Well, dear readers, if you are still following this blog, apologies for the lack of posts! Last time we posted we were waiting out a severe tropical storm in Nagasaki. Needless to say, just in case you have been worrying about our fate, we survived the storm and were not subjected to anything much stronger than 30 knots. However, it was a good chance to practice removing the headsails and other canvas from Tweed in the hope that the windage would be reduced in the event of stronger winds this time or in the future.
We were impressed with the marina at Dejima Wharf - the main dock and fingers were made of one section with a separate t-piece on the end joined by a moveable ramp. The pylons are all stainless steel and during the strong winds the whole thing hardly moved. We still wouldn't want to be there in a full-on typhoon though but if and when that happens we might not have a lot of choice.
BUT NOW, THE BIG NEWS
Before we continue with some more cruising notes we must tell you that we are now in Australia - we arrived last Thursday after more than 24 hours on the move to meet our new grandson, Alfred James. Just five days old, we declared he was the most beautiful baby ever born, but we were a bit prejudiced!! Now just under two weeks he is growing well and settling into a sort-of routine. Erica and Andrew are infatuated with him and he is indeed a lovely little fellow.
We will be in Australia for about two months, spending some of the time in Brisbane and some in Perth, WA, before returning to Japan and Tweed.
FILLING IN THE GAP
We enjoyed the rest of the stay in Dejima Marina and being almost in the centre of town most of the tourist haunts were fairly close by. We gave the Peace Park a miss and concentrated on the more historic sections of town. One of these was a visit to Dejima Island which under the Shogunate of the time was where the Portuguese were interned in 1636 until their expulsion in 1639 in an attempt to prevent the spread of Christianity. For more than two centuries from 1641 the Dutch East India Company factory was based on the island which became Japan's only link with Europe, allowing for the transfer of western technology and culture.
There is certainly a rich history in the area and this is now evident in the mix of Japanese, Chinese, Dutch and Portuguese culture including architecture and the cuisine.
Next stop on our cruising plan was Huis Ten Bosch - a Dutch village theme park and marina. Access to Huis Ten Bosch is through the outer harbour at Sasebo and then though a narrow, winding channel in to a large lake. Entry into the lake needs to be timed with the tidal stream as during spring tides it can move along at more than 7 knots!! There's no way Tweed would be able to push against that.
We left Nagasaki fairly early in the day to get out of the harbour on the outgoing tide and then make our way north to Sasebo. We had light wind and current with us which surprisingly lasted the whole way to Sasebo, about 40 NM. We were behind two other yachts one of which had our friends on Bannister. They called us up to say that the other yacht had gone through the pass as it was just slack water and they were going to go through too. They said if we hurried we should be able to get through as well before the tide turned to run out. Well, we still had about 3 miles to go to the entrance and every second was critical. We pushed good old Tweed to the limit and made the entrance to the channel. We still had a little bit of tide with us and 2 NM to the exit!! We were just about half way when our speed started to reduce. With one eye on the already swirling waters ahead and the other on the speed log we watched as our speed slowly reduced to 2.2 knots. Eeek, would we make it. We still had a couple of hundred metres to go as we slowly crept towards the exit and finally passed through. The speed went up and we made our way a couple of miles north to the marina. Whew, we would definitely plan our exit better than that but at least we had made the passage in one leg rather than two.
The adrenalin rush passed as we made our way to the marina, 33 deg 04.90N, 129 deg. 47.27E. Bannister called up to say that they were on the visitor's dock but that the management had not received them very well. We had approval from Coast Guard to enter the marina and we had tried to contact the marina to no avail but from reading other cruisers' notes and chatting with friends who had also been there we were confident of gaining a berth and leaving Tweed for a couple of months to fly back to Australia. However, the manager was not to be moved!! After reiterating many times that it was a private marina and that it was 'congested' with no room for us he relented and gave us five days. We needed that time to apply for another cruising permit as our current one had expired, and it was a Friday, which meant the Ministry of Lands would not be open for the next two days. The Ministry of Lands has to approve our cruising plan.
So now we had the problem of where to go in a short space of time. We wanted to get back to Australia for the birth of our grandchild but nothing seemed to be going right at this stage. Thank goodness for friends, though. Jaap on Alishan made some suggestions to us and then very kindly made a phone call to the previous manager of Huis Ten Bosch. Within a couple of hours we had a booking at Fukuoka City Marina in Odo and what's more it worked out cheaper than HTB and would not be as isolated, being close to a big city. With a big sigh of relief we planned our passage to Fukuoka, listing Hirado Harbour on Hirado Island and Ganoura Harbour on Iki Shima. This was approved and we left HTB on Wednesday 18 August.
While waiting for our approval to come through we hired a car with the Bannisters and did some sightseeing on Kyushu. We decided to drive up to Fukuoka but in retrospect that was a bad choice. It is a big city and without proper maps we didn't really know where we were so got onto the freeway and headed south along the coast. It was a very pleasant drive and we found some lovely fishing villages along the way where the specialty seemed to be squid - mostly dried squid.
Closer to Sasebo we came across some villages where pottery and porcelain are made. Unfortunately though, by this time it was getting late and they were all closed! Some of the villages made a feature of their works and it was interesting to see quite a few large pottery urns decorating bridges or just sitting on pedestals along the streets.
ON TO HIRADO
The tide was right to make an early start from HTB and we arrived at the entrance to the channel about an hour after high tide. The tide had already started to run out so it was an exciting ride down the channel with a maximum speed over ground of 10.4 knots!! We made our way out of Sasebo Harbour and turned north. Our route would take us through another channel - this time between Hirado Island and Kyushu but with nothing like the speeds we had this morning. All went well and we arrived in Hirado Harbour and tied up at a disused floating ferry dock, 33 deg. 22.27N, 129 deg. 33.28E.
We decided to spend two nights at Hirado as it also has a lot of history - the Dutch East India Company were here before they transferred to Dejima in Nagasaki. It is a quaint little town with some historic sites and overlooked by Hirado Castle, which guarded the Hirado Straits for many years.
NEXT STOP ODO
Another early start and we were off to Fukuoka and Odo Marina. We were greeted with a smoggy morning and visibility down to about 2 miles. Not too much traffic to worry about though and we finally arrived in Odo Marina, 33 deg. 35.52N, 130 deg. 18.75E. It was a different story here though from HTB. The staff were very welcoming and friendly as well as helpful. There was supermarket close by, the post office not far and a bit further on to the coin laundry - the three most used services we look for! Once we were in our berth which Tweed will be in for at least two months we were busy organising flights back to Australia and working out how to get to airports, etc. The trip involved a taxi ride to the station, a train ride to the airport, a flight to Haneda Airport in Tokyo, another train ride to Narita Airport, a long wait and then a Qantas flight to Sydney, a short wait and last leg to Brisbane!
We have already met a few local yachties in Odo who have been very helpful and friendly.
