I´m not sure how long some of the laundry has been hanging out to dry as it is so cold here and some of the pieces looked quite dusty and neglected.  We wandered down some of the very narrow streets where small, dusty shops and old alleyways, looking very ancient and almost inviting, were wedged side-by-side.  Many of the buildings had scaffolding against the walls and the scaffolding was all made of 10 cm. bamboo poles lashed together with wire or twine.  It looked quite beautiful, and permanent.  There is construction happening all over Shanghai, both in the older and newer areas, and this may be where a lot of the dust comes from. The streets were full of people, bicycles, cars and scooters.  There was no center line, even on the larger streets, and everyone seemed to be focused on getting themselves, with the help of their horn, to wherever it was they were going.  We walked as far as the beginning of the ´Bund,´ a strip of older colonial buildings dating from the time when there was more of a French and British presence in Shanghai.  It is here that a lot of the more beautiful architecture and historical buildings are found, as well as the glamorous shops and eating spots. Tomorrow we will continue our exploring, until then, good night, Bonice.