Typhoon tracking

Hello All,
I thought I would add a link of the Typhoon tracking center web site. It should reach full strenth by tomorrow and they are predicting it to to start tracking away from the Island. Mind you that is only a prediction. The Harbor where I am is Typhoon proof or at least very protected so this is a good place to be. We will not see any of the wind for 3 days or so and I hope it tracks away from the Island as predicted.

Ok here is the web site but as usual I never did figure out how to link so you will have to copy paste it.

http://www.usno.navy.mil/NOOC/nmfc-ph/RSS/jtwc/warnings/wp0412.gif

Talk to you soon.


PEACE

Crew Arrived

Hello All,
Yesterday my new crew arrived here, Stefan from Germany. we have been visiting and getting him familiar with the boat. We met in New Zealand last year right before I left. He was crew on a boat heading for Australia. We have kept in touch since then and he wanted to make this crossing with me. He is a very experienced sailor and I am really glad to have his knowledge on the boat for this crossing.

We have a Typhoon that will be passing here in the next few days so we are just waiting for the right time to leave. It looks like Thursday but I will keep you posted. We will just sight see for the time being and hope to do a sea trial when the Typhoon passes.

Today my friend Toshi gave us a ride to the gas station to get the jerry cans full of diesel for the boat. He has been a great help and really appreciate his help.

For now we are waiting for a weather window then we will head out. I will let you know what's happening in the mean time.

Talk to you soon.


PEACE

Famous in Kobe

Hello All,
It has been a few days since I wrote. I have been busy preparing for my crew Stefan, he will be arriving in the morning. I have been cleaning from end to end and getting the boat all ship shape. I think its as ready as it will ever be. I have been tracking a tropical depression south of us. So far it has not developed into a Typhoon but I will be keeping a watchful eye. Typhoon or not it will be off our coast by Sunday or Monday so the earliest we could leave the Country is Tuesday.

I had a surprise visitor today, Kinny, a local news paper reporter wanted to interview me. He was here covering the Yacht race a few weeks ago and saw my boat. He was amazed that there was a yacht from America here and thought it would be a good story to print. We visited a few hours and he took heaps of notes and took some pictures. He said this will make a good story because foreign boats never come here, at least to Kobe. He also told me it should print before I leave so he would bring down a paper for me. Kobe only has one paper for the whole area so this is a big deal. I will be the famous foreign boat of Kobe.

Saturday Toshi is going to give me a ride to get fuel for the boat. There is a fuel dock here but he said it is to expensive so we will make a few trips to the gas station with my jerry cans. If the weather is descent we will take the boat out for a cruise in the bay Sunday.

Almost time to go North, I am looking forward to the adventure of seeing Southwest Alaska, I hope I can see it though the fog anyway.

That's all for now so I will talk to you soon.


PEACE

Kyoto

Hello All,
Saterday I helped Toshi put some wood rails on his boat. I forgot how much work and time it takes to cut and fit wood on a rounded hull. He also hired a carpender to help out which was good because he had all of the right tools for the job. The carpender and I had a really good time working on the boat together. He spoke really good english and has done many ocean passages when he was young on ships, He has also sailed allot so we had lots to talk about. He was in Los Angeles 40 years ago and saw the Westsail fleet when they were new. He is very impressed with my boat and I will sum up his comments about the boat by saying " very strong".

Yesterday I headed to Kyoto in the morning. Misaki her 4 year old son and another guy I met at the festival last weekend, Naoki and his wife all met me at the train station. They had the day all planned as to what and see and do. There is allot to see there and one day is not enough by a long ways but they showed me what they thought is a must see for a tourist. They took me to 2 very famous temples both built at or around the 7th centry. I have never been around anything that old. Where I am from we talk hundeds of years. Here they speak of thousands. The temples are very carefully looked after and if anything is old or rotten they replace it just the way it was built back in the day. They are beautiful buildings and have withstood earthquakes, Typhoons and what ever mother nature can throw at them. It is a testament of the building skills and attention to detail. We also visited a fresh market that took up 6 blocks. There was a shop for just about anything you like to eat, Jananese food of coarse. We had a wonderful lunch at a very old Cafe in the market. They told me it has been in business for 80 years.

The highlight of the day was returning back home. Naoki said the regular train would take to long to get back so he told me we will take the fast train. I have heard of this train in the states, I called it the Bullet train. On long stretches it is capable of 200 miles an hour. It was an amazing ride and the inside looks like a jet plane. It took us a half and hour to get from Kyoto to Kobe, less than half of the time on the regular train. The Bullet train runs about a thousand miles of Japan connecting North to the South. It takes 7 hours to go from end to end, thats an average of 142 miles an hour.

I had a really good time hanging out with my Japanese friends and they were great hosts.

The next 2 days I will finish my varnish work and get the boat all ship shape for Stefan who will be here Friday morning. I have been studing the weather systems for the whole route and it is a mixed bag of wind and pressure systems. It will be like a box of choclates , you never know what your going to get.

I will get busy now so I will talk to you soon.


P.S. I will add some pictures to the album under Kyoto.

PEACE

Osaka

Hello All,

I had a great time touring downtown Osaka and met up with Misaki and a few of her friends for lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. They told me that even though it is walking distance from where they work they never eat there. I joked with them saying that its not a very Japanese place to eat with cheese burgers and french fries on the menu. They didn't have much time so our visit was brief. They did take me a few blocks to where they work and took me to the very top floor, 28 stories ,where there is a cafe for the workers and 360 degree view of the city. Osaka is the second largest city in Japan and number 3 for commerce behind Tokyo and Yokohama. They work for the largest leasing company in Japan and there building where they work is a year old now and very nice.

It took me one hour to get to Osaka from here which is about 25 miles away. The public transport system here is very efficient. It is not that hard to use even for the non Japanese speaker. I had to make 3 train switches to get there and didn't get screwed up once. For me having never used such a system especially in a foreign country I commend there transportation lay out.

Today I was suppose to help Toshi, my new sailing friend for those that haven't kept up on my blogs and help him put some new teak on his boat. It has been raining all day so we will try again tomorrow. Sunday I will take the train to Kyoto where I will meet up with Misaki and a few of her friends for a day tour of there famous city. I will get up there before noon so will will have the rest of the day to tour around. There is lots to see there so we will be busy.

I will add some pictures to the album I took so take a look when you get a chance.
Thats all for now so I will talk to you soon.

Osaka Tour and more

Hello All,
Things have settled down around here since last weekend. When Toshi took me to the marine store I found some varnish so today I put one coat on the cap rails. It has been holding up good but there were some thin spots so I will put a few coats on for good measure and hope it stays on till I get home. A few cruisers I have run into since I varnished the teak have commented about it, they always say you must not take the boat offshore, I say, I always take the boat offshore, there comment is , good luck keeping that varnish on. It is not easy but so far so good.

Tomorrow I will take the train to Osaka, I will be meeting a few people from the yacht club at the Hard Rock Cafe. They work close to the Cafe so they invited me to there lunch break. It sounds like an hour train ride to get there so I will get started early just in case I get lost. I have to switch trains in Osaka so this should be an adventure. On Sunday I will meet up with a few of the same folks in Kyoto. One of the girls, Misaki, lives there so her and a few friends will give me a tour. It is suppose to be very traditional Japanese and has 20% of Japans national treasures. That train ride is 2 hours inland so I will get started early so I can get back the same day.

Time is flying by so I am trying to see all I can till I have to leave which is less than 2 weeks away.

I will talk to everyone soon and let you know how everything goes.


PEACE

Festivals and more new friends

Hello All,
The last few days have been a lot of fun. The sailboat race happened yesterday, it was very strong wind and wasn't a big coarse so it didn't last very long. It looked like 30 boats entered the race, the dock was teaming with activity. The festival that happened on Saturday night was a blast. A few of the yacht club members showed me around and introduced me to a lot of folks. They had a bunch of booths with all kinds of Japanese food. It was all for sale but was very reasonable. They had a live band and lots of activities for the kids including tug of war. I got to help with that and we won 2 out of 3 times. They also had a bingo game and gave away all kinds of stuff. As usual I didn't win a thing.
Last night I was talking to a few of the folks at the yacht club and after it closed I was invited to one of the members home where he put on a really big spread of food . Chicken, fish, raw fish, to much to remember. His house was walking distance from the marina and we didn't get out of there till 11 pm. It was a good time had by all. They were really impressed with my chop stick ability. I find it really easy to use them. All of that being said I over slept for the eclipse. It was suppose to happen at 8 am but I didn't get up till 9. As it turns out it was pretty overcast so I didn't miss much.
I managed to get all of the groceries put away. It took me about 5 hours reorganizing and packing it all in as tight as I could. It all fit but it was very close. I think I am stocked up good now. I also rebuilt all 6 of my line winches used to raise the sails and put in reefs. They were in desparate need of a good cleaning and reoiled. It's one of those things that you forget about but so important to have.
That's about all I know for now.

PEACE

P.S. I will be adding some pictures to the Kobe album so take a look.