Just a quick update. We are now at the start of the typhoon (hurricane) season here in the western Pacific. Weather forecasting is excellent, so we are not too worried, we waited in Osaka for a typhoon to pass by, many hundreds of miles offshore, then hitched a ride on its tail, down to Kushimoto where we are now waiting in a harbour, which is also a typhoon shelter, very safe. The typhoon that passed allowed us to sail here with following waves and a wind behind us of over 20 knots all the way, which is fine when it’s behind you, but the big ships we passed going into it where crashing into the sea, making waves splash 100 ft or more into the air from their bow. We have been waiting for a low pressure system to pass otherwise we have to deal with 30 knot headwinds, this should have passed by Monday and we would be setting off then, but today typhoon Gaemi was named, down by Taiwan and is heading our way! The forecast says it is becoming an extratropical low, which isn’t something I fully understand (yet), but I do know one of them was involved in ‘The Perfect Storm’, one of my favourite storm books. So we sit here and wait, Kushimoto is a sleepy fishing town, but has great shops and claims to have the smallest museum in Japan. We only have Kathy’s expensive 3G phone internet , so we can’t use it much, hence I send this report via our Satphone, without pictorial illuminations.
Paul Collister
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A Baba/Tashiba 40 Sailing yacht and her travels