after an hour he decided they were persimmons ) in a blue bowl that faced him and , when the aircraft flattened out at 30,000 feet , ordered the first of the chain of brandies and ginger ales that was to sustain him over the channel , a leg of the north sea , the kattegat , the arctic ocean , the beaufort sea , the bering sea and the north pacific ocean and decided that , whatever happened on this impossible assignment , he would put up no resistance to his old skin being sloughed off him on the other side of the world .