The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond

I was employed this month and actually paid real money. I determine to spend it on a Farewell, Thanksgiving, Xmas dinner. I like nothing better than sitting around a beautifully laid table, groaning under the weight of fine food and excellent wine, being jolly with good friends.

We set off to various fish markets to buy fabulous fresh seafood. During the quick lunch break I decide to eat the big fish eyeball in my fish soup.

The menu is :

Sashimi and Oysters

Steamed clams, big ones

Pan fried Scallops in cream sauce

Russian Potatoes (Thanks Arisa)

Salad with exotic dressing (Thanks Izumi, unfortunately I was at the stove when she explained exactly what the dressing was.)

Pan seared Foie Gras

Blanc de poulet a la creme.

Apple Crumble cake with cream, strawberries and Nagano apples (Thanks Mary and Tomomi)

We drank; White Bordeaux, Chablis, Vouvray, Champagne, Morgon and quality Sake (Thanks Ichiro san)

Unforgettable meal. Hilarious conversation.

Now I am off to Covid infested San Francisco. At least I will pass away happy!

The apartment throngs with fruit flies. This not unusual in Okinawa where they flourish on any vegetable matter and in the drains. Removing the trash can, I notice strange activity behind the fridge. It is a squirming mass of fruit fly larvae – yuck!

I spray and clean obsessively and employ a cleaning company. The lady is truly excellent and when I return from the subsequent yuck experience, the apartment is spotless, not a fruit fly to be seen.

While the lady is cleaning, I go down to the boat. I have a look in the engine compartment – yuck!

This not a complete surprise as I have noticed traces of oil in the the last few strokes of the mighty Gulper’ s pumping out the bilge exercise. I knew that something bad was going to happen. Recognized weaknesses of the legendary Yanmar 1GM10 are the oil lines that run under the engine. They corrode and split.

Who you gonna call? Kiyuna san!

He confirms my diagnosis.

A digression on the quality of life. Just up the road is a big Yanmar dealership with a warehouse of parts. This warehouse has made an significant contribution to my quality of life. When moving always check on the proximity of a Yanmar dealership.

It takes 30 minutes to get the replacement oil line.

Before we or more accurately, he, can fit the new oil line, we have to pump out all the oil and water in the bilge to gain access to the lines. We can’t just pump it out into the marina. Kiyuna san brings over his vacuum pump a great device that sucks all the liquids into, er, itself.

He installs the new line in world record time of 6 minutes 34 second.

So, all of this boat yuck was dealt with in no time at all with lots of good humor and levity.

I soon have to leave Covid low level Okinawa to Covid ridden San Francisco. Do not ask!

The weather is fantastic. I go sailing . The following movie depicts 2 days of happiness and joy. The first day the wind was strong and I put a reef in the mainsail. I did this very badly and as you will see in the movie the sail is very floppy and ill trimmed. I only had to haul up the throat and peak halyards but singlehanded, in strong wind and broken seas, on the wild and wistful ocean, this is too scary. The boat sailed well if not prettily. The next day there was less wind and to my delight I managed to shake out the reef, all by myself, far out at sea.

Incredible sailing! It is the middle of November but beautifully warm, sunny days. I am in a T-shirt! This video is really just for me so I can remember when I am an old man. You do not have to watch.

Arisa takes me to the Itoman Fish Market. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Itoman+fishing+cooperative+Fish+Center/@26.1381035,127.6591845,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x34e567c221f4f19d:0x58162367592c3315!8m2!3d26.1380987!4d127.6613785

This is paradise. A warehouse of stalls selling fish and especially sashimi presented on oyster shells. It is actually more of a restaurant than a market. You choose your food and then carry it outside to wooden tables and eat it. The fish is so fresh!

The guy serves me my fish soup into a plastic bowl. Two huge fish eyes float to the surface. I am not ready for that and ask him to fish them out. Arisa is surprised. “The eyes are the best bits.” I am not there yet.

I would like to spend all day here. I would savour an incredible seafood dish, wait a while then go and get something even more incredible. And so on, and so on.

So, probably the last great sailing picnic of the year is planned. Looks like I will go to San Francisco at the beginning of December and it also looks like the weather is going to be pretty bad for the rest of the month.

The picnic will be an elaborate affair. The crew foregather in warm sunshine and light wind. The plan is a gentle cruise around, followed by languid eating. It is true that the weather prediction forecasts possible light showers but there is no evidence of precipitation.

We back away from the pontoon and happily chug out to the harbor basin to raise sail. Whilst doing this deep black clouds sneak up behind us and gleefully unload thousands of liters of rain right onto us. It is so sudden, so unexpected, so intense. Within seconds we are all completely drenched.

I had fouled the peak and throat halyards whilst raising the sail and was so concentrated on untangling them that I completely forgot I had two waterproof jackets in the cabin. The crew sit patiently in their light Okinawan clothes and are soaked.

In 5 minutes the excursion is all over and we scurry back to our pontoon. The crew go off to try and dry off. There is still hope of a picnic but things get worse, the wind rises and the rain, albeit less intense, continues.

We abandon the boat picnic but resolve to have a picnic in my apartment. We have the best fun.

We start with Octopus Coctel, the essential ingredient is a Mexican mix of clam juice and tomato juice, Clamato, which Arisa miraculously tracks down in Okinawa. Next is steak with asparagus and pickled cucumber salad. Salade Lyonnaise with poached egg is fabulous. An excellent carrot cake before we freshen our mouths with crisp apple slices from Nagano. Various wines. It is very dark by the time we push away from the table. We live so well.

This is a dull movie mainly about cooking octopus.

Ah, quality of life? For me availably of lots of super fresh fish, especially octopus, is key. Keep your, er, Porsche, your, er fancy house, your, er, you know, all that stuff.

Just slap me across the face with a wet fish.

31st October, 27 degrees, cool wind, beautiful sunshine! October and November are the best months in Okinawa.

We go for a drive up a little bit of the East Coast. My companion is Japanese and she points out so many things that I have never noticed or been aware of, even after nearly 10 years on the island. I realize I have only just scratched the surface of what Okinawa has to offer.

For example, we stop at an unremarkable building by the side of a harbor. I have passed it before and have taken it for some sort of administrative office. It turns out to be the most wonderful fish restaurant. I cannot read. I miss so much.

We go to a couple of fish markets.

Okinawa is so beautiful! Never more so than at this time of year.

I have not posted much about sailing because I have not done much. I feel guilty about this, not about not posting but about not sailing.

I think there are several reasons.

The first is the Geneva Ski Syndrome. If you live in Geneva you only go ski-ing if the snow is perfect and the weather is beautiful. If you go on a ski holiday from Middlesborough, you ski all day, every day, even if the conditions are atrocious. If you live in Okinawa substitute sailing for ski-ing.

Another reason is technology. I have an app which is amazing. It is Windy. It tells me exactly what the wind strength, wind direction, wave height, temperature, rain possibility will be.

In the er old days, you had a look around and if things were not too bad you would go sailing. If things turned out to be too hairy you would go back again.

Now you look at your IPhone, 12-15 knots of wind? North east wind, 1.5 meter wave height. Ooh, better not go out. Windy doth make cowards of us all.

Another reason is age. I am not as sprightly as I once was.

Anyway you will remember that the boat filled up with water in incredible rains before I was able to rig the cover. Read this https://thequietripple.com/2020/10/22/wet/

A few days ago, I take off the cover and survey the damage. All the lockers are full of water, everything in the lockers, tool boxes, rope, picnic table, cleaning stuff, clothing, etc etc are full of water. I pump and swab out all the water and give everything a clean. It is now beautiful weather and the contents of the boat lie steaming at the pontoon.

So today, at last, I go for a wonderful sail. It is the very end of October but still air and sea are warm.

We sailed out a few miles, just looking at the sea. Then we went about and sailed back in. Ha! what was interesting about sailing back in was a 30 foot Bermuda rig yacht that was also heading for the marina. She was way ahead of us but we were going faster and we caught right up. Not sure the big boat was trying very hard. The Norfolk Gypsy is a good boat.

On the way to the dentist’s surgery and indeed on the way back too, there is a place that sells the best fast food in the world. Okinawan Tempura!

Japanese tempura is a little effete, the batter is light and fluffy. Okinawan tempura is more like English Fish and Chips. The batter is thick, meaty and crisp.

Inside the door, there is a tiny room with a hatchway. There is a chart that displays the richness of tempura available.

Essentially, you can get tempura anything. If you brought in nail clippings or courgette flowers, they would tempura them for you.

You fill in a form detailing your desire. Today I get 2 fish and 2 squid. Next ring the bell and a lady’s head sort of appears behind much Covid screening. You pay. It costs 280 yen. This is nothing.

I hang around outside in the shade while my tempura is cooked. It is the end of October but still 29 degrees. The smiling lady brings me my food.

The food is served in brown paper bags.

It is so delicious!

Just for the record, I finally get around to installing anti chafe tubing on my bow mooring lines.

I think I have already mentioned that a new fish restaurant has opened just across the road from my apartment building. I finally get to eat there. I dislike eating in restaurants alone and I trap a companion into joining me.

It was a very enjoyable lunch.

Very Okinawan ambience with sanjin background music. Each meal was 1,180 yen.

So stabilizing to have an excellent fish restaurant just across the road!

Unannounced and unexpected, it rains very, very hard. The various weather apps I use predicted showers.

Mad rain!

The boat is uncovered. By the time I get down there, the cockpit is full of water that is overflowing into the engine compartment and from there into the bilges and so into the cabin.

Another couple of hours of this rain intensity could sink the boat.

It is very, very wet but I bail out the cockpit with a bucket and unleash the fury of the Gulper on the bilge. https://thequietripple.com/2019/06/10/so-much-rain/

I also pump out the cabin.

Rigging the cover is ferocious because the rain is so hard. I succeed but it is strong stuff. Good for a fat old man.

The few photos I took with my beloved Canon G10 exposed her to the elements such that I think she has died.

I think she is dead. This is the third G10 I have killed by wetness.

https://www.kenrockwell.com/canon/g10.htm