25 September, 2007

Japan

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

24 September, 2007

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

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Ironbark II - a Wylo II, my dream

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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.

22 September, 2007

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 18th 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!