N 31° 44.245 E 138° 49.136 It was clear that we can’t make it into the kaminato-gyokou, the kaminato-fishery harbor, with an approach from S. The wind would not turn S in time. The first thought is to go around the northern part of the island. This could become tricky when we have to head…

N 31° 46.791 E 138° 57.163 Yesterday morning all started fine. The cold front passed and we could sail fully N to get distance from the cold front behind us. However, then the wind increased. I needed to change course towards W increasing the AWA to 115 deg The genoa reefed to 2 bars (40%…

N 30° 18.976 E 141° 36.278 Hachijoshima is an island about 180 NM south of Yokohama. Although MaRe runs, with a small reef in the genoa with reef 2 in the main, still with STW peaks above 9 KN, ŵe will not make it until Yokohama before the wind turns on to our nose. So…

N 28° 10.160 E 142° 10.229 As the wind doesn’t follow the forecast at all, we discussed the situation. We still don’t go directly to Sofu Gan, the impressive rock needle, coming out of the ocean with it’s vertical wall from very deep. I saw it once in 1994 on a sail from Guam to…

N 27° 58.718 E 142° 08.348 From midnight on winds of 15-20 KN were forecasted in all 4 models. However, the wind did not obey the forcast and we still have winds just below 15 KN. This is an unpleasant situation because we can fly the Big Blue only up to 15 KN. So we…

N 27° 05.920 E 142° 09.350 Left after lunch Futami Harbor. Now we already out and Nishi-Jima is already abeam on STB. TWD is good, TWS could be a bit more but according to forecast the wind speed should increase. We are sailing with genoa opened with barber hauler at an AWA of 150 deg…

In 1994 I was the first time on Chichi-Jima. That time I came as crew member of a Japanese yacht on the way from Guam to Tokyo. Since then I wanted to come back again. Now, 32 years later I came back as the skipper of my own boat, the sailing catamaran MaRe, on my…