Yugeshima

Position 34 d 15.464 N 133 d 12.216 E

We had a great party at the Sakaigahama Marina last night.  The local English teacher is part of the rally and she got her students to put on a a show with a song and a play.  The students range from 2 to about 10 years old and put on a great show.  After that a large spread for dinner and some music performances.  The highlight of these was a modern wadaiko group called Garyu from Hiroshima.  They have done a couple of albums and some major tours.  They blend traditional Japanese drums and flute with modern drums and music styles.  All of their actions are well choreographed and is mesmerizing to watch.

This morning we took the long trip of just under 11 nautical miles to Yugeshima, where the local maritime college adopted us, took us to lunch and a tour of their school.  The school has a maritime studies department, but they were doing testing today so the school asked for volunteers from the other departments to act as guides and interpreters.  Very warm welcome.  They are taking us to the local onsen today and of course another party tonight.  Tomorrow they are taking us on the Yuge Maru training ship.

The shrine on Yuge island is right on the beach

All the yachts rafted up in the harbor

Carrying the float for their harvest festival

She is one of the local students, 2nd level black belt in Karate

Sakaigahama Marina

We left Onomichi at a quarter to 10 this morning with the current with us, for Sakaigahama Marina all of 5 nautical miles away.  Of course we got here within the hour, including mucking around with docking, etc.  We were then invited to have rum punch and drinks on the dock.  This is the last port of the first leg and the starting port of the second leg.  Our crew, Phil and Ann, will be leaving us tomorrow to continue their travels.  We will be having another crew for the second leg.  So far, we are having fun.

Rodin Jazz and Shell Club

If you are in Onomichi, this is a must see.  We were told to have a drink at this bar and not much more.  When we first walked in, we saw what looked to be an awesome shell collection, but it is much more.  The owner and his wife are obsessive collectors.  He is eighty one years old and as a ten year old boy, started collecting the decorative steel needle boxes for the old phonographs.  He still has the first box he started with.  He then moved on to records.  When you get into the main room there are dozens of  antique phonographs and jazz memorabilia mixed in with all the shell items.  He even has an original Edison phonograph that used the wax cylinders before the vinyl records were invented.  He played this for us and we were amazed at the sound quality.  And of course now we had him hooked.  He then went on to show us his favorites.  One of the coolest was a portable hand crank record player.  Made in the early fifties, it folds down into a small box of about 6x4x5 inches but folded out erector set style to play 78's records.  We listened to a Benny Goodman record that was again awesome in sound quality and volume.  We joked it was one of the fore runners for the Sony Walkman!

The bar with its shell collection

More shells

The antique Edison with its wax cylinder

The portable hand crank record player

Onomichi

After visiting the museum in Omishima, we headed out for nearby Onomichi.  This is a beautiful run up through a narrowish channel looking much like a scenic river cruise.  The problem was we had to fight a 3-4 knot current almost the whole way.  We arrived at a quarter past five and were told to get ready for the party at six!  Our kind of arrival!  Today we walked through several temples and shrines.  We also got a good picture of part of the way we traveled to get here.  Will post once we get better internet service.

View of our route from Omishima to Onomichi, beautiful!

Onomichi is a movie town, lots of Japanese movies were made there

Roof of a pagoda in one of the shrines

There is supposedly a thousand Buddhas in this shrine

Big slippers at this shrine, where you go to prayer for foot ailments

Omishima

We departed Hiroshima one day later than scheduled.  This was due to the rally organizers being worried about winds from the tropical storm.  We took the extra off day to visit the maritime museum in nearby Kure.

With the winds dissipated we departed on Wednesday the 24 for Omishima.  This has the largest floating yacht pontoon in Japan as well as a major shrine dedicated to seafarers.  Interestingly enough the shrine also has attached a museum with 80% of Japan's national treasures for swords and ancient armour.  Some of these swords were dated from the early 1100's.

Entrance to the shrine for seafarers

A really old camphor tree in the grounds of the shrine

The marine museum, with the big propeller

The large floating pontoon

Our Crew has Arrived

Phil and Ann came up from Guam to do the first leg of the rally with us.  They got here a day and a half early to see some sights and visit before the  rally.  Highlights include the contemporary art museum (they make their living as artists in Guam) and an Irish pub which had the local baseball team, the Carps playing on TV.  We later found out our friends on Astrolabe were at the game live.

And one of the best memories is we went to another Okonomiyaki restaurant.  A picture or two will be posted later on this.  We think we stumbled onto one of the best Okonomiyaki restaurants in Hiroshima.  Very upmarket, and the boss spoke English very well and had a sense of humour.  We also think we ended up on their Facebook page.

Ann playing with the musical water bottles

Ann and Phil, with the Okonomiyaki

 

 

That's us with the boss of the restaurant

Okonomiyaki

We went out to do laundry yesterday.  On the map it said there was a famous Okonomiyaki place close by.  So we scoped it out and found it.  Fantastic!!!  Below are photos of the cook and the process along with the finished product.

My Okonomiyaki Ready to Eat

Kanmon Kaikyo

This is a little more on the Kanmon Kaikyo with some photos.  Although we were a little busy at the time so not much on photos.  The busy at the time is something to note.  Most people stress the Kanmon Kaikyo, including us, but it is actually pretty easy.  There is no doubt the currents do rip through there.  But there are three stations with huge digital displays telling you from which direction the tide is going, how fast and if the current is increasing or decreasing.  There are also a couple of spots to bail out and hide to wait for the current to change.  In our case we hit it as it was increasing and we hoped to get through while it was only 4-5 knots.  One thing to note is that the current is only strong near the bridge so we didn't get much of a boost until the end so we ended up hitting the bridge with 7 knots of current.  But not really any nasty whirlpools and was actually a lot easier than the Obatake Bridge further up near Yamaguchi.  Please note to keep your radio on channel 16 as they do call you and ask some information as you are transiting.  We had heard this from many yachts and so we were listening carefully.  And they did call us.

Entering the Straits The Speed is Picking Up

The Straits Ahead

The Japan Sea Behind

The Current is getting stronger.  This reached 12.3 Knots

The Kanmon Kaikyo Bridge

Hiroshima

We arrived!  Yesterday at about 1:30 we arrived and promptly met up with three of the other foreign boats in the rally, which meant a session in social responsibility had to be dealt with before anything else.  Our heads are a little worse for wear today, but we kept the Singapore good name going.  Will add more when we have a better connection.

Pauline's First Onsen

One of the pleasures of Murotsu is that there is a very nice onsen next to where we tie up the boat.  This was Pauline's first experience.  I asked her if she took photos to add.  But she said NO!

Murotsu

We made it to Murotsu today (33 d 50.09 n 132 d 06.98 E).  Just tied up alongside a wall in a commercial harbor.  Highest wind today was 25 knots (yes on the nose) but the temperature also got up.  The first time all summer Mark got his shirt off for a tan.  Pauline stayed covered up and under cover.   Nice temp in the afternoon, but cool in the morning and late afternoon. There is a reportedly nice onsen here five minutes walk away but we didn't make it in time tonight.  We plan to stay an additional day here before heading to Hiroshima on Sunday, so hopefully will get to the onsen tomorrow.

View from a Tied Up Sari Timur

Bridge in Murotsu Near Onsen

Sari Timur Tied to the Wall

Shinmoji

We pushed on through the Kanmon Kaikyo without stopping and went into Shinmoji for the night.  Will post pictures later.  We just missed max current going through the critical bit, but being off to the side had no problems with maintaining control.  The straits controller did call us up and ask our intentions.  He also warned us we would be hitting maximum flow of 8 knots.  We were doing five through the water and did see 12.3 over the ground but only for a very short spot.  So all was ok.  Shinmoji isn't worth stopping unless you are dog tired like us.

We were sad to leave Fukuoka.  The place will always be special.  We will add more on our last two days there later as well.  Now it is time for sleep.

Moving Tomorrow

Yesterday we took Sari Timur over to the commercial port and loaded up with diesel.  Today we will take on water and fit jack-lines etc getting ready for departure tomorrow.  We are heading for Hiroshima.  But we hope to take three days or so going up there.  We will try and make position posts where we spend the nights. But it will depend on internet connections.  The first night will actually be  at the start of Kanmon Kaikyo or the straits into the Seto Naikai or Inland Sea.  Hiroshima is where we will meet our friends from Guam and begin the Setouchi Rally.

Update

Some people are asking how our leak is.  Well the other day was wash day so we lifted the bunk and as predicted, the rudder post area was nice and dry.  We are good for a few more years.  I also added a couple of pics of us doing some of our more glamorous work.  We are fitting some more headliners at present to try and make room in the forward bunk for visitors coming in a little over a week to meet us in Hiroshima.  We are planning to leave Wednesday.  Monday we get water, Tuesday fuel, yesterday we installed the overboard water vent bypasses, etc., etc., etc.  Anyway it is all coming together.

Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine

On Monday we decided to take the day off and go to Dazaifu Shrine.  This was to show Kate the Shrine before getting on a plane.  We enlisted Mena to come with us for a day off and act as super guide.  According to the literature, the Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine enshrines the soul of Michizane Sugawara, a god of wisdom.  We found one of the prayer plaques asking for help getting into Harvard, so it is popular with students.  One of the things we learnt on this trip is no Shrine is complete without a bridge.  The philosophy of the bridge is the ability to leave the past, look forward to the future and be in the present.  Pretty good philosophy!  It also has the Komyozenji Temple, the Zen temple, with the only dry style rock garden in the Kyushu Region.  

The Street Leading to the Shrine

Mena taking a pic of us taking a pic

Learning the Purification Process

No Shrine is complete without a bridge

Komyozenji Temple

Rock Garden at the Entrance

Roof Statue

The Gardens from inside the Temple

Another View of the Gardens

Zenning Out

And no Shrine visit is complete without shopping afterwards.