The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond

So, The Governor of Okinawa has asked all residents to refrain from going out unless it is necessary to maintain life. It had to come.

Not having much food I went to the supermarket. Food is necessary to maintain life I suppose.

The place was virtually empty.

On the bright side, Arisa-san tells me that the Japanese government is giving each household 100,000 yen. Even to me! https://nhk.io/details-on-japans-covid-19-%c2%a5100000-payment-to-every-resident-how-to-apply/?fbclid=IwAR0fCb4syzak26lVB9b9ZA-10B5rb9WUASDMVXXlpVRbBTQa1wPRs42ei_0

She explains, “The government is asking  everyone to receive the money and if you don’t need the money,  donate it to the nearest organization that need the money. This way, the money will flow to proper people quickly and smoothly instead of the government keeping the money. “

I think I will pass mine onto the Champagne merchants of northern France who must be going through a very hard time.

Yay Japan!

The weather is bad so I would not have done much sailing. Just have to stay at home and work on my boom crutch

Every year I visit the Iris fields at Kijoka. https://thequietripple.com/2013/03/31/flags/

There are acres of irises growing in paddy fields. The fields are surrounded by wooded hills and all in all it is super beautiful. This year I decide to take good photos. I set off with macro and wide-angle lenses, flash, tripod. I am very excited. But the camera is dead. I have not checked the battery, which is totally flat. How stupid I feel.

Mind you, as we all know, the IPhone is more or less as good.

Having strolled around, I buy big bunch of coconuts, no irises. No one is there to sell them. There is an honesty box and lots of pre-prepared bunches. The idea of people just walking off with them without paying is absurd.

The back of my truck is full of yacht paint, varnish, teak oil, rope, clamps and stuff. It is now upgraded with a big bunch of about to flower, irises.

Anyway, about a year ago I took an Ikebana course taught by the very learned Okubo sensei. https://thequietripple.com/2019/07/07/ikebana/

I look forward to making dazzling displays. I have amazing Yachimun vases.

I wander through the fields near my house and collect leaves, grasses and flowers.

Unfortunately, every attempt I make to build the clever internal structures fails. These structures allow you to hold the flowers in interesting positions. In the end I am obliged to, more or less, dump the flowers into the vases, as I have done most of my life. Very disappointing. I am a bad student.

So my apartment is full of flowers. This can never be a bad thing.

On a darker note, I hear that there has been a coronavirus death on Okinawa.

Only the beginning?

Not much to say really during these dark days. I am very conscious that most of the world is going through unprecedented rigors, whilst we in Okinawa lead an essentially unchanged life.

This is just a diary entry. I have understood the joy of keeping a diary. It is always interesting and usually surprising to look back on what you were doing, 2, 4, 6, 8, years ago.

Wonderful week of sailing with good healthy winds. The Norfolk Gypsy likes wind.

On Saturday, the boat took Atsuko, Arisa and I on a wonderful sail followed by lots of eating. The mainsail is very badly set in the video, which we fixed later as we put up the jib. Lots of wind, lots of fresh air, leading to huge appetite.

The weather takes a turn for the worse. Strong winds and high seas. This drives the Pacific Golden Plover to shelter. I track them down.

The sea is wild.

I am at Cape Zanpa, usually replete with tourists. Today, there is only one man wandering in the wind. Yay, it is an old friend.

No sailing today!

Stay well all!

Mary makes very superior masks. I understand them to be made from layers of silk and cotton. She takes it seriously. The masks are tested at OIST.

These masks are tested as P36, excluding 36% of 300nM particles. Combini, local shops, masks are p20, Izumi Fukunaga https://groups.oist.jp/sbn has attained P40.

Prime Minister Abe has declared a State of Emergency in some Prefectures, not Okinawa. My generous Japanese friends say that little has changed for Okinawa. Well I have Kiyuna san’s magic sucking stone and Mary’s mask, so I feel wonderfully protected.

Life is wonderful! Exotic flowers bloom wild by the road.

I go sailing. At first the wind is gentle and we flap around without much purpose. It then rises and the Norfolk Gypsy shudders, trembles and then sets off at a gallop.

The wind gets stronger and we thunder back to land. She is such a good boat. She loves the rough stuff. I take great delight in sailing straight into the Marina, only using the engine for final mooring manoeuvres. So much sun, so much fresh air.

Stay safe.

As most of the rest of the world reels from the impact of Coronavirus, we on Okinawa remain untouched. The local government has not suggested any restrictions. Life goes on as normal. Schools reopen next week after the spring break. That said, the university, OIST https://www.oist.jp/ with many international visitors and employees has taken the situation very seriously and has, in my opinion, introduced very sensible changes.

I hope all of you and all of yours are well.

Well, I hope this post does not annoy. It is a beautiful day. We go sailing.

It is Sunday morning when Arisa san, Kaori san, Simon san and I foregather to take the boat out for a sail. A glorious day, bright sun and about 25 degrees. The dark side is 15- 20 knots of wind.

So, none of my companions have any sailing experience and I, as you know, am incompetent. We get out from the harbor to meet seriously disturbed sea. The wind is manageable but the sea is intimidating.

I am amazed by the lack of dread demonstrated by the crew. We are plunging around in broken seas with only the jib up but they are unconcerned, indeed invigorated!

The idea of raising the mainsail with inexperienced crew and having to put in probably 2 reefs as we crash around, seems unwise. This manouevre is complex and trying to do it with people who don’t know the names of the ropes, as we hammer against big swells is foolhardy. I order a turnaround. I am the Captain. The crew is disappointed. I thought they would be terrified. and so overjoyed to get back to land. Ignorance is bliss and that sort of thing.

We go out about a mile just on the jib and then turn around. We come back in very nicely on jib alone. So much fresh air! I am only wearing a T shirt, well, I mean I also have my trousers on.

Once safely moored, we have a delicious picnic prepared by Kaori san and Arisa san. Such fun in a time of plague. Here is a video:

Again sincere best wishes to all of you who are going through difficult times. I hope this post makes you happy.

So, to all my faithful readers, a small but distinguished group, I send all my best wishes. Okinawa is untouched by the Myley Cyrus and it is difficult for me to conceive the awfulness that many of you are going through. Hang tough.

So, here is a happy story to make you all feel better. I try to raise the center plate of the boat but all that comes up is lots of cable. Ouch! This means that the center plate has conspired to free itself from the cable and wants to hang loose. This has to be fixed and in conjunction with the need to generally scrub her bottom I decide to haul her out and give her a good makeover.

So, the bottom of the boat is covered in weed and shellfish of various denominations.

So, first I scrape and then I spray and then I paint on new anti fouling. I work in glorious sunshine with the encouragement of all the boatyard boys with whom I have become close over the the duration of the Norfolk Gypsy project.

Hmmm not so good. The hole in the center plate, through which the center plate cable was threaded, has decayed into uselessness.

I scrape off all the weed and barnacles and limpet-like things. I then hose her down with high pressure spray gun, Yay! Ginowan Marina.

Then I paint her bottom with a chemical brew of awfulness that will keep the creepy crawlies off for another year, one hopes.

I then apply compound to the hull. This is the most rewarding work. What was dull suddenly becomes glistening.

I then paint teak oil on all trim and bolt on two new anodes.

This is all very well but the main problem is the center plate. Kiyuna san slices off the end of the decayed plate and welds on a shackle.

After three days of glorious work amongst friends in a Japanese boatyard, we drop her back in the water with a black bottom. Yay Norfolk Gypsy!

Look at amateur video.

I hope this makes you happy. Stay well.

Back to Okinawa on empty planes, arriving at empty airports.

Okinawa seems very calm and I am certainly safe as Kiyuna san has given me a special magic stone to suck.

The boat is just fine as the wonderful cover has kept her dry as a bone.

The day after I arrive, there is an Irish evening in the excellent Bacon Bar https://www.facebook.com/baconbarjapan/

There are maybe a 100 people. Cancellation is not mentioned. There have been 3 cases of the Miley Cyrus in Okinawa, 2 of which have fully recovered.

I really do not get this Miley Cyrus thing. I realize that there must be a huge risk of mortality somewhere, as Europe and the States have essentially closed down and my pension fund has disappeared, but I have been unable to grasp how awful this risk is.

Okinawa is clearly the wrong place from which to judge this issue. The people are, as usual, super happy and helpful. The supermarkets burst with all kinds of wonderful things to eat. There is more toilet paper than I would know what to do with, mind you we all have botty sprays built into our toilets. Zero sense of crisis. However I do not read or watch Japanese media because I can not understand it. Maybe they are super frantic but somehow I doubt it.

Anyway, this afternoon I show up at the local clinic to see if I can get a full check up as I have not had one for a couple of years. They say sure and within a couple of hours I have weight, height, blood pressure, measured, chat with doctor,chest Xray, electrocardiogram, ultra sound for heart, kidneys, gall bladder, liver, or what the doctor charmingly calls innards. I also have some kind of test to check the state of my arteries and a kind of super blood pressure check. I supply blood and urine samples. I see the doctor again who explains that everything is OK but the results from the blood and urine tests will take a few days and the damage caused by alcohol abuse will show up then. However I have been in Okinawa for exactly a week and I have already gained 2 kilos. This place makes me fat.

They charge me 3,500 yen.

No one mentions Corona virus.

I do not understand.

My stay in San Francisco has come to an end. Boo hoo. I have had a wonderful time. I love the city. I love it being close to a cold ocean. I love the fog. I love wearing wool.

Lucky me.

Up to the lost coast and huge redwood forests of Northern California.

I spend a week snuffling around in the undergrowth and going on very long hikes in the redwoods. I feel very bear like. Mainly because I want to eat lots of meat and do not wash.

The dutch oven is the best cooking device. I only use open wood fires yet produce wonderful meals. Well, all my new bear friends said they were.

The countryside is magnificent, the wildlife abundant.

I stay mainly in National Parks, which are fantastic places, so wild, so huge, so full of bears. Congratulations California on your National Parks!

In Fort Bragg I amazingly run into one of Irelan’s top traditional bands, http://teada.com

They are amazingly good at playing their instruments but they lapsed into Irish music hall banter. “Sure love is blind. Yes ,but marriage is an eye opener right enough.” This was cringemaking to me but my fellow audience members lapped it up.

I like being a bear.

James and I head out to the Mission; such a fascinating part of the city. It is a glorious day and we have various small errands but we get completely sidetracked by the Mexican stores.

The Mission is so full of life and vivacity. Lots of quirky specialist shops and of course amazing street art.

Thanks James for showing me around. He really knows the Mission. We now have more octopus, goat, belly pork, oysters, limes than we need. Will have to eat hard!