The Class of 2016

Dawnbreaker.

The Class of 2015, new blogs

Visiting  Japan in  2015:

Swiss yacht       CHAMADE

Singapore yacht   SARI TIMUR

Dutch yacht        GIEBATEAU

New Zealand yacht    LET'S GO

German yacht     SU AN

US yacht  SHUANG YU

Click on the name and link will zoeff you to their page.

Canadian yacht SILK PURSE
His cruising info is on FB, so you'll have to befriend Kirk san.

Cruising notes by SV Takaraboshi

Yachtsman Paul Tsai is the owner of

32 ft sailing vessel Takaraboshi. 

Paul created this handy short cruising note as he has been cruising extensively North Kyushu.

Takaraboshi's  homeport is Odo Marina in Fukuoka.

The text is in Japanese, but pictures tell the story.

I think it's a useful addition to other cruising notes.

To see and read it,

 click the link HERE

Salute

Bannister's cruising report 2011 (West Honshu~Hokkaido)

Many thanx for the info Hanny and Hendrik-Jan !!

Ports on the west coast of Honshu

This is a more rugged coast with less industry. the coast is more exposed for the weather. Japanese sailors when making a circumnavigation around Honshu prefer to sail this coast in May and June when strong westerly’s hardly appear, consequence is a lot of motoring. We sailed in April as we wanted to leave Hokkaido end of may. We thought it was not a bad period to do, You have to be aware which ports are suitable for strong westerly winds and swell and keep an eye on the weather forecast, but we also had beautiful sailing going up north. For this part we used notes from Isao Kakihari from Tannowa marina, who circumnavigated Honshu a couple of years before. Although we have not visited all the harbours we will mention them.

A~Z about Bmobile

Jenny on board of sy Bosun Bird wrote the following report:

According to bmobile's website www.bmobile.ne.jp you can buy a U300 SIM card for 1 month (2980 yen), 6 months (14,900 yen) and 12 months (29,800 yen).  In shops (Kagoshima, Nagasaki and Fukuoka) I never saw a card for one month – however it did look as though you could buy a one month card through their website.  I bought my U300 SIM card from Odobashi Camera in Fukuoka and paid 15,900 yen for an 8 month card.

I activated my card through the Helpdesk phone

sy JIJI report 2011. From Hong Kong to Akita

Sy JIJI sailed from Hong Kong to Akita (NW Honshu) in May & June 2011.

Jo wrote:

Below are, briefly, now some of my experiences and port info for your blog:

"jiji sailed from hong kong to akita in the month of may, 2011, stopping at kaohsiung (taiwan), okinawa, fukuoka, fukui (planned), and made one unplanned stop at ikitsuki ko on ikitsuki island, nagasaki prefecture because of engine failure. the trip took one more one month - may 1 to june 7. we choose the month of may after consulting the april, may and june u.s. gov't pilot charts for the east asia region, plus reading a lot of typhoon related information. we thought the month of may would minimize the chances of running into typhoons. however, as it turns out, we were quite wrong. we had to take evasive actions for the first two typhoons of the season, both of which came our way -- we were one day ahead of the eye of the typhoon going into naha ko in okinawa honto, which got a direct hit. then, when we were in fukuoka, the second typhoon, a super typhoon, passed by. even though this one went to the east side of honshu, there were strong winds in the sea of japan,

sy BANNISTER's report 2010

Moorings and Anchorages in Japan and Korea
These Notes are originally set up in 2008/2009 by Olivier and Pascaline from French sailing yacht Neos, added in 2010 by Hendrik-Jan and Hanny from Dutch sailing yacht Bannister with help from several Japanese and foreign cruising friends, of whom we specially like to mention Jaap and Marijke from Dutch sailing yacht Alishan and Murano and Kazumi from Japanese sailing yacht Possible Dreams
Some notes are in French, but for sure you will manage to extract the useful information.
General :
Tourist information: at the ferry terminals you will find a tourist office or a stand with brochures and maps, and sometimes wireless internet.
ATM’s from post offices take foreign cards but recently also the ATM’s from the Seven Eleven convenience stores, very handy when it’s one of those public holidays, or a Sunday..
Fuel, In almost every harbours you can get diesel. When there is a fuel station close by at the harbour, point at your boat and ask for diesel and they will come with a little truck, ask in advance the price as it can differ quite a bit. If there is a customs office in the harbour you can try to get a ticket to get diesel cheaper but often it is a hassle.
Weather information, Navtex is working perfect in Japan, it gives, all the gunnery and other exercises, positions and forecast