The Kanmon Strait separates the main Japanese Islands of Honshu and Kyushu.  It is the way to get from the Inland Sea (which connects with the Pacific) to the Sea of Japan and is sometimes viewed as the gateway to Korea. 

The strait is 27 and a half kilometers long.  The waters are tricky, with fast tidal currents up to 9.4 knots.  The strait is as shallow as 12 meters.  At at its narrowest point is a little over 500 meters wide.  There are tricky rip tides, currents, and eddies.  And to make it more interesting about 1,000 vessels a day transit the strait.

About 1.3 million people live along the strait. On the Honshu side is the city of Shimonoseki.  On the Kyushu side is the city of Kitakyushu.  A bridge connects the two cities, plus at least 4 tunnels.  One is pedestrian only, two are railway tunnels, one for the bullet train. Solar farms grew along the north shore of the strait.

Westerdam needed to board a local pilot.  Along the way there are lighted signs that tell you three things.  There is a number, which tells you the speed of the current, an arrow which tells you if the tide is rising or falling, and a letter, which tells you if the flow is easterly or westerly.  Ships can only transit during slack tide with low currents, and not at night.

We traveled in a convoy like line with freighters.  Ferryboats crossed our path, darting between ships in our line.

The captain opened the foredeck for the transit so we could be outside to watch us go through the strait.  Karlijn  (pronounced car-line) our Cruise Director gave a running commentary.

There is a dictum in radio that there is no radio audience, only individual listeners.  When there are more than two people together, they are talking with each other and not listening to you.  That holds on cruise ships, and it was very hard to hear Karlijn’s commentary on the front deck both because the speakers were not loud enough and because when she is talking people raise the level of their own conversations to shout over the PA commentary.  (The worst offenders, by the way, were the photo touts, “Take your picture, cuddle a little, ha ha ha, now hold hands, now smile, ha ha ha.) 

Suzi and I gave up on the front deck and retreated to our cabin, where we could sit on the balcony and see only the starboard, Honshu side of the strait, but could hear more of the commentary while transiting.