Well, today was a beautifully sunny and calm day in Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka, Russia. It's really a lovely area -- water, trees, mountains -- some beautiful volcanoes.

The down side is that the ship arrived at 7am. the Russian Immigration officials boarded around 8am. They then went through every single passport of every passenger and crew-member, entering the details on a new laptop keyboard with which they were unfamiliar. To make a long story short, we were not able to leave the ship until about 2:30 pm. Jerry and Al compensated with Bloody Marys once again. But while we were up in the Observation Lounge we could see lovely mountains on the port side, a spectacular volcano on the starboard side, and a submarine going back and forth and finally out to sea in the bay. It really was NOT a hardship!

Jerry and Peggy took a farm excursion which they enjoyed immensely (I think vodka was involved!) Al and I walked into town and finally found a 'Russian Souvenir' shop. Walking along the waterfront was wonderful. There was a mini-carnival and lots of kiosks selling beer. There were lots of locals -- most with beer in hand -- and many of them taking pictures of Mariner. Surprisingly, there was also a US Coast Guard ship docked here, and we talked to several of the crew members. They're out of San Francisco, have been out for 6 weeks, and are headed for Kodiak. Their cutter was at least twice the length of the Russian Coast Guard cutter docked next to them.

Dinner tonight in Compass Rose with the four of us and our trivia partners, Joe and Chuck.

Another stressful day ....

Betty