2007年6月13日水曜日

DATE: June 9, 2007
TIME: 9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
WEATHER: Partly sunny to cloudy; raindrops as we pulled into the slip
WIND: Steady N/NE, between 5-8 m/s
SKIPPER: Cliff Bernstein
CREW: Sachiko Yashiro, Elo Kent, Kayo (??)

Excellent sail from the outset. We went out with the main and regular jib and cruised steadily between 4 and 5 knots for the first hour straight east towards Chiba. The Genoa would have been even better, but the weather report suggested that winds would start gusting towards 8-10 m/s at around noontime. Both Sachiko and Kayo are novices, so we decided not to brave a sail change. We essentially sailed a triangle towards Chiba, then back down towards Hakkei-Jima and finally with a run back to port as the wind started picking up and our speed stayed between the 5 & 6 knot range, very comfortably. The wind predictions on Yahoo! Weather (Japan version) were remarkably accurate.

The engine and everything else worked perfectly except the speed gauge, which did not work at first. I am not sure why. I took it out, saw that it had no blockage and put it back down the hole and eventually it started working. Something to keep an eye on.

One of my friends gave me information on a great fish restaurant to where people often sail. Apparently, obtaining slip space requires a reservation 3 days in advance. See http://www.awa.or.jp/home/hota-gk/oshokuji/oshokuji.html.

I tried calling North Sail last week to get the sail cover made, but no one picked up. I will try again this week.