Captain’s Log: Nomaike and Taira

April 3-8

Hi All,

We did leave Yakushima on Tuesday April 3 at 0630 for our 70nm run to Nomaike Kagoshima on the big island of Kyushu. We arrived around 3:30……a very pleasant run in trawler like conditions…<10kts and calm seas all behind us as well as a 0.5-1.5 kt favorable current. On our way we passed the island of Io Shima and the Mt Iwo volcano which was spewing steam….only 2100′ high, it was nevertheless impressive…yep, we are definitely in the Pacific Ring of Fire!!

There is a hotel in Nomaike, the Kasasa Ebisu, that has a floating pontoon/dock….it was open so we tied to it…no wall for us for 2 nights!!! We arrived at low tide and tying to a wall would have been very challenging as the wall was maybe 10′ up and would have been hard to climb over and secure our lines. We walked the town the next day….hmmmm, not much going on. More like a very sleepy, quiet, clean and maybe dying fishing town. Kathy has read where these small fishing villages are slowly dying as the young people move into the more modern cities and better jobs. We mainly saw older people….you know, like us….only a few children….and the school was closed although it did look well maintained. There was a small fish house where the fisherman dropped off their catch….which seemed small…maybe a few crates. There was a small convenient store and post office….nothing else open. We had maybe 6-8 Google translator (GT) talks with the very friendly people but each conversation seemed difficult to have. The walk took us about 2 hours.

We did have dinner at the hotel….wow, another great experience. I had a variety of tempura and sashimi and Kathy had sushi and tempura…plus 3-4 other complimentary small dishes. The waitress was adorable and used GT for all our conversations. And, we had a teapot (2 glasses) of Ichiban Shochu….it is said to be fairly rare and hard to obtain:

“One doll” is the manufacturer of “Ichiban” after limited production It is a phantom sweet shochu that can be obtained only at the village (Dusan no Sato) in Shochu Kingdom. It is a shochu which is said to be difficult to acquire from “Mori Ita” among several brands in Kagoshima. It is handmade shochu which sticks to traditional manufacturing method, uses traditional yellow koji, bottled and distilled with wood distiller. To that extent, it is limited production and difficult to obtain.”

Thursday April 5:
Taira: We left at 0700 on April 5 for the 28nm run to Taira in trawler conditions again…sweet as. We come into another much smaller fishing village and see an open pontoon so we tie up to it. But, this time a policemen and several women approach. We use GT and show him our papers and he is happy. Then the women start pointing and gesturing and he tells us we have to move to the wall as the pontoon is used by fisherman….ugh. There was another boat tied up on the other side of the pontoon that has never left. So, that was the issue as they wanted one side open…..we never saw a fishing boat use the open pontoon…..hmmm!!

We then hear from sv Spruce via WhatsApp that they made Nomaike but do not like the weather for tomorrow so decided to come in tonight…..maybe 10pm….a night arrival…..these guys are sooooo experienced its crazy. But, we stayed in communication and scoped out 3-4 spots for them to tie up and sure enough around 10:15 they arrive…..we had them all tied up to the same wall we are on and all was well by 11pm!!!

Weather: After several weeks of very nice weather and we were able to make great progress, Mr Weather obviously felt neglected so we are now pinned down for several days….arghhh!!! We are caught in a squash zone between a big 1045 High to the west and a 1004 LO to the east…..from Thrs night-Sun….3 days we will have 25-35G40kt winds and lots of rain….ugh!!!

During the day on Thursday, before my walk of the town, Keiko, a local baker, came by and gave Kathy a loaf of bread….wow….and invited her to coffee on Friday am, her day off. I wanted to do some work in the ER so Kathy and Sue went for the coffee….wow, more gifts and an offer to take all 4 of us to a Mr Saito’s home and his pottery shop. So, later that afternoon, Keiko borrowed a van and off the 5 of us went for a 3 hour tour of the pottery shop, another art gallery and some gorgeous beach scenery of this island. We capped off the great day with Andy and Sue over for drinks….which then turned into a great evening of jocularity and an 18 year old bottle of Glenlevit I was saving for the right opportunity!!!

Boat Stuff: For the past several weeks the fuel stop solenoid I changed in Kota Kinabalu was not working….I had to go into the ER every time and manually engage the plunger on the solenoid and the engine started. I thought it was that pesky soldered connection so I spent a few hours rewiring these connections….went to turn on the engine confident in my diagnosis and nothing….crapola. So when Kathy came back she went into the spares for the spare solenoid and I spent the next 2 hours installing…it actually is quite simple to change the solenoid but because the power wire goes to the alternator it is a bit tricky in a small space to make all the connections. I held my breath as Kathy started the Cummins knowing that if this did work we were in for some much more difficult problem solving…but, viola…it started and LIG again!!!! Of course, it took me an hour the next day to cleanup:))))

Saturday April 6:

Boat Stuff:

Another walk in cold blustery conditions, more time with Keiko and Kathy and Sue go with her to the supermarket. While they were gone I tackled some clean up and a clogged toilet…..yep, as my buddy Les says, you never want to be #1 with #2….ugh!! Well, I tried all the simple things fist….no joy….then decided we had a clogged hose from the toilet to the 3 way valve…oh no….so I took apart all the fittings…..not an easy task…..more cold yoga now!!!! I could not get a snake down either end….a blockage plus the hose is now very stiff after 14 years and makes a huge U shape curve…..so, time for acid. We fist used vinegar….not much help, then On/Off hull cleaner, a combination of 3 acids….whoa, a lot of bubbling but no joy. Andy had some 30% muriatic acid so we tried that….wow, lot’s of foaming….I kept trying to blow from the opposite end of the hose and eventually I had success….but, an explosion at the other end and I’m having another “shit” shower with acid….arghhhhhhh!!!! We cleaned up, put it all back to together thinking we had success and no joy……whaaaaaaaa!!! So, we used the On/Off 3 more times and had success…..10 flushes in a row….happy dance time….however, it has now gotten very slow again….we think some of the concrete blockage is loose now and is crumbling and has lodged further downstream…..arghhh!!!

All this took over 24 hours minus 6 hours of sleep….ugh!!! We will be in Fukuoka marina in a week or so and I’ve started emailing asking for help in changing this hose out…..could be a several day job as we have to dismantle the Thermopure unit (poop cooker) in order to access this hose…..hopefully we can find some strong young backs to help!!! In the meantime, we are using the forward stateroom toilet!!!!

Unfortunately when the “poop” shower occurred I got some stuff in my eye….we washed it out but it progressively got worse. Sue came over and noticed and immediately went to get an eye saline wash….she rinsed the eye with a liter of the solution, we added some antibiotic ointment and by the next day all was well….wow, poop mixed with acid is bad stuff for sure:))))

And…it keeps on coming…..the night the bathroom was all a mess, Kathy wakes up at 2am and John at 3am…our fresh water pump is going off every 5-7 minutes….Kathy timed it….I jump out of bed and race up to the PH and have a big sigh of relief as the water tank gauges are as they should be….thought we might have a big leak….then I check all the bilges and dry….hmmm, then a slow leak maybe. So, in between adding acid to the plugged hose, evacuating, hooking up and trying for 4x times, we search for a slow water leak and come up empty….really, come on Mystic give it up…..whaaaaaaaa!! Sometimes these Headhunter Xcalibur water pumps will do this when they get something caught in the inlet….I’ve now cleaned both pumps inlets twice and both are clean….so what can it be…..the story to continue. This is when Caz’s phrase comes to mind…it will all work out in the end, and if it has not, then you are not at the end!!!

The Plan: We are leaving on Monday April 9 for Akune on Kyushu….we hope to see an old Samurai City on Tuesday and then on Wednesday we will go to Nagasaki!!

Hope all is well!!

John
Mystic Moon
Akune Kagoshima Japan

PS: Pictures on the gallery: http://mysticmoonvoyages.com/photo-gallery/nggallery/main-album/Taira-on-Naka-Koshiki-Shima