japan

I made it safe, at least.  VHF died, depth sounder died, the wind was perpetually on the nose, but it was fine.   Didn:t make Osaka, an utterly unpredictable wind shift and three knot current convenced me to change course for Nagoya.   But this won:t do so I will leave soon for the inland sea west of Osaka and look for nice bays to anchor and meet people and find a spot to hole up.

Must run.   Expensive internet.

Japan

I'm off for Japan in the morning.  It will be a two week trip.  Wish me luck.

Sailing Video

Hey I'm on the web now.  Check out my sailing video on the sidebar.   Called Caroline Island  THis was fun

Snookwis - Tilikum's Junk rigged war canoe

Ironbark II - a Wylo II, my dream

to japan

 

 

Guam to Japan.

 

So I will leave for Japan in the next few days.  Frankly, it is getting hard to pull myself away from the Seaman's Club.  Free internet on my own computer is something I haven't experienced since Mexico.  I free icetea refills.  I could get a lot done in a week here, but I'd eat too many hamburgers, with chili!

 

It will be a two week crossing, though I will likely draw it out by stopping  in a few islands, like Chichi-Jima or Haha-Jima, and then shoot for Osaka.  The weather patterns seem fair and the typhoon season is dwindling.  I will be on the early side, but I will risk it.  At this point I have to risk one way or the other.  I have stuck my neck out a bit.

 

But this plan is fair and I will be in a good position to move forward with myriad possibilities that may come in the next year.

GUAM

GUAM AND WHAT COMES NEXT…..

 

 

Okay, so Port Townsend is out until next year.  That leaves Japan…AND, Hawaii, which I hadn't considered until Tilikum mentioned it.  Though it looks rough: dead upwind.  But in lieu of the PNW, perhaps I may like it.  Though marinas are horrendously expensive (but Jap.???) and there are few anchorages.

So no easy solutions.  I could sail to Hawaii and, if I could make it work, I could then sail to Japan, which would then be dead downwind, and perhaps in the right season…..But I am just thinking through my fingers.

Dead ends in a maze….

 

I am happy about what has transpired.  I am going the right way.  I would have loved to have made the PNW this season, but it is impossible….well…untenable.  Insane.  So I can't say I'm not tempted.  But I am moving on.

 

I have lived well in Guam.  It is not a good cruisers spot.  I had to borrow a bike to get from the yacht club to ANYWHERE.  No hitching here.  But there are showers in the club, and a phone so I could call home for the first time since April.  It was so great to talk to my dad.  Great.  It was September 18^th and since my birthday was nigh, and 35 days at sea I was determined to celebrate.

About a mile and a half from the Club I was told that there was a United Seaman's Service… which had a restaurant and internet. 

This place is great.  Free internet, cheap food, great book exchange, bar, free pool.   A sailor's paradise of sorts.  (from a certain point-of-view)  So I've eaten well and drank cold coca-colas.  I've read emails and played some of the pool I've ever played.

For my birthday I caught a bus to a place where I could find the last Harry Potter.  For my birthday I at Chinese and read the last of a epic story.

 

Now that is in the ebb.  I must drag my mind back to reality and start the process of making the next plan and moving on.  Guam is not a place to stay, but it has been a nice reprieve and break from the norm and a fair change from my last birthday, which was spent in an unrelenting gale near Tonga.    Damned blocking highs! 

CHANGE

 

Papua New Guinea – Guam – Port Townsend.

 

Don't ask, don't ask.  I know. . . I know.  Everything just gets clearer once you start sailing.  I was so sure of my last plan, the one that had me sailing to South Carolina .  The real problem was then being in South Carolina with my boat when I wanted to be in Port Townsend or Bellingham.  To get Araby there would take a lot more time and lots more money (an engine to get through the Canal,and the Canal fees themselves$$$$$).

Time never comes back.  I have a goal.  I want to get started.

 

However, there also was an impetus.   When I was approaching Torres Strait, I had this strange churning of the stomach, the sort of feeling that, as a sailor, one must try to be attuned with.  It was an eery feeling.   At the same time I had a recurring dream of sailing into Port Townsend.  It took me a cou\ple of days to piece it together, but eventually it all becamse clear.   I turned around, backtracked three hundred miles of the coral sea and turned north into the Solomon Sea, making for New Guinea.  From New Ireland (NG) I would sail for Guam, then from there direct to Port Townsend. 

This is a dangerous route.  I am cutting the fringe of the typhoon region as a dangerous time.  Really, I am sailing across the areas where they generate, therefore rarely reach their maximum force.   Also I am not stopping.  I will move through the dangerous southern waters quickly.  Guam has good typhhon holes in case I get stuck there.   I concerned, but only as a means of responsibility.

 

I am rushed.

I have been at sea for 18 days, great sailing much of the way.   I am only taking today in New Ireland if I can get out and the weather looks fair.  It will be a two to four week trip to Guam to resupply.  (duldroms.) 

 

All for now.  Wish me luck and see you soon.

And, as always, I have a backup plan which is rather interesting . . .

--
Jonah Manning
S/V Araby


Online Journal -www.freejonah.blogspot.com
Email - bellyofthewhale.gmail.com

128 Holliday Rd
Columbia, South Carolina, USA

Emergency contact:  
Dibble Manning
phone:  001 - 803 - 787 - 4352  
email:cmann1960@aol.com>
also check addresss in "to" column

Mt Yassur, active volcano, Tanna

Vanuatu village, Tanna