The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond

Japan has been very slow to start Covid vaccination. The over 65s, a group that I easily qualify for, get the jab first. Nobody seems to care. I finally grilled a friend and we looked at the Ginowan City Hall website. There she found the info that oldies should get a letter this week informing them how to make an appointment for the vaccination.

This morning I found this in my post box.

There are many pages of info and mysterious forms in the envelope. I do my best with Google translate but only get a general idea of what I have to do. I am going to need help as the procedure seems a bit complicated.

Anyway all of this is very exciting.

Excuse my French.

After 3 months of repair, adjustment, poor weather, I finally get the boat out on the water.

It is a truly glorious day, bright sunshine, not too hot but shorts and Tshirt all the same. The engine starts on command, I get the sails up with no difficulty and off we go. There is only one snag; there is very little wind. To be honest, this is a good thing as I would much prefer to amble along on my first outing rather than battle it out on a heavily heeled boat in high wind.

I motor out and once clear of the harbor, I stop the engine and silently ease out towards China.

The Norfolk gypsy is a comfortable boat as you can put your back against one gunwale and stretch out your legs onto the lockers on the other side of the cockpit. You are nearly lying down as you watch your legs frazzle.

There is now a bit more wind and we tear along at 2.5 knots. A 30ft boat motors out of the marina and comes past. She finally raises sail when she is 200 metres ahead of me. I thought she would race away but in fact I gained on her! Such fun.

Here is a very bad clip. I updated the operating system on my Mac last week and this brings a new version of IMovie. I can’t work out how to use it! Apologies.

So good to be out on the boat again! Lots of adventures coming up.

P.S. I have since watched some “How to use IMovie” videos on YouTube. The clip is not so bad now.

Another beautiful ikebana piece by Tomomi san. She arrives with branches from kiwi fruit trees or is it bushes? My miniscule experience with ikebana has shown me that structural engineering has a lot to do with it. How to get flowers or branches or leaves to apparently float in the air? If you just jam them in a pot they just flop all over the place.

The kiwi branches were challenging as they are top heavy and want to fall over.

This does not work to her high standards. She takes another branch that stands vertical in the pot and grafts the main branch onto it.

The result is magical. The high convoluted branch hangs mysteriously in the air.

Then we eat poached salmon with umibudo and avacado.

After the meal Tomomi san moves the ikebana to stand on my piece of boshafu, on top of the cutlery canteen. It looks so much better!

I wake up early this morning and stumble into the dining room and there was the ikebana in the dawn light. It was beautiful. I am so lucky. Thank you Tomomi san, you are amazing! See more of her art at: https://www.instagram.com/imomofolio/ Follow her.

The Okinawan sun plays havoc with wood. The tiller and the top of the rudder – rudder post? – have suffered badly. I should have taken some “before ” photos to show the dried up state and the devastation of previous varnish but I forgot.

Something must be done.

It is difficult to get spar varnish. All ship chandlers on Okinawa have closed and my trusty supplier of boat stuff on the mainland has, I think, gone Covid bust. It takes forever to track down high quality varnish.

Varnishing I do not like. You have to sand scrupulously and then apply the varnish very carefully as it is prone to runs. You then do something else for a day to allow the stuff to dry completely. Next day, light sanding and another coat.

You will remember that I pumped out all the oily water from the bilge. Well it went into a big jerry can and the problem was where to put it. There is a old oil disposal drum at the marina but they do not want it to be filled with water. I pour the oil/water into a bucket and use the Kiyuna torn up newspaper trick. I shred huge amounts of newspaper and put the scraps onto the oil covered surface. They soak up the the oil very effectively.

It is a dirty job as you have scoop out all the oil drenched shreds. Actually I could have used BBQ tongs but I didn’t think of it at the time. The water is sufficiently clean to be poured down a drain with no environmental guilt.

I continue to varnish for 6 days , so 6 coats.

I can’t reach Kiyuna san. He sometimes goes to work on boats on other islands. Only he has the massive spanners needed to adjust the stern gland so I have to await his resurrection before doing that job. It is not crucial to the performance of the boat but it is annoying to have a steady drip of water getting into the bilge. Not to worry, everything in its turn.

April 1 is an important day in Japan. It marks the start of the new financial year So what, you cry!

Well I am too lazy to go into it but for instance I could not get into the marina as my access card’s magic ran out at midnight on March 31. Everyone has to get a new one.

This is a pretty thin post but it is raining so I pass the time.

I take a photo of my irises at 7:30 every morning to record their flowering.

We celebrate April 1 with fine lunch in a fancy hotel.

Every year I make a pilgrimage to the Iris fields of Kijoka. Acres of Irises growing wild. I have never been there in sunshine. The weather is always cloudy, misty and brooding. This suits the place fine.

I think there were fewer than in previous years but still thousands! I also think it is late in the season and the main bloom might be over.

For 500 yen you get a massive bunch. I buy two.

As I am stumbling around the fields, there is a big thunderstorm and it rains very hard indeed. I have no coat, no umbrella, I am drenched.

Kijoka is a hell of a place. Not only does it have amazing wild Iris fields but also is the epicenter of Bashofu.

Bashofu is a fabric made from banana leaves. It is a long and difficult process. After many manipulations the fibers from the leaves have to be knotted together to produce thread long enough for weaving. Tiny knots. Amazing dexterity. There is a workshop with many looms with women patiently weaving Bashofu cloth. It is wonderful.

Read all about it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kij%C5%8Dka-bash%C5%8Dfu I love Wikipedia.

I buy a place mat.

My last post ended with the installation of the second oil line. Hooray the engine should now be bullet proof. I fill the motor with new oil and run her in gear for an hour or so to generally wake her from her slumber. Just as I was switching her off, I hear a screech from the warning system that indicates the engine is overheating. Strange? I check the oil level and, oh dear, there is absolutely no oil in the engine. There must be a leak and I have just pumped 1.5 liters of super new Yanmar oil into the engine compartment and bilge.

I talk to Kiyuna san. We do another test and sure enough as the engine runs, oil leaks out at an alarming rate. KIyuna san is abashed. He does not like to get it wrong.

He says he will fix it tomorrow afternoon. I spend the morning trying to clean out the oil and mysterious water that always gathers in the bilge. I scoop it out with half a plastic bottle. I am bent double. Accessibility is very limited. I lacerate and bruise my forearm as I force the bottle into tight spaces. It is grim, dirty work.

I snatch a quick lunch at my fish restaurant.

I should, of course, have left it all to KIyuna san. He bounces up and announces that he fixed the leak the previous evening. Now he insists we have to thoroughly pump out the oil and water and then scrupulously clean the engine compartment and bilge.

He produces a fantastic vacuum pump that sucks out liquid from the remotest cranny. I look at my battered forearm with dismay.

He then produces a big pile of newspapers that he expertly tears into long strips. He teaches me something new. Always tear a newspaper from top to bottom to produce elegant long strips. Side to side only produces little torn patches.

He stuffs enormous quantities of newspaper strips into the bilge and the engine locker.

Anyway, he forces a huge quantity of newspaper strips into the bilge and engine compartment. He then rubs this around for a long time, which soaks up oil, grime and moisture. The result is impeccably clean bilge and engine compartment.

The stern gland is exposed. It is dripping sea water at a fast rate. Next adventure, stay with us.

I have so much to worry about. I mean, is the solar panel working? Will the Fish Restaurant stay open? Are my oil line problems over? It is almost too much to bear!

I have a solar panel on the cabin roof that gently charges the battery.

Anyway, recent flat battery worries led me to suspect the the solar panel set up was no longer functional.

I get a new solar panel and charge controller – Amazon.

I dread that the Fish Restaurant across the road will close. It did so during Covid worst bit but I feel it will stay open for sometime. Who knows what awfulness will occur in the next months but at the moment it is open. Er, carpe diem.

Such a great place! So cheap! Having an excellent fish restaurant so near is better than psychotherapy.

It has been tough. So much pressure.

When I press the start button nothing happens apart from a click from the vicinity of the starter motor. I originally thought that the battery was flat but, once recharged, all that happened was the same click. This depresses me. I have had so many problems with the starter motor. I cannot use the boat without an engine that starts reliably. I cannot leave from, nor return onto, the pontoon under sail.

The phone rings. It is Kiyuna san! He has the new oil line and is coming over.

I demonstrate the starter click.

He says, “Dai jou bu, I fix.” He takes off the starter motor and water pours out of it! How can this be? I can not think of any way that water could have got into the motor over the last few days but it is clear that it had been submerged. It remains a mystery.

He dismantles the motor and we find that it is filled with red sludge. Where did that come from?

99 people out of 100 would have chucked it away and bought a replacement – not Kiyuna san.

It is a very complicated device with many moving parts, springs, circlips, which he negligently chucks into a container. How he could ever remember which piece goes where and in what order is difficult to process.

We fill a bucket with diesel and start meticulously cleaning each part. Here I can be useful.

We have a great afternoon, sitting in the sun, cracking jokes and cleaning the starter motor. We do not have much common language but still have the best time.

The re-assembly is very complicated. “Next time you do it, Neil san.” Er, no.

Kiyuna san says, “There are many mechanics. I am not a mechanic, I am a magician.”

Once the starter motor is re-installed, the engine starts instantly. It is a miracle! The starter motor was full of sludge.

I have to leave but Kiyuna san goes to the Yanmar depot to pick up the new oil line. I can’t wait to see if he has installed it. Then the boat will be back in action

Kiyuna san will be 70 tomorrow! Wish him a happy birthday.

The weather is perfect. My engine does not work. I can not go sailing. Boo.

I can, nevertheless, sit on the side of the pontoon with my feet dangling in the water and apply more teak oil to all the wooden trim. My, it is thirsty wood! It soaks up coat after coat. As I sit there, lots of fish amble by. The water is clear like gin or maybe vodka or more locally, awamori.

A puffer fish comes by several times and swims around my feet. It is fascinated.

I take off my shirt and soak up the Sun’s healing rays. Now I have sunburn. It is early March.

I pay the annual bill for my berth at the marina. They send you a bill that you take to the bank. There you take 250,000 yen cash from the ATM. This you give to one of the bank tellers who does something and gives you a receipt. This you give to the folks at the marina.

I think this is a great deal. The marina is the best place! It has mechanics, paint specialists, rigging specialists, lots of nice people, hoists to lift your boat out to enable bottom cleaning, and is very sheltered in stormy, er, typhoon, weather. Lots of exotic fish.

On a different tack, you will remember me mentioning a Farmer’s Market near my place that regrettably closed. https://thequietripple.com/2020/10/22/nothing-endures-but-change/

Well, hooray, it has reopened.

It is different, more hip, more young, less agricultural but still fantastic. It is now called, “Happy More Okinawa Farmer’s Market.”

The place gives the opportunity for local growers, hippies, to sell their stuff. There are so many strange sauces, teas, smoothies.

Each thing you buy has a label that explains exactly where it comes from, when it was untimely ripped from the soil. Unfortunately. I can’t read these labels but my friends hold them in very high regard.

Such quality, so close to my place.

It is 10 years today since the Great Earthquake. God bless all who suffered.