The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond

If it is windy, it is a good idea to put a reef in the mainsail. This makes the sail smaller and the howling wind does not heel the boat over so alarmingly such that you think she might capsize. She would n’t of course but it feels like it.

The weather has been excellent and I have two consecutive days in the boat.

The first sail is in bright, bright sunshine with the wind coming straight offshore. We zoom up the coast from Ginowan marina to Cape Zanpa. I love sailing up the coast. I have driven the same route a thousand times but looking at it from the sea gives a very different perspective. The distance between different places is not the same.

When I reach Cape Zanpa I turn around and sail back. The sea is still very lumpy and there are big swells but the boat is in no way concerned. I can see that for those who do not like sitting on a boat for hours with not much to do, sailing could be tedious.

The next day the wind is stronger and the weather not quite so glorious. I decide to put in a reef. Doing this single handed is quite an art but I am getting better at it. You must raise the mainsail and then lower it again such that you can pull the reefing lines that are attached to the sail. These lines pull the sail down just the right distance and you cleat them off onto the boom. You then raise the sail again but it cannot go as high as before as it is held down by the reefing lines. You can only do this if the boat is headed straight into the wind. If there are two people, it is relatively easy but with just one there are a lot of things that can go wrong!

With a reef in the mainsail I head off for the Sand Islands that lie some miles South West of Ginowan. https://www.google.com/maps/@26.2537824,127.5600406,8508m/data=!3m1!1e3

Naturally, when I get out to sea the wind is nowhere near as strong as I had anticipated. No worries, as she charges across well with the reef. It is a wonderful sail.

We make it to the Sand Islands and, as is traditional, turn around and sail back.

As we get closer to Okinawa, the wind drops and I succeed in shaking out the reef all by myself. All of this is great practice for when you might have to do it in difficult conditions. The weather also improves and it is a beautiful evening as we glide back to the marina.

Sorry, this post is about as dull as spending 6 hours a day on a sailing boat but, er, that what it describes.

Here is an equally dull movie. Sorry!

Having a big hole through the hull through which the sea can pour is not a good idea. Regretfully this is something my boat has. How I don’t not know.

The collar has come off the exit of the cockpit bilge pump. The pipe pulls out leaving a gaping hole. So pleased I noticed it.

I rush off to one of my favorite places. It is a very old fashioned store that has everything. They will definitely have an exterior collar for a 30 year old Norfolk Gypsy cockpit pump pipe.

https://www.google.com/maps/@26.2675098,127.7191353,3a,90y,8.95h,99.5t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s2Ycr7Toi7FhdgoYeyiNGyQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

It is a big place but it is not the Western model of wide avenues that you can push a trolley down but a different model where you can barely walk between the shelves.

I mime my problem to one of the many guys from the store who are continually ferreting around the back alleys of the shop. I can see in his eyes the disgrace of the Japanese who knows he or she cannot help. However he brings the dai sensei to me. He has spent his whole life in this place and has ancient ancestral knowledge. We spend 30 minutes digging around but without success. The only thing they do not have is Norfolk Gypsy spare parts.

However he will not be beat. He has a very clear vision of the problem and brings together parts from all over the store. These will I hope provide a much better set up than the original. The parts are brass and chromium steel. I have no idea what they were designed to do but I hope they will work for my boat. Thank you dai sensei!

Usually when I try to install parts, bought on the adrenaline that hardware stores provoke in me, they do not fit when I get back to the boat. This time everything works just perfectly.

It is amazing what you can achieve with mime alone.

There was a big typhoon around the Philippines last week and we caught the outer edge. Rain and high winds over the last few days. Tomorrow looks like a good sailing day. I can test my new collar.

It is now nearly 3 years since I started the big job of repainting the boat. At the time I was worried that the paint would not adhere and would soon flake off. However this has not been the case, it has done very well. Other than flaking I also assumed that the paint would fade due to the intense Okinawan sun. However this has not been the case. I raise my hat to International yacht paints.

There are notwithstanding quite a lot of small chips. These are mainly on the edges of the locker lids in the cockpit and around the anchor pit. I touch up.

I worry that my paint, which has been sitting in a can for 3 years, will have dried up or otherwise decayed. However this has not been the case.

I tape up carefully and after some sanding start painting. Unusually, I make no blunders nor do I cover myself in paint.

I go to the Ginowan Town Hall to see if someone can help me with my Covid vaccination procedure. What a pleasure! Haruna san, who speaks excellent English, helps me fill in all the questionnaires and explains that I have to wait until 26 April to then phone to make an appointment for the jabbing. This will happen in the municipal gym that is only 5 minutes from my house. Thank you Haruna san.

So many nice people around! One, called Vena Robinson, sends me a cheque for $1400.

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.