It's just coming up to four in the morning. There's been light in the sky since three, but now a cherry red sun, noticeably flattened as it creeps over the horizon, is rising above the creamy smooth surface of the ocean. We're working our way along the south-eastern coast of Hokkaido, with the Kuril Islands stretching out before us all the way to the Kamchatka Peninsula.

I never really thought before how birds go to sleep on the sea, not just seabirds, which you might expect to find floating in groups on the surface, but migrating birds as well. But it's only the seabirds that try to keep up with us once they take to the air, thinking perhaps that we're a fishing boat with some easy spoils. Yesterday we spot what we guess to be an albatross - its wingspan of a good six feet supporting it with barely any movement as it wheels effortlessly over the waves.

It's cold, too. For the first time last night, my lightweight Snugpak sleeping bag - too warm to use during our spell in the tropics - is now just a little chilly. So it's time to bring out its heavyweight brother to cope with the next week or so in the North Pacific.

Breakfast this morning is a bowl of granola (the nearest thing we could get in Japan to muesli) followed by a very satisfying soft-boiled egg in toast sandwich and a steaming mug of tea. The biggest surprise of the night has been the calm state of the sea since leaving Muroran. With no wind worth speaking of, and just a slight swell, we've all managed to get some quality rest to make up for the previous night's torment, and we've also made a reasonable dent in the mileage to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy.

The world is definitely a much better place this morning, even if it is damned cold.

Clive Tully

Copyright Clive Tully ©2002
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