CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
USS Halibut – Kuril Trench
On day fifteen out of Guam, I had just assumed the watch. We were about a hundred miles a bit south-of-east of the Krusenstern Strait, where we had had our close encounter on our way out from the first cable-tapping mission. After careful consideration, the Skipper opted to go back in the way we had come out, if for no other reason, because we already knew a bit about this area – not a great deal, but more than any other passage into the Sea of Okhotsk, except perhaps the narrow gap at the foot of the Kamchatka Peninsula that we transited way back in the dark ages when we first got here.
The Skipper’s Night Orders for this transit were very clear on several points. He expected Ivan to be out there looking for us. There was virtually zero ch
