Miles Total: 1,507
Miles To Osaka, Japan: 155
Cabin Temp: 75 Water Temp: 69
I was wrong in the last posting about being back in the North Pacific. Closer inspection of the charts shows that we’re actually in the East China Sea. Note to self: NEVER go sailing in the East China Sea again.
We rolled out the jib and sailed away from our parking spot Sunday afternoon and had a decent 36 hours or so of sailing. It was hard to weather, but we were making good time mostly towards Osaka. I checked in yesterday on one of the local ham nets and found someone to notify the authorities that we would arrive on the 3rd. For anyone reading who is getting ready to go cruising and has not taken the time to get your ham license, now is a good time. These radio nets, and ham nets in particular, are amazingly useful.
Last night about 4:00 the wind started building again and Rob rolled in the jib and hoisted the staysail. By 7:00 this morning I decided we had to take the staysail down because it was constantly gusting well over 30 knots, we were making 7+ knots, and were headed into some even more horrible looking weather. With just our reefed main up since then we’ve been making 3-4 knots. The waves are enormous and just forward of our beam, though, and we are taking a pounding. Right after I got out of the shower (to rinse of the dousing I took getting the sail down), we took a wave that in an instant soaked the entire galley with saltwater. There was about 3″ of standing water on the galley floor when it stopped pouring in.
We’re still hoping for a Thursday arrival into Osaka, but have no idea what’s causing this wind and when it’s going to stop. My sister is working hard to find Rob a mileage ticket to Seattle so he can be there to help out after his dad’s first chemo session on Monday (Thanks Leslie), so we really need to finish up this passage. Last week I was lamenting about how slow our boat is and today I’m thankful it’s so tough; I’m sure this boat has never taken a pounding like this before and I hope it never has to again.
Teresa
