Battle of Midway revisited

Borealis Thursday 6th April 2023

Our ship is still ploughing though the heavy swell of 5m high waves in the North West Pacific Basin. The wind is so strong I could barely push open the door onto the balcony. It is obviously unsafe to step out there. The danger is that I would not have the strength to pull open the door to get back into the cabin. No wonder public outsidr spaces on the ship are mainly closed off with the exception of the long Promenade Deck. The sky is full of grey clouds but with occasional patches of blue. The sea is so rough with sudden jolts and jumps that I am having difficulty typing.

I was reading up on the Battle of Midway before I go up for breakfast in order to prepare for Ranald's military game. All this was happening 81 years ago not far to the south of where we are now, Ranald had prepared a long table in the Oriental Tea Room just alongside the long picture with Dutch warships. On the table were a huge number of different cards representing the 4 Japanese Aircraft Carriers, 3 U.S. aircaft carriers and the garrison on Midway Island, as well different fighter quadrons and cards describing their strength, armamaents and tactics of each fighter group. There were six of us players while Ranald p then supevised our decisions as we played our various cards, with three of us being U.S. admirals (including me) and three of us Japanese. He spoke with such passion and with such a deep knowledge of the subject that we were all entranced. We played solidly for two hours from 10 till 12 almost like young kids playing Monopoly but with immense concentration on the details. We had to distinguish between the relative merits of the Warhawks and Zeros as fighter planes, and the ineffectiveness of torpedo bombers in comparison with dive bombers. I was given the task, as commander of the USS Enterprise, of creating the first attack on a Japanese carrier (I forget which) and with the appropriate use of the dice managed to obliterate fully as an operating warship, but just short of sinking it. The others' attack was not so succesful and the Japanese side managed to devastate the garrison at Midway Island. In playing these games we can recreate history. An extraordinary way to spend the morning.

By lunch time the sea was calmer. However, Albina had hardly slept a wink during the night, tossing and turning after a full  day yesterday in bed, so she slept through both her breakfast and lunchtime. I have put Albina on the waiting list for two trips in the Hawaii, one is to go whale watching off the coast of Maui and the other is a helicopter trip over the Big Island in Hawaii. She had not wanted to book anything before in London when I was booking all our trips, so this is somewhat belated. We will keep our fingers crossed.

Albina was too tired to take up our booking in the Vasco Restaurant, so we had to put that off for another day. As Helen was still ill Ranald, Sharon and myself took on another couple at the Evening Quiz. However, although 12 out of 15 is a reasonable result, one team still managed to get 14.