Hime Shima

From Fukuoka to Kanmon Kaikyo is a two days trip and we decide to make a stop in the island Oshima which is half way. Now we have also more time to reach the entrance  in the morning  and proceeding to Ube in the same day. Passing Kanmon Kaikyo needs a careful planning due the strong currents. You can have the current against or with you,, If  Marida has to go against the current she needs to us the engine full power. Better is with the current in the same direction. So  on Sunday 25 of September we arrived at slack tide in the Kanmon Kaikyo and went with the –now slowly running incoming tide- to Seto Naikai When we are passing Kanmon Bridge the current is running about 3 knots so we can handle Marida easy trough the eddies just behind the bridge .In this place runs the current against the waves from the open Seto Naikai causing a bit waves. Everything went well and we proceed to Ube ,only a 25 Nm up.

Bridge Kanmon Kankyo

We arrived in Ube around  16:00.. .it was a bit disappointing….What they call the Marina turns out to be a  very small floating pontoon,; to  small for us and moreover , there is a small daycruiser just in the middle. When we are hanging around to look out what to do and where to go the captain of a big tugboat invited us to go longside for the night , but told us also that we have to leave early next morning. It’s Ok for us despite we can not go ashore. 

Ube industry by night

The next day early we  went out and to Hime Shima a small island 20 Nm south. At noon we arrived and found a good spot on the long cay , west from the ferry pontoon. There is  a supermarket close by  and a public bath on the eastern side of the island. We went a day on our bicycles around the island visited the small lighthouse . We are invited to the house from a family to make a barbeque …. At this moment –it ’s Saturday  1e of Oktober - we are still in Hime Shima . The weather in the last few days was rainy and the sky overcast… We wait and see

Lighthouse Hime Shima

Het gaat precies goed

wel een beetje nat.....

Oshima island

This message is not in the correct place but  its content is OK


To day, 24 of September ,we went from Fukuoka -Nagahama fishingport to O shima.
O- Shima is a small island about 25 NM North of Fukuoka. 
We had a wonderful time in Nagahama .The port is  easy  to find .
 Follow the fairway till between the breakwaters ,turn to starboard en go under the bridge ,Just after the bridge turn to starboard again. Proceed  to the smalles basin. 
Along the concreet wall with the black and yellow colors is mostly 
space enough  ; if not in the small basin,  then in the first bigger basin, but in this harbor  are more waves/swell  when  it is blowing.
Supermarkets and coin laundry  are close by,   like postoffice with ATM ,  hardware shops and a chandler. The port is for free.

Fukuoka Japan

As soon as we arrive in Izuhara  all the officials  are welcoming us;12 people and a lot  of   forms. Customs ,Immigration ,  Quaraintine,  Japan Coast Guard  ,name it     .Again  asking us  names,  passport numbers, …Just a few weeks ago we gave them all the same information , …

In that time we departed ,now we  are arriving ,that’s the difference . Forms are very important in Japan .  The more the better .

I think , in our wake are tons of paper!!

We have learned to handle it with a big smile ,we do not give any comment or  do grumbling   .  Asking “Why” in not done in Japan ; moreover ,  nobody will  an answer anyway.  The committee was there because  we send an email for our ETA ,You are obliged to do it 24 hours in advance we made an extra one 8 hours before arriving  . They like it.   Despite all this :officialdom” we enjoy Japan. We are wondering that everybody is friendly  helpful  and   complaisant,                                                                                                  The rest is not bordering is anymore.                                                                                                              After a few days in this nice spot we have to go and leave in the early evening-late afternoon. We will do the crossing to Fukuoka in the night , so we can arrive     in daylight.   The  night is splendid with the full moon ,no wind ,    The sea is like an oilpan. .

                                                                                                                                                                 We decide not to go to Odo Marina ,but  to the former fishermen harbor  – now Public Harbor- Nagahama.  Jaap from “Alishan “ is waiting with the mail ,we expected from Holland .Nagahama is a good place ,close tot shops .public bath, coin laundry and so on. It is also the place for the dogs to play and…..                                                                          All people are running behind the animal with a plastic bags and  little  spades      You do not  find  any droppings……

Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine, build in 1591

Junji Nishida- San helped us with translation English- Japanese

We are  dazed  , surprised and   astonished we   by the fact that a  a lot of people who are walking around . come to the boat and asking  “Where a you from ? : Sailing together ?.   “ How many days from Holland to Japan “ ? The language is difficult but we can manage  the situation it by paper and  pencel …..                      They bring    little presents  like , fruit ,bread. muffins in tins, cake  , small towels , biscuits  and even an original Hakkata Doll       . These are    made  out of  a kind of  gypsum and hand painted .    Ours  depicts a geisha with a beautiful    kimono. Hakkata is the name of  the old town centre from Fukuoka.  Soon we are well  known in the shops around us .Sytske goes on her bicycle in town shopping and to the coin laundry. In the evening we have lots to read in the Dutch newspapers  which Corry sent us. We are running short in time

We need a new sailing permit because the old one is out of date.Due the typhoons we are much later than planned. Simple make a  note on the existing permit,,,,? No.no. we have to apply for a newe  one ! It looks it should give some troubles but again  as I told ,,also people from” Ministry of transport “are friendly.. They copied the old  Permit ,made new schedule  and sent the new permits  the next day by email !!

On  Friday  23e of Agust all the paperwork is done ,we have cleared out and   …can go!!

Tong Yeong

When the weatherforecasts  predicts  more wind , we decide to leave and heading for Tong Yeong , where the harbor is more protected. A day motoring.. When we arrive and looking around for a place in the,  what they call marina ,we find a pontoon ,build up from plastic elements ,like  -I do not know if you are familiar with this brand for toys-    Lego. This pontoon is fixed by ropes around steel pylons . Its looks not very strong so we bring the lines to this pylons to keep Marida in place. .Fortunately it hardly blows and  there are no waves, except those caused by the fisherman boats which running too fast along the marina…Big wake.. why ?

Tong Yeonh by night

Tongue Yeong is concerning to  Busan a relief. The city is not that  large, high- rise skyscrapers  are lacking and in  the city It 's nearly flat  so that we can use our bicycles  easy. We can use the Wifi from the hotel close by .

Daily we are on the market , visit  the old-fashioned bakery and in the hypermarket. Fruit and vegetable plenty. We paid much per night for the marina in Busan , TongYeong is for  free. Much better for us !! . But we have to leave  and go back to Japan . On the  7e  of September  we cleared out and went very early in the morning again to Tsushima .Izuhara 

South Korea Busan

In the hypermarket" Homeplus" near  the marina  we met Jennifer, an Australian lady (  blond/white  is notable in Korea) and we make a chat. She is from Brisbane  and her husband  ,Rowan , is manager of  a container terminal in Busan. Jennifer invites us  at home and it becomes a ,nice sociable evening. Now we talking  and  know each other better / closer ,  it turns out that Jennifer is born in Canada  and that her father and mother  from Makkum (Friesland , a state in the Netherlands)) emigrated. Her last name gave us the indication   Tichelaar       ...... Jennifer does not speak  the Frisian language -  nor Dutch, but her  mothers - 90 years old – remembers  a lot  from the old days  and told that she ,as a young girl also was wearing wooden shoes (klompen) . We ,Sytske en Adri,  were  living in Sneek , about 30 km from Makkum…How and why do we met this Jennifer in a town with  3,6 milj   people   ?Predestined ??? It's a small world ?

We were wondering why the “children” in that family did not learn Dutch or Fries . (Jennifer has a sister and a brother) and only speak  English. However as soon as the family  lived in Canada they decided to learn English  as soon as possible."We have left Holland ,this is our new home country and we have to acclimatize total."  So the parents did not speak the Dutch to each other , We heard that also from other families which  went abroad,   Most of them left Holland because the bad economical situation in that time , and nobody expected to go back ever…

Meanwhile we learnt that  Jennifer’s  l brother lives in Vancouver and a retired  teacher /school director is i….He knows that we are in Vancouver next  year and we hope to meet him . 

                                                                           


With Jennifer  we went  a few days to the historical sites i,e,   which the  “is called “ Kyota of Korea” . We visit the famous  traditional temples (o.a Bugsuka) , the Royal Tomb `s , and the , Buddha in the grotto. There is much to see and we enjoyed   very . Later in the week  we had few times lunch and dinner together dinner together and the ladies went shopping in  Shinsagae Mall .                                 
We had a wonderful time with Jennifer and Rowan and hope we will  meet again some where   

Izuhara to South Korea

n Izuhara we must wait for the possible influence  of the typhoon which causes  south of our position misery. We experience, apart from much wind and rain, no problems because we were in very in protected place

 As soon as the beast has passed us and dissipated , it is then 10   of Augusts, we are going  to South Korea. We went through  the so-called Narrow’s. Formerly a large bay with entrance  on the western side in Korea Strait , that the island Tsushima almost devided in two pieces  . The Japanese Navy  however want  their war ships  to move in a fast way  from  the East side to the West side and made a passage in the rocks on the East side . This passage is very  narrow and the currents are strong .. The bridge concerning has a vertical clearance from 30 meters .. It is a shorter route to Korea and many boats are using this faiway  .. Also we. The route is about  12 miles long , the views./scenery in the bay with the deep coves, mounts and rock parties are splendid. The sun sets now fast and the light  makes it still more nicely and more romantic. 

It is dark if we arrive  in Korea Strait and have to follow the busy shipping route  which brings us to Busan . Around us are a lot  fisherman ships with strong lights  what is limiting our sight and nearly blinding  .It is difficult to avoid them  . Luckily we are  sailing parallell with the shipping route . We will do the  crossing of shipping lane  in daylight ,so we wait till  sunrise. The tankers and cargo liners move  rapidly and with very short interval distances. The night is exiting  and we nearly do not sleep  both. Constantly we are  watching the  radar and AIS . We use  the electronic maps on the computer. One of  us sits  inside  whereas the other one is steering and keep a sharp  lookout . At 5 o'clock in the morning we cross the shipping lane just in front of the  Busan Main Port  , and are an hour later close  to the entrance of the marina. Thanks to a plotted  waypoint we find the entrance  which lies lurking behind the breakwaters  and the base construction  of the large Gwangan bridge.

If we pass the narrow entrance in the marina we are conducted to a floating pontoon where we have to wait for the  visit of Customs authorities, Immigration, Quarantine and Sea Police . This pontoon to me looks  like a  inflatable bed ,, . As soon as the first official tried to walk over it he got wet feet and did not reach the boat .                                                                                                              The next attempt  failed also  and , than they  gesture that Adri has to bring  the  boat papers  ..... Of course we refused .After a bit noisy talk they  told us to go into the marina and  to stay on board .The pontoons in the  marina  are mostly broken ,like a lot of lines from the yachts . It turns out that ,if the wind is blowing a bit ,there is a swell in the marina from about 1.00 meter

This expensive marine was built in 1986 to host the Olympic Regatta.                   I think ,like in other  places in Asia ,that “maintenance” is  not in the book. Wait till everything is destroyed. Reason is also that in fact nobody is responsible. But staff enough… 12 employees in the  office

We moored Marida on the outside of the main pontoon and fixed the lines on the pylons .The weather is not to bad  so we can stand it for a week Around the marina are supermarkets,  shopping mall banks , postoffice ,most all of this in walking distance. .No boatstuff or chandlers . Korean sailors  are ordering materials in Japan or US .

Hi, Dear sailing friends,
This is the first message in this new weblog. Most of you know the  marida weblog in Dutch .
The address of this log has changed into marida weblog.nl instead of web-log
This log will be in English and inform you about the sailing adventures from  Marida. 
Most of all will be information about cruising , anchorages ,places to visit and  so on.