Mitsuda sensei has finished my sail cover! Although not as essential as the cockpit cover, it is an important piece of kit as uncovered sails, exposed to the ferocity of the Okinawan sun, soon wither and die.

The hallmark of Mitsuda san’s work is very high quality materials and meticulous attention to detail.

He is determined that the minimum number of photons strike my sail and so has designed elaborate flaps that protect the area around the topping lift. These are held in place with Velcro, which in Japanese is Magic Tapeu.

I have an immense sense of security now that my boat is so well covered, like having lots of firewood stacked as winter approaches.

Anyway, I go down to the Toya fishing harbor very early on Sunday to buy a fat fish. This I intend to fry up on the boat as part of a picnic. Oh no! there are lots of Octupi that have just been caught. Who can resist fresh Octupus. Not me.

The idea is meet up with Mitsuda sensei, give him crazy amounts of money for the covers, go for a short sail and have a picnic, which now includes fresh octopus rather than fat fish.

We go sailing. It is a beautiful afternoon, with enough wind and calm seas. It is the last week of November but I am still in shorts and Tshirt. It must be 25 degrees.

We spend far too much time out on the water and it is 4:00 before we start the picnic. I suddenly lose my resolve to cook up a 5 kilo octopus on my boat stove, magnificent though she be.

No worries. We have plenty of food.

So, suddenly it is getting dark. Okubo san and I rouse ourselves from, post too much food, languor, we re-furl the sail and rig the cockpit cover and the sail cover. She does more work than me.

Ah, Okinawa in the twilight of the year