Iwo Jima

This is the island of Iwo JimaHere, in the water. are some of the remnants of the war

In the cliffs you can see some of the Japanese tunnels used to hide them from us.

Here is a picture of some of the remaining bunkers that were used to shell our troops as these reached the island. There are many more hidden by the jungle that exists now, but was not there during the war. The bombing had denuded the island.

Feb 27

After a day at sea, a very rough day at sea, we arrived at Iwo Jima on a clear calm day. Arleen didn't do very well the second half of yesterday, but today she is fine. Duane is fine also. Anyway, we arrived near the island around 10:30am and we got a running commentary from the son of a Iwo Jima marine. We watched our approach from the deck and then when the ship turned around the island, we were able to watch and listen from our stateroom.

We caught a quick view of whale spout in the distance. That was pretty exciting since we have seen very little sea wildlife so far.

We went up to the pool deck (9) to watch a ceremony to lay a wreath in remembrance. As we arrive early on the deck Arleen was told that more whales have been sighted. We saw several whales breach. We don't know what kind of whales they are only that they were not orcas or humpbacks. .

The ceremony was very moving, but the most moving part was when, unexpectedly, right between the prayer and a presentation, three jets flew right over us. We were pretty sure they were US jets from Okinawa. (Since then we are leaning more towards Japanese jets from the island). It seems as if they wanted to participate in our rememberance.). The weather all that morning and early afternoon was beautiful, even with the strong winds.

When we left the Island we ran right into a major rain storm. We had all congregated on the deck to watch a presentation and competition of boats built by the passengers. These boats were amazing. The only requirement was that they float. The test of their floatability was postponed due to the storm. After judging the boats for design, tho, the rain stopped and they were check for buoyancy. It was a lot of fun.