pos 33:28.17N 135:46.94
Kushimoto

Friday 22/4
We woke up to a glorious morning. The wind had turned to NW just as we wanted.
We were soon on our way sailing downwind around the southernmost corner of Honshu.
The wind and waves soon built and we got a fantastic sail. Gybing a few times to get the the best angles. We surfed down the waves in over 13 knots at times.
To reach Kushimoto we had to go round the island Oshima. It looked really nice close up and we decided to go walking there the next day.
We were also greeted by a school of large dolphins approaching the harbour.
After docking the Coast Guard payed us a visit in the middle of us working on attaching the new padeye for the main sheet. They had some views on us being in a closed port without permission. We settled on, that it was for repairs.
Dinner at a local restaurant turned out to be a flop. Viola and Johan got something that looked like tripe soup and Uno and I got a small plate of raw meatstrips. It looked nice on the pictures when we pointed at them! You can't win them all.

Saturday 23/4
We tried to take the bus in the morning to the nice Island. We did not find the bus stop in time and missed the first bus. Waiting for the next we walked out of town and took a small road up a walley between the mountains. There we saw the rice paddies being prepared and rice planted. Nice to see how they worked the small fields with tiny tractors and other machines.
Returning to Kushimoto bus station we caught the 11.20 bus to Kii-Oshima Island. We visited the lighthouse at the eastern end of the island. We also found a Turkish Sailors Monument commemorating a Turkish ship that stranded there. There was also a big statue of Ataturk on his horse and a couple of shops selling turkish bric-a-brac and carpets etc. Next we walked to The Japan U.S. Friendship Museum commemorating the first landing of us trading ships in Japan.
All is well,
Lars an crew.