N 33° 07.916
E 139° 48.321

Yesterday we docked at safely in the harbor. It’s a harbor with very high walls and several basins going around several corners to reduce the swell.

The last part of the approach was actually a tough bumpy ride because we had to sail against the waves at a certain angle to make it to Hachijoshima. The wind turned nicely as forecasted but the waves don’t turn so fast. For the final 2-3 miles part to the harbor, the wind turned a bit too fast and blew around the dead volcano in the south of the island and across the flat part in the middle of the island and made a very choppy sea.

Docking was a bit tricky because the wind suddenly blew on her from behind. I had to abandon the first attempt to dock because the wind became too strong. With going towards the wall backwards and a stern line to a mooring ring at the wall, I could use the wind to turn MaRe smoothly towards the wall.

For this maneuver, group of Japanese men from a research vessel gave us a hand with the lines. Thanks guys for this.

After we were docked, it looked like MaRe is moving a bit much due to the wind we got from astern. But, when the wind was down, I saw that a bit of swell is still in the basin we are docked and this moves MaRe.

A Japanese yacht in the next basin left yesterday at 1800 and we will take the chance and move MaRe into the next basin today.

We also had already a first visitor on board. A lady, who was curious about MaRe came closer and took pictures. So we invited her on board for a cup of tea. We had a nice exchange of information.

Now, we know already about locations of supermarkets and a special sushi restaurant, which makes sushi of marinated raw fish, which is said to be special. I indeed, I don’t recall having ever eaten such sushi.

As she is also fishing, she gave Tobi some special hooks. I’m curious about what he will catch with them.

In the afternoon Tobi went into his cabin for a short nap until “next Sunday”.

After a longer conversation with Shigeo about the next leg I too took a shower and went to bed for a nap until dinner. I didn’t sleep much the last days. Only Shigeo was awake because he got enough sleep before.

So for dinner Shigeo made yakisoba, a very Japanese style of fried noodles with vegetables and a bit of pork. It just was wonderful that to get such a delicious dish again.