Jeff's Log ~ Saturday, May 24th, 2008

Noma, Japan, Island of Kyushu

We stopped at Amama-O- Shimi for an overnight stay. The port looked like it once was the center of a hustling city. Now, it seems, the port buildings are being demolished slowly, and the place is being reworked. We tied Pipe Dream to the sea wall and made sure that every fender available was out to protect her from the large tractor tires on the sea wall. Again, as soon as we got there, it seems that everyone in town heard of our arrival. The customs officials already had copies of all of our paperwork, so checking in was a breeze. The Japanese coast guard was fantastic with their weather reports, and seemed eager to help with whatever we needed.

I went up to the gas station about a block away and inquired about diesel fuel. I no sooner got back to the boat to pick up the jerry cans, than a truck pulled up to the boat loaded with diesel fuel. The driver spoke no English, but he did have the correct forms to supply to customs and coast guard officials. We proceeded to top off the fuel tanks, and filled all of our jerry cans. That made my chores a lot easier. Next on the list was ATM, Lunch, etc.

Things went smoothly, and Mark and I found time to walk around town a bit. We both wanted to send some e=mails, so we set out in search of an internet café. As we were walking through a sort of open air shopping mall, there were three young school girls who came up to me and asked if I spoke English. I told them yes, and they proceeded to introduce themselves and said hello. The spokes person was a girl by the name of Homi. I asked them if they knew where we could get on the internet, and they took us to a civic center type of place. We signed in and sat down, and were served tea. After about a half hour, the girl at the desk said she was sorry, but time was up. I asked her how much, and she would take no money. It was free.

In the meantime, the place had filled up with tables full o9f elderly women. My guess is that it was afternoon tea time. They kept trying to feed us and invited us to sit with them. We respectfully declined, and a couple of them started stuffing hard candies in our hands. The three school girls asked us to go have our pictures taken with them, and we went along with them to a photo arcade. Homi put some coins in the slot, and we sat in a very large photo booth while they climbed around and acted nuts behind us. Neither one of us had ever seen anything like this. After the picture were taken, we all went to a viewing screen where they can customize the pictures and add all kinds of stuff to them. We all had a lot of fun with that, and then we said goodbye and returned to the boat.

We all went to dinner together at a local restaurant. Tracy, Ranon, and Scott returned to the boat, and Mark and I set off to sample some of the night life. We went into a stylish building with four bars on the top floor. We settled on a place that was finished nicely and had a few people inside. It turned out to be way too expensive as they charge by the hour for the table to listen to karaoke, plus the cost of drinks. The waitress then walked us over to her girlfriend’s place which was a very small bar on the second floor of a building not far away. She introduced us to Marissa, and we agreed on a price for the evening. We paid 5,000 yen for all we could eat and drink. That’s less than fifty dollars for the two of us. It also was karaoke, with about eight other people besides us. After a few drinks, I started singing karaoke with the best of them. They had a pretty cool setup with an electronic device on which you picked songs by artist, song name, record label or whatever.

We all sang ,laughed and carried on until the owner-mamasan through us out. Lots of fun was had by all. When we got back to the boat, the tide had dropped considerably. I sat down on the sea wall and got one foot on the tire and stepped elegantly onto the boat. Mark tried not to sit on the sea wall, and mis-stepped and ended up with two thirds of his legs in the water, hanging onto the lifeline stanchion. So much for being quiet! I helped him onto the boat, and Scott poked his head out and asked if anyone needed a doctor. We told him no, just a clothes dryer.

The next morning, as I was cleaning the exhaust soot from the transom, one of the fellows that was there rode by on his bike and shouted and waved from half a block away. Later, on the way to the grocery store, we crossed paths with one of the ladies that was there. She smiled, said hellow and bowed when she saw us.
While Mark was grocery shopping, I thought that I would see about more time on the phone. The customer service girl spoke no English and did not have a clue about what I was trying to say. A fellow walked up and asked if he could help. His name was Shusi. He walked with me in the rain for about ten minutes to the phone place, and explained to them what I needed. The girl was about to hand me the card, and all of a sudden changed her mind and wanted to see the phone. It was on the boat, so we walked back to get the groceries, to the boat, and back to the phone store. Shusi stayed with me the entire time, just in case translation was needed. He works on a tuna fishing boat, and was glad that he could help a fellow seaman. I sure was glad to meet him, and thanked him very much.

We then threw the lines and took off for Kyushu in the rain. We had good wind behind us and lots of rain, so it was a fairly quick, wet trip. Sailing with a strong wind from behind at night is a little nerve wracking, because if you come off of a wave the wrong way, the wind can change sides and make the sail jibe unintentionally. When that happens, it can be dangerous. We try to keep the wind forward as much as possible, but it just kept clocking back. We decided to rig what is called a preventer, so we could maximize our speed and course.

To rig the preventer I have to take a line and tie it to the outboard end of the boom and run it all the way forward to the bow cleat, and down the other side to a cockpit winch. It always happens at night, it seems. I use all of the safety stuff, and stay harnessed to the boat. It is secretly kind of thrilling to be on the foredeck with waves breaking over the bow in the rain at night. Just in case of the worst happening, and ending up in the water, I do wear a locator strobe on my arm that I can easily activate.

We arrived in Noma and rafted up on a floating dock. The dock attendant was obviously taken by surprise as he was out in the pouring rain in a white shirt and tie. After helping with our lines, he waited and walked us up to register. The poor fellow was completely soaked.

After a cocktail or two on the boat, we went in and had dinner at the small yacht club restaurant. Everything was presented beautifully and we enjoyed our tasty sashimi dinner. They had vanilla ice cream for dessert, and we all really enjoyed that. It is now 9:00AM on May 25. We have been under way since 0545, en-route to Nagasaki. The weather is cool, and partly cloudy.