Destinations over Golden Week 2024

By Timothy Langley, April 23, 2024 (as of 0830, 4/23) (check-back for updates!)

Building our community: these 6 yachts are headed out over Golden Week; plenty of opportunity to see each other out on the waves or in ports-of-call.

Provide your sailplan for inclusion.

  • Captain Darren Halliday. 34.5’ Hanse: Halcyon.
  • Crew: solo, Naomi, Kiwi joining in Niijima
  • Sat. 27: Yumenoshima —> Misaki
  • Sun. 28: Misaki —>  Yokohama Bayside (race-day)
  • Mon. 29: Yokohama Bayside
  • Tues. 30:   Yokohama —> Hota
  • Wed 1: Hota
  • Thurs 2:       Hota —> Ito
  • Fri. 3:            Ito —> Shimoda
  • Sat. 4:        Shimoda —> Niijima
  • Sun. 5:            Niijima
  • Mon. 6:            Niijima  —> Yumenoshima

  • Captain Evan Burkowsky. 33’ Peterson: Garuda.
  • Crew: Timothy Langley, Freddie Snoxall
  • Friday 26:  Katsuyama  —> Hota
  • Saturday 27: Hota
  • Sunday 28:      Hota —> Mikurajima (~24 hours)
  • Monday 29:      Mikurajima/Miyakejima (5 hours)
  • Tuesday 30:       Miyakejima 
  • Wednesday 1:    Miyakejima (foul weather, hunker down in-port) 
  • Thursday 2:         Miyakejima  —> Kozushima (4 hours)
  • Friday 3:                Kozushima
  • Saturday 4:             Kozushima  —> Niijima (6 hours)
  • Sunday 5:                 Niijima —> Oshima (7 hours)
  • Monday 6:                Oshima  —> Home-port Hota (8 hours)
  • Sea trials to & from Misaki last Saturday/Sunday (4/20~21) revealed several needed fixes and allowed things to break which would have broken anyway (just when we didn’t need them to!). All addressed now: refrigerator also now working, depth-finder connected, foresail furling-line replaced.

UPDATE: here is the actual sail plan as recorded on our on-board navigation device. On the right is the departure route, all the way out to Mikurajima (~70 nm from the tip of the Chiba peninsula), then hop-scotched back to home port Hota. The entire trip covered 268 nm over 7 days.


  • Captain Claude Strobbe 33′ Kawamoto-made / New Japan Yacht design ANAIS
  • Crew: Max , Nikolay , Victor , Remi , Ogi
  • Sunday 28:      Misaki  —> Yokohama Bayside (race-day)
  • Monday 29:      Yokohama Bayside Marina  —> Hota
  • Tuesday 30:        Hota
  • Wednesday 1:      Hota —> Misaki
  • Thursday 2:          Misaki —> Ito
  • Friday 3:                Ito —> Misaki
  • Saturday 4:            Misaki —> Yumenoshima Marina

  • Captain Chris Eve 24′ Cornish Crabber EOTHEN
  • Crew: Kaoru
  • Saturday 27: Yokohama Bayside —> Hota
  • Sunday 28:     Hota  —> Yokohama Bayside
  • Captain Robin Mah
  • 26’ NJY Libeccio Figaro.
  • Crew: Alan, Andrew.
  • Wednesday 1: Yumenoshima    —> Misaki
  • Tuesday 2: Misaki   —> Ito
  • Wednesday 3: Ito    —> Misaki
  • Thursday 4: Misaki    —> Yumenoshima
  • Captain Mike Snyder
  • 42’ Distant Dreamer
  • Crew: Jeff, Eric
  • Saturday 27: Marinpia   —> Kaminoseki (Murotsu Harbor)
  • Sunday 28: Kaminoseki    —> Nuwajima
  • Monday 29: Nuwajima   —> Nakajima
  • Tuesday 30: Nakajima   —> Horie Matsuyama
  • Wednesday 1: Horie Matsuyama   —> Marinpia Misasi Marina

Update: Here are a few pics from our cruise in the western Setonaikai. We covered about 135 nm over 6 days. We didn’t to get to Shimo-Kamigari Island as per the sail plan due to rain and light winds, but went to Nakajima Island and then Matsuyama from Nuwa-jima. The trip was: Marinpia Musashi Marina – Kaminoseki to Nuwa-jima to Nakajima to Horie Matsuyama back to Kaminoseki to Marinpia Musashi Marina. Crew consisted of Jeff Canaday and Eric Due. The longest day of sustained sailing was on a broad reach from Matsuyama back to Kaminoseki along the southern coast of Yashiro Island. Sorry, no pics of actual sailing. 

135nm over 6 days of sailing!
Murotsu Port with Hatonokoyu onsen and restaurant in foreground on the way back to Marinpia.
Nifty little transportation cart for sending oranges down the hill from the orchards above.
They are all over Nuwa-jima. 
Japan Defense Forces warship off of Nuwajima.

At the floating dock in Nakajima. Nakajima is much larger than Nuwa-jima and we found a nice yakiniku restaurant there.

At the dock in Murotsu Harbor Kaminoseki.

Starting out from Marinpia Musashi Marina in the rain and mist. 

On the way to Nakajima from Nuwa-jima. 


On the way to Nuwa-jima along the northern coast of Yashiro-jima. Sunny with no wind, so the sail isn’t even up. 

Or even if you aren’t quite sure, Captains, or you are spending your time working on maintenance, please just post a Comment to let us all know?

Many thanks.

Timothy Langley

About Timothy Langley

I joined TSPS 5 years ago after stumbling-upon a decrepit abandoned yacht in Chiba; I joined in order to get my Class II license so that I could sail the craft while fixing it up. Eventually, with the help of TSPS and friends like Evan Burkowsky and Tony Hardie, we made the boat (and me, too!) seaworthy. More recently, I have fallen into an even older larger sailboat and am working with friends to restore her to magnificence! She is a very desirable fifty-year old Swan 44'. So I will part with my beloved Santana and transition from solo-sailing to a more traditional crew-sailing (but to much farther destinations!). Sailing is such a rich and deep pastime. Thank you for posting your own comments and sailing experiences here.

5 thoughts on “Destinations over Golden Week 2024

  1. I am interested to take my boat Eothen to Misaki to join you on Saturday, then meet again in Yokohama Bayside.

  2. Good to see so many people engaged on GW cruisings!

    Been out of Japan for a while so this GW will be reserved for dry dock and hull work together with some other small / medium repairs!

    Hopefully will organize something soon.

  3. Thank you for getting back to me with your sail-plan, Chris!

    Evan and I took out Garuda, finally leaving port on Sunday after my morning briefing and we sailed through the day into the night and the next day until we reached Mikurajima, the seventh in the 7 Izu island chain! Over the week we touched 5 of the islands and had to hunker-down for two days in Kozu. We ran into Darren on Niijima but only waved “hello!”. It was packed with boats and we had to tie-up elsewhere. 268 n.miles in total! Whew! Here is our traveled route.

    AND you got to finally see and experience Hota! My berth is right around the corner, same place as where Tony moors his yacht. Please come out more often!

    Thank you again for participating and for contributing to my experiment.

  4. Hi Tim, Wow! That is a mammoth trip! Congratulations.
    Actually I went to Hota twice. Once by myself and once with Kaoru. Great seafood and nice to be able to get a hot bath. We definitely want to go there again.
    The GW Destinations page on the website was a great idea. Thanks for initiating it. It would be really good if was an ongoing feature on the TSPS website and members could upload their sailing plans on a regular basis so there could be more meet-ups of boats and crews. Chris

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