Captain’s Log: Charming Noroshi

May 8-9,

Hi All,

A pretty good summary of our emotions/thoughts on Japan as written by Kathy in an email:

We are moving right along here! We had hoped to spend several days in Kanazawa sight-seeing there, but the authorities refused to let us stay where we were moored and couldn’t find another place for us, so we left 1st light yesterday morning and arrived here in Noroshi around 5pm last night. Another very long day, and unpleasant. Wind and swell were right on our nose nearly the entire way. Ugh!! I swear Japan is so bi-polar!! Many people and places are warm and welcoming, and then it seems the big cities just don’t want or need us! When the country is good, it’s incredibly good. When the country is bad, it’s awful! It is really frustrating and somewhat stressful. We’re trying very hard to follow their rules, but the problem is even they don’t really know the rules! Arghh! It seems like there are some new rules this year, but no one has bothered to tell the small cruising community, and that just exacerbates the problem. There just aren’t enough cruisers here to have a system to deal with us. Ah well….It is getting to be time for us to be in Hakodate soon anyway, so we will probably make our way up there very soon and start focusing on Russia and Alaska. We have a few things to get done before we leave anyway….

Our run as Kathy described it from Kanazawa to Noroshi (82nm) was not in trawler like conditions….oh, how we had gotten spoiled the last few weeks!!! We started with 12-16kt winds and 3-5′ seas all on the nose for the 1st 45nm…..lots of spray….poor Mystic after she got rinsed well from the 1-2″ of rain in Kanazawa. Then we slowly turned ENE and the seas became beamy albeit calming to 2-4′ and the winds calmed <10kts….ok ride. We also lost our friend Mr Tsushima Current….we had the anti-Tsushima…0.5-1.0kt foul current….with the headseas we probably couldn’t have gone any faster anyway!!

Noroshi: Well….charming but a bit depressing as well. Noroshi is such a good example of the depopulation going on in Japan and so many of these small, charming fishing villages are dying….just old people left, not much open, closed schools et al….we counted 12 fishing boats…some not usable….ugh!!! We did venture out around 10ish…..had not rained all night and yep, about 10 min after we left it rained…..arghhhhh!!! We walked around a bit, went to a gift shop that had umbrellas for us and then walked up to the lighthouse on the point we rounded yesterday…..Rokko-Saki….wow…built in 1883….impressive. We tried a local museum, closed, a local traditional art place, closed, so settled for lunch….not too bad. I had the Katsudon…a breaded deep-fried pork cutlet (tonkatsu) and onion simmered with a beaten egg over rice and Kathy had the lunch special with grilled beef…yummers!!! On the way back we walked a small beach…lots of trash but we did find a few shell treasures!!

The plan: We are leaving at 0600 on tomorrow, Thursday May 10th for Ogi on Sadogashima….about 50nm away….will be ok conditions!! There are a few things to do but best of all we will join up with Andy and Sue for a night….lots to catch up on for sure!! Then either Saturday or Sunday the 12th or 13th we will make the 275nm passage to Hakodate…will take us about 34 hrs!!!

Hope all is well!!

John
Mystic Moon
Noroshi Ishikawa Japan