At Anchor: Looking for Cherry Blossoms

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On April 7, four boats- Akdenizli, Andiamo, Bifrost, and Diva- met up off the Chiba coast for what had been promised to be a great two hours of cherry blossom viewing from the sea. Bifrost was the first to arrive and drop the anchor, followed by Andiamo, and Akdenizli. Diva, having powered south about ten miles to get some fishing in, arrived a little later and was the third boat in the raft. Akdenizli, being the smaller boat tied up last. After finishing tying the boats together in somewhat windy and wavy conditions, some of the twenty-one crew began to notice there was not a single cherry tree in sight. “Yes, I realize that,” said a skipper, “We’ve been misinformed.” A third person commented they’d seen cherry blossoms further down the coast. And so the question became where the correct spot to anchor was. We all came to the conclusion that it was elsewhere. The absence of blossoms was soon forgotten as crew brought out the food and beverages and the conversations turned to boats and boating, fish and fishing, sandwiches and vegetable sticks. It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon, with brief gusts and a small rolling swell coming through. At just past two the wind kicked up and the raft quickly broke into its four component parts that were each quickly flying off in all directions, two boats under power and two under sail all bound for their homeport.

Warren Fraser

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TSPS member Warren Fraser explains his bucket.

The weather this season in southern Kanagawa has been wildly unpredictable- warm and sunny one day, then cold, wet, and miserable the next, followed by sun, then rain, then wind. Spring winds from the south have been ferocious, rolling through at speeds of up to 55 knots (27 meters per second) making sailing, well, improbable. And so I, we, my fellow Tokyo area sailors, wait for fairer winds.

This past winter I spent a lot of time working on Voyager doing mostly big little things– installing ratlines to climb the shrouds; making, then installing new three-strand lifelines to replace standard wire ones; mounting bronze Murray winches on the mast, and scores of other odd jobs. It got to the point when everything that could be done in a few hours got done, and all the items on ‘The Quick Jobs List’ were checked off. What was I going to do with the remaining ‘few hour’ bits of free time I had available?

One rainy afternoon while leafing through a book on gaff-rigged cutters I noticed a nicely-aged canvas bucket in a photo of a boat’s cockpit. The sun and the salt water, and perhaps the years, had turned it gray. The canvas was crumpled to one side but the brim remained round and firm, with the fibers of the three-strand line standing proud under the canvas. It looked quite dignified and then it occurred to me a bucket would make the perfect little project. So I bought a couple meters of #8 canvas at Yuzawaya in Kamata and began planning my work flow. I came across a fairly detailed description in Lin and Larry Pardey’s book ‘The Cost Conscious Cruiser‘ and listed out the parts I’d need. I made the decision early on to do it all by hand, which for me was the beginning of the adventure. I’d never sewn anything before. Ever.

Having gathered up the materials, I began by making an 8” circle, or grommet, of 3/8” three-strand rope. Then using a sailmaker’s palm (a thimble worn on the palm of the hand), I sewed the canvas to create a 20” tube and then folded it over on itself to get double-sided bucket walls. I slipped the grommet up in between the doubled walls to create the rim. Next was the doubled bottom made of two 9” canvas circles sewn together 3/4 of an inch from the edge I’d selvaged to stop any fraying. The bottom was sewn on with some difficulty as I had to get it to fit the tube walls without too much puckering. That completed, I turned it all inside out and had the beginnings of the bucket. To keep the three-strand brim in place between the walls, I sewed all the way around the underside of the brim using a sewing awl. Next came small grommets sewn under the bucket rim to form holes through which I spliced some rope to form the handle. I added the BCC sail mark by rubber cementing on letter cut-outs I‘d made from a length of leather. Finally, I spliced on 12’ of rope to form the line the bucket is hung from when scooping water, adding Matthew Walker knots every 12” to help with grip under load. In the end, my ‘few hours’ project took well over 15 hours to complete. And to be honest, it’s the best boat bucket ever built. It better be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

David Devlin Sets Sail For Australia

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TSPS sailor David Devlin set off from Shimoda port aboard Yarramundi, his Jeaunneau 34 on March 25 bound for Sydney, Australia, a voyage that we understand may take up to a year to complete. His course south will begin with stops in Shikinejima and Hachijojima in the Izu Islands south of Tokyo, before setting off for Ogasawara in the Bonin island chain, some 480 nautical miles south-south east of Shimoda. We’re not sure in which direction David will point the bow from there, but he’ll likely be stopping at some of the islands that dot the Philippine Sea and other areas because in addition to running his business and sailing, David is also an avid underwater photographer. We’re pretty sure he won’t pass up on opportunities to dive in places like Palau, Truk, or Yap. Along the way, a few fortunate friends will accompany David aboard Yarramundi on various legs of this 6,000 nautical mile voyage to Sydney. Lucky them!

We’ll keep you posted as more specific information about David’s trip comes to us. If you’d like to follow his voyage south you can read about it on his Sailblog, ‘Towards Sydney’.

You can see David, Yarramundi and other TSPS boats underway in this video.

On behalf of everyone at TSPS, we wish David a very pleasant  and safe voyage on his way toward Sydney.

Saito Wins Uemura Naomi Award

News

We’ve been terribly remiss in not getting this wonderful news on the site sooner. Our most distinguished member, Minoru Saito, at the age of 77, has been awarded Japan’s most prestigious adventurer’s award. From a February 16, 2012 press release by the Saito Challenge 8 committee:

Saito Wins Uemura Naomi Award As Nation’s Top Adventurer in 2011

TOKYO – Japanese single-handed sailor Minoru Saito, 78, has been named recipient of the Naomi Uemura Adventure Award for 2011, out of a field of 207 Japanese nominees for the vaunted annual award in honor of the world-renown Japanese alpinist.

The award, which includes a 1 million yen cash prize, was announced at a press conference today at Meiji University in Tokyo. Saito was cited for successfully completing his eighth solo circumnavigation in 2011 at age 77, as well as for his nearly 40-year sailing career that includes the non-stop solo circumnavigation he completed in 2005 at age 71, a Guinness Book world record.

The award is given annually by the Naomi Uemura Foundation and the city of Toyooka, Hyogo Prefecture, the birthplace of Uemura, who in the 1970s became a household name to a nation often transfixed by his dramatic exploits focused on mountain climbing and solo polar ice treks. In 1984 Uemura tragically disappeared in an attempt to become the first person to make a solo mid-winter ascent of Alaska’s Mt. McKinley. His body was never recovered.

An all-volunteer international group comprising over 200 persons in Japan and seven other countries supported Saito on his 3-year, 45,000-km eighth solo circumnavigation.

Hunter Brumfield, co-chair of the organization, thanked the Uemura Naomi Foundation and the City of Toyooka, saying that “this is a truly great honor and one that Saito-san recognizes is not just wonderful encouragement for himself, but for any person, of any age, who sails or may have dreams of sailing.”

Minoru Saito fields questions from the media

We on the Bridge of the Tokyo Sail & Power Squadron are very proud to have Saito-san as a member of our organization and on behalf of our membership, congratulate him and his supporters on winning the very prestigious Uemura Naomi Award.

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Kirk Patterson To Sail Vancouver To Japan

News

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

 

 

 

 

Music To Work A Line To

News

Perhaps this will become a regular feature on the website- great music to sail to, to dance to, or to tilt back the rum to… Being Canadian, I know a few singer songwriters who have written classics- Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Geddy Lee, Stompin’ Tom Connors, whose immortal tunes ‘The Hockey Song‘ and ‘The Man in The Moon (Is A Newfie)‘ sounds as fresh today as they did when they were released in the ’60s.

So here are four tracks from the Maritimes legend Stan Rogers whose songs have inspired people like me to to go down to the sea to dream and one day cross it.

Stan Rogers

Let us know your favorite songs for boating and sailing and we’ll track them down on the Internet and post them here.

TSPS Donates Model Ship To Kesennuma School

News

On Friday, February 24, TSPS Commander Warren Fraser along with Public Relations Bridge member Jiro Fujiwara, TSPS members Tatsuo Fujimoto and Rumiko Fraser met with the principal of Koyo Vocational High School to hand over a donation from the United States Power Squadron and the Tokyo Sail & Power Squadron. The donation, part of the TSPS Tsunami Relief effort, is an instructional model used to teach students the lighting configurations of Japanese fishing boats.

Continue reading and find links to video, photos and a 360 degree panorama of the visit to Kesennuma and Koyo High School.

TSPS Donates To Koyo High School

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[dropcap]K[/dropcap]esennuma township is in the Tsunami-stricken Tohoku region of northern Japan, so the journey to Koyo High School began with a 2.5 hour shinkansen ride from Tokyo to Ichinoseki, then a ninety-minute ride on a two-car, diesel-powered JR train east through mountainous terrain of Iwate to Kesennuma. Once there, we hired a taxi for the drive to the school. We opted for the long route, and a chance to see how the city was recovering, which led past the tsunami high-water mark and water-stained foundations down to the harbor and through areas that had been completely wiped away by the waves. By the looks of things, a small percentage of the wreckage remained and had mostly been piled discretely at a fair distance from the roads we travelled.

Much of the harbor area more closely resembled new residential sub-divisions, with the streets laid out cleanly and empty lots marked by concrete foundations. A lot of progress has been made in the past twelve months. However, occasionally we would pass lone, devastated houses that had been ignored in the neighborhood cleaning process. Apparently, no one from the house had survived to give clean-up permissions. From the back seat of a taxi speeding through the port, it was those buildings in particular; the untouched, unclaimed remains of wreckage, in such stark contrast with the newly-sanitized surroundings that more than anything else brought home on our visit how unimaginable a tragedy Kesennuma and the Tohoku  region had endured on March 11, 2011.

  • Video of what happened in Kesennuma on March 11, 2011
  • Video of Koyo High School (the white four-story structure on the right) one month after the tsunami and its surroundings. According to the principal, water broke through 4th floor windows.
  • Video of the February 24 trip to Kesenumma and the drive through town
  • 360 Panorama of the temporary structure and location of Koyo High School

Photos of the model :

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2012 Change of Watch: An Enjoyable Affair

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[fbshare type=”button”] [dropcap]T[/dropcap]he 2012 Tokyo Sail & Power Squadron (TSPS) Change of Watch was held on Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Japan. This event (see links below) is held every year in February and provides an opportunity for members to get together over dinner and drinks to hear from the outgoing Bridge a report on the previous year and to elect the commander and Bridge for the current year.

The event was a success, with incoming-Commander Warren Fraser hosting the event and taking the audience through a multimedia presentation of the past year and coming year that included video, audio, DVD content, and photos. Members of the Bridge presented the state of the Treasury, education programs, membership status and information, and the line up of 2012 Boating and Social Events.We also spent time recognizing sixteen long-term members, and thanked them for their dedication in helping TSPS remain a going-concern for the past 56 years. Additionally, we presented the instructional model we are donating to Koyo Vocational High School as part of our Tsunami Relief Effort. The model will be presented to the school on February 24, 2012.

The Change of Watch guests and the TSPS Bridge were especially honored to have present Minoru Saito; TSPS member, world-famous solo sailor and Guinness world-record holder who took the audience through a video of his recently completed 8th circumnavigation. The audience reacted strongly as the video brought home the many hardships Saito-san, at 78 years of age, endured in his successful attempt at a world-record 8th solo circumnavigation. Saito-san spent the evening chatting with fellow members about his trip, meeting TSPS supporters, and signing copies of his most recent book. Hunter Brumfield, leader of  the Saito8 support team, announced to the audience that Saito-san had been chosen to receive Japan’s most prestigious adventurer award and the news was met with a big round of applause. The award puts Saito-san and his many accomplishments in company with Japan’s greatest explorers and adventurers. We are very proud to have Saito-san as a member of our squadron.

The evening wrapped up with a raffle and many of the attendees headed to a local pub to continue the nights festivities.

The 2012 Bridge would very much like to thank everyone who attended the Change of Watch.

See you all at the CoW in 2013. Have wonderful and safe boating season in 2012.

Warren Fraser
Commander,
Tokyo Sail & Power Squadron

Links:

1. Photos from the 2012 Change of Watch

2. A ten-minute edited video of the CoW

3. Missed the CoW? An eight-part video series of the entire CoW presentation

4. A web-based reproduction of the slides from the presentation

5. Missed the CoW? Download a 35MB interactive movie of the slides from the slideshow. This version includes all the movies, audio, stills, animation, and text used in the presentation. Once downloaded and open, use the space key on your keyboard to advance through the presentation. Quicktime required. Not usable on mobile devices, sadly.