TSPS Canadian West-Coast representative Kirk Patterson will depart for Hawaii from Vancouver, B.C. in late April aboard Silk Purse, a 40-foot, cutter-rigged steel and aluminum boat on the first leg of his extended cruise to and then around Japan. Here is what he has to say about it:

“I plan (hope?) to  arrive in Hawaii in late May and to Hakodate in late June or early  July. I will do a clockwise circumnavigation of Hokkaido and then a  counter-clockwise circumnavigation of the rest of Japan getting to  Tokyo in spring 2013, all going according to plan.

“Since I left Japan I have been sailing in B.C., which is great. Alaska, in fact, is even better. In the past 2 years, I did two trips to Alaska, two circumnavigations of Vancouver Island, and cruised in the Queen Charlottes (Haida Gwaii)—not bad for somebody who only started sailing 3.5 years ago. But I’m excited to experience sailing in Japan and especially to circumnavigate Japan.

“If TSPS members want to monitor my progress, they can check my  regular (daily?) position postings on winlink. Go to www.winlink.org/userpositions …. at the bottom of the map on that page, input my callsign —  ve0krp [0=zero]. My most recent and previous postings will show up  as little blue/green icons… if one clicks on an icon, one can see a brief message (max. 80 characters) from me (i.e., bobbing up and down with no wind… or HELP!!… or ???.)

“When I have an Internet connection, I will post reports and photos on Facebook.”

Cheers,

Kirk

Boats in the Fleet photos: Silk Purse