Kagoshima Ken has a great sky-line. Wakame is also enjoying this perfect sunrise moment whilst Alishan is slowly sailing towards the coast on our trip from Yaku Shima.
Chiran is famous for its Samurai history. Here a sneak pix of one of the gardens...
The windward coast on the day of the small TD we had at Kasasa Ebisu.
Happy to see the sea from this point.
Salute
Alishan left Makurazaki early Friday morning before the wind picked up. Already a nasty swell was running at the entrance of M port, but soon we were able to run down wind and with the waves around the corner to Akasa Ebisu. 31° 24' 924 N
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| Alishan is in the fishy port of Makurazaki. Position:
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Concrete walls in Japanese ports. Here is Alishan
Yaku Shima has many OLD inhabitants. This one is at least 1500 years old.
And these oldies "like to do it together".As you might have seen at Google Earth, Anbo port and town is right at the mouth of the Anbo river cq valley. Both water temperature and ESP night breezes are a pleasantly cool. Even inside, the floor of Alishan is: cool! The other day we got a ride up to Yakusugi Land, a natural park where 2000++ year old sugi trees can be found. OF COURSE by times it rained tropical! but walking around in this forest, even in pouring rain is magic. Every corner in the path showed us more giants! Pretty water falls and small streams, plenty of deer and monkeys ( the friendly variety, not like those mean rubbish bin macacs in Malaysia) The "park" is 1200 meters above sea level.... we got a guided tour/ride up with Mr Yamada, who runs a small B&B here in town....with in the booth of the car...our bicycles, for the return journey...THAT was fun! Talking about Giants. Jaap's Giant bicycle took him around the island yesterday. Round trip is 98.9 K, it took me 7 hours with the odd stop for sightseeing and close encounters with deer and monkeys. Coming from the-land-below the sea...those 200 meter hills ARE high! Marijke went bird scouting, but somehow..very few birds to spot here. But plenty of butterflies and flowers. some pictures:     Nori and Wakame have their own concrete jungle here ashore: Big blocks to be used for new harbor projects... Don't think they really like those blocks. The weather still looks settled, the plan is to make a move after the weekend. Salute |
Koniya's Summer Festival did go ahead despite the rain. The karaoke was fun to watch, as there were many traditional songs and dances. And the fireworks were still splendid, about 1 hour oh's-and-ah's...but also leaving loads of fireworks rubbish on the deck! And indeed that nasty weather turned into a TD (it did reach us the day after the summer festival). Not a deep TD, we saw 985 on the weather map, 1006 on board. So yes we had some wind, most in the range of 25-35+. The rain was plentiful. That was good to wash the boat! We had stayed at the little basin with extra lines across to the other side and all went well. Don't know if we would stay here if a real big blow would come over. Wind protection is perfect, but the surge here can be dangerous. After drying out we took the Lend-a Car for a spin around the island, it's so pretty here. Too bad we can't and dare to move off road to far into the bush as Amami Oshima is ill famous for poisonous snakes! Now the weather looks okay for the next week and Alisahn will make a move North again. Salute | ||
We left Izena with a wind/weather/sea forecast that promised to be good. As we moved away from a lee-shore concrete wall, there was little wind. Out at sea, as soon as the sails were up...the bumping and jumping started. First due to a fat squall with some lightning and plenty of rain and then plenty of wind. Just on the beam, that was good enough so we could lay our course for Amami. BUT did the seas built up. Nasty 3~4 meter waves. With the cockpit curtains down we were mostly comfy, but the going became rough. Lots and lots a waves jumping on deck etc. Turned out that JMA issued a "high waves and thunder storms" warning for our area... And ...That weather system did develop into a TD ( early stage of a typhoon)..moving SW (away from us) and later in the week...it's coming back to us! Anyway, after 14 hours Alishan found shelter in the lee of Amami and we decided not to move further on..just let Alishan drift for the remaining nite-hours. Next morning with first daylight we moved on to Koniya. Where we first anchored for some R & R. Later in the afternoon we moved to: 28° 08' 720 N 129° 18' 600 N
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Soo hot, it was at least 35C and the tarseal didn't cool them either.. 
Teach them young.Alishan made a Move. We are now at NAKADA KO on Izena Shima; 26 degree 55.6N 127 degree 67.0E And of course, after weeks of SW winds, the wind is now N. So we have to sit-it-out here until later in the week when the SW will come back ( so the weather maps tell us). Not a bad place, friendly people, slowww traffic and just big/small enough for running and cycling. And Nori and Wakame Luff it here. Green grass on the shore to play hide-and-seek and jumping fish (onto the deck) for breakfast. We (almost) did (all) the things we wanted to do in Okinawa. Thanx John and Naomi of sy HORIZON for the lend-a-car, your company and help. Ginowan Marina was indeed a good and safe stop. Great place to meet other cruisers, locals and overseas. AND of course we did like That Yellow Cord... with plenty of 100Volts streaming towards the Aircon and other electronica....(remember, Alishan is setup for 100 volt, a problem where 220 V rules the marina) Departure day was delayed by 1 extra day: we wanted to see Naha's Eisa Festival. We watched hundreds and hundreds of dancers and drummers doing the Eisa dances in Naha's main shopping street. Don't know why they do this festival at that time of the day; Start is 1400, temp is 34 degree C. But for us watching it from a possy in the shade it was a great experience. Thank you all! (pictures will follow). Salute | ||
red circle is Koniya.