I would like to remind you all that the reason I write this blog is so I will be able to remember how I spent my twilight years. I wish I had written a blog throughout my life so that I could go back to 1971 and read what I thought about The Rolling Stones releasing Brown Sugar. I remember Mick Jagger in a pink satin suit and feeling that I was in the middle of something big. But I did not write about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B0Y3LUqr1Q
Anyway, I am afraid that there will be a preponderance of blogs on what fun it is to sail a Scaffie in Okinawa. I need to remember this stuff because it is high quality.
So, I worry about my anchorage in front of the house. Last weekend I was sailing most of the time and did not set up a secure mooring in front of the house. I take an afternoon off work and establish a very strong mooring with two anchors in tandem. I feel good.
Okinawa has subtly changed. Now it is very warm and there are rumors of humidity. The butterflies are everywhere.
Notice little blue spots on wings
As the evening draws in I take the Scaffie out for a trot. The tide is high, which means I have to swim out to the boat and heave myself in over the gunwale. The fact that I can do this at nearly 64 gives me pleasure. This brings me to the heart of the matter. I mean, how much longer will I be able to do stuff? My Father died when he was 70. That gives me 6 years.
Anyway, I go for a youthful late evening sail.
I fix the GoPro
The wind is strongish offshore. This means I can zoom up and down the lagoon with the wonderful feeling of wind driven-ness.
I have not drunk beer for a long time. Today I found that a coolbox on the deck that was full of beer left over from Letizia’s farewell party
Do you think this rock looks like a camel or maybe dromedary?
So the wind is coming offshore which means many tacks to get back to the newly established mooring. This is the purest joy. The evening is soft. There is no time pressure. The sun is going down. I gently move closer and closer to the buoy.
Warm
I pick up the mooring with great elegance. I set the Scaffie to mooring mode and splash over the side to swim back to the house. The sea is not warm, warm but it is perfectly warm enough for me to revel in the short swim back to the shore. Hmmm, I hope this can go on for a few years yet
The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond 
Don’t be in such a hurry. Dad reached his 18th birthday so you’ve got a couple more years than you thought. He died in 1988.Mind you, that’s only three years away for myself!
Help!
What about a sit on kayak, to go out to La Scaffie on? Starting off wet seems a doubtful pleasure, but maybe not in Okinawa.
The wetness makes no difference at all. The water is warm and once you get into the boat the wind and sun soon dry you out. One sails in shorts and Tshirt.
That sit on kayak idea sounds great if the go-pro’s on and pointing in the right direction – might make for some great shots if my experience with friends trying to transfer to a boat from a kayak is anything to go by. On the other hand it would be something to hold on to when fighting back to the shore.
Really not a problem. It is only at very high tide that there is no footing and thus difficult to get upward and inward push off. Normally there are always feet on the bottom and thus easy to push up over the gunwale.