sy Second Jump: http://secondjump.wordpress.com/
sy Calliste: http://funvinyldecals.wordpress.com/
and the following from sy Fifth Season:
We are the last gaijin in Tannowa yacht harbor, but have many visits from Japanese friends so don't feel alone. We are looking forward to exploring Kyoto next week.
We have enjoyed the inland sea, using Bosun Bird's excellent information to choose ports. We've felt very welcome everywhere we've stopped and have met many helpful people.
The Setouchi Rally was a wonderful experience! It was well-planned and organized.
We received a booklet at the beginning with schedule of events, information and drawing of entrances, and slip diagrams with our position marked. And there was guidance on vhf as we arrived and assistance with dock lines.
There were several parties given in honor of the rally participants. We had receptions, dinners and entertainment sponsored by local merchants and yacht clubs.
We went on tours of temples and a sake factory. We stayed at a beautiful Japanese inn where we had an amazing traditional dinner and breakfast. Sugoi! One tour which included a soy sauce factory had to be skipped due to an approaching typhoon, which in the end passed far enough away to hardly be noticed.
The food was delicious and varied, the drink flowed freely and the friendship of the Japanese participants was the best part of the rally.
There were 10 Japanese boats and we were one of the two foreign boats. There were 16 guests from US, England, New Zealand and Australia who stayed on the Japanese boats, switching partway through the rally so more friendships could be formed.
It was the first rally David and I had participated in, and we sore picked a winner.
Next year they hope to have mostly foreign yachts with Japanese guests and we would highly recommend to anyone who is interested.
